Al Jazeera news anchor Mehdi Hasan burns Pres Duterte's spokeperson Ernesto Abella

Al Jazeera news anchor Mehdi Hasan burns Pres Duterte’s spokesperson Abella
https://www.facebook.com/NaDuterte/v...7620425608679/
MANILA, Philippines – Al Jazeera news anchor Mehdi Hasan corners presidential spokesperson Ernest Abella during his interview on Al Jazeera Up Front concerning the controversial remarks of Pres. Duterte.

Mehdi Hasan: Is it difficult being the press spokesperson for a president who speaks in such controversial and many would say offensive ways. A president who says he’d kill his own kids if they took drugs, who threatens to bomb the houses of elected mayors, who makes jokes about wanting to rape women, who’s called the US ambassador a gay son of b*tch and the Pope a son of a prostitute, well actually a much worse word than prostitute. Your job must surely be an impossible one having to spin for him?

Ernesto Abella: Let’s put this way, I understand that there’s a culture in here, but I understand where he’s coming from because it’s a particular subculture. The Cebuano subculture speaks in a very rough kind of humour, but I understand that’s why my task is to be able to interpret him and act as a conduit and bring out the true intention of the president.

Mehdi Hasan: What’s was the true intention when he said he wished he had the raped the Australian missionary before she had been gang-raped?

Ernesto Abella: . . . . . it was a joke, a joke that was difficult to translate.

Mehdi Hasan: No, Pres. Duterte afterwards said he wasn’t joking. It wasn’t a joke he says so it makes your job very hard when you’re trying to defend him.

Ernesto Abella: (silence)….

Drug War in the Philippines

“I don’t care about human rights,” Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared this week after vowing to continue his “shoot to kill” order against drug dealers.

More than 700 people have already been killed since Duterte, who is nicknamed “The Punisher”, took office in June. The controversial president also threatened to declare martial law if the courts interfered with the country’s “war on drugs”.

In this week’s Arena, Mehdi Hasan asks Duterte’s spokesman Ernesto Abella about the president’s controversial policies.

“This would not be happening if it had been addressed a few years back,” Abella tells Mehdi Hasan.

“All these things that are happening right now are simply a cleaning-up that [should have been done] years back,” the spokesman adds.
http://themaharlikan.info/world/al-j...-spokesperson/