US defense chief: Duterte’s Hitler remarks ‘deeply troubling’

KO OLINA, United States — US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on Friday criticized “deeply troubling” remarks by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, in which he likened his deadly war on crime to Hitler’s efforts to exterminate Jews.

Carter’s comments came during a regional security summit with Southeast Asian ally nations, where he sought to reassure counterparts that America’s ongoing commitment to its Asia “rebalance” would continue into the next US administration.

Earlier Duterte had made televised remarks drawing parallels between his campaign to wipe out his country’s drug problem and Adolf Hitler’s genocidal drive.

“Hitler massacred three million Jews. Now there are three million drug addicts [in the Philippines]. I’d be happy to slaughter them,” Duterte told reporters in his home city of Davao.

“At least if Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have,” he said, then paused. “But you know, my victims, I would like to be [sic] all criminals to finish the problem of my country and save the next generation from perdition.”

Nazi Germany slaughtered some six million Jews by the end of World War II.

Carter said the remarks were not discussed at the summit.

But “speaking personally for myself, I find those comments deeply troubling,” he added.

The Pentagon chief met privately with all 10 defense ministers, including the Philippines’ Delfin Lorenzana, a former diplomat who lived for 14 years in Washington.

Carter said the two had “very good” discussions about the continuation of the two countries’ military alliance, which dates back more than 60 years, and which the Pentagon chief on Thursday said was “ironclad.”

Their meeting drew intense scrutiny following Duterte’s Hitler comments, and other remarks earlier this week in which he vowed to end joint military exercises with the United States.

The firebrand leader has also called Obama a “son of a whore” and extended overtures to China, potentially upsetting the strong US-Philippine alliance. Lorenzana declined to comment on his president’s comments when contacted by AFP.

The German government on Friday told the Philippine ambassador in Berlin that the comments by Duterte were “unacceptable.”

The German foreign ministry said in a statement that it had asked the Philippine envoy “to come to the ministry for a discussion on this issue.”

“Any comparison of the singular atrocities of the Holocaust with anything else is totally unacceptable,” ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer told reporters earlier and reiterated in the statement.