PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte slammed Magdalo Representative Gary Alejano, the lawmaker who filed the first impeachment complaint against him, for criticizing his decision to downplay China’s reported presence in Benham Rise.
“What have you done to the country? Nothing, except to make noise and that really happened during your mutiny...What are you bragging? That you had the chance to show your bravery?" he said in an interview in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar late Sunday evening.
“If I were you, stop boasting about bravery and all of these things. You are incapable of doing it. You’ve had your chance to show to the Filipino. Your bravery was tested and you failed miserably. So don’t talk about bravery and all of these things. You are actually a shame,” he added.
Duterte’s statement came after Alejano said he is mulling to file a possible supplemental impeachment complaint against the President for allowing China to dock survey ships on Benham Rise.
Alejano said the supplemental case will be filed once he is able to obtain documents that would show the supposed agreement between China and the Philippines regarding Benham Rise.
Duterte had admitted that he allowed China to conduct research activities on Benham Rise.
The President reiterated that he could not invoke yet the Philippines’ rights to disputed waters because he is not ready to be engaged in a fight with China.
“We cannot stop them because we cannot fight China,” he said. “We are not in a position to declare war. But I said to China that someday during my term as President, I will have to confront you about the arbitral ruling and that would be, maybe, during the time when you begin to extract minerals and the richest of what is inside the bowels of the earth.” (SunStar Philippines)