Tuesday, June 05, 2007 Duterte on Balikatan: ‘Basta ayaw ko’ By Carlo P. Mallo
AFTER years of explaining why he refuses to let Davao City host the joint military exercises between Filipino and American soldiers, now City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte apparently no longer wants to explain why.
"Basta ayaw ko! (I don’t like it and that’s it)," he told reporters when asked why despite alleged intercession by a Cabinet member to allow the Balikatan exercises to be held in Davao, he still doesn't want to have them here.
Under no circumstance during his term would he allow the Visiting Forces Agreement to take place in the city, he said, whether or not the insurgency movement in the Davao Region continues to fester as it has done through four decades.
The mayor asserted that the problem of armed struggle by communist rebels will be resolved by the Filipino soldiers and not by foreigners.
It was earlier reported that Duterte has not given in to the pressure of Malacanang for the city of Davao to host the annual joint military exercise. It was said a Cabinet member phoned the mayor to seek his approval on the holding of the exercise, a request the mayor turned down.
While the mayor has not been so chummy with the US since he became mayor, this relationship has since turned to disdain since the bomb blast inside Evergreen Hotel on May 16, 2002 in the room of an American citizen, Michael Terrence Meiring. The bomb was believed set up by Meiring himself.
But instead of allowing the interrogation of Meiring for possible terrorist activity and the issuance of a warrant of arrest against him by the court, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) whisked him out of the country while he was confined in a hospital for his injuries, without the consent of the city, the local police, and the court.
Duterte said that incident was a sheer form of disrespect for the sovereignty of the Filipino people and the laws that abound its territory. And that is something that the city mayor will never forget.
Since the explosion and Meiring's flight, officials of the US who have been asked about the bomb suspect has vowed to pursue the case, but nothing has been said ever since about Meiring, and no one has prosecuted him.
