Palace: Rody Compared Self to Hitler, Not Ninoy

Vice President Sara Duterte should stop comparing her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, to the late senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr., who has "no record of mass murder or crimes against humanity," Malacañang said yesterday.

- HELEN FLORES

"VP Sara is comparing her father to the late senator Ninoy Aquino? I never heard former president Duterte comparing himself to Ninoy, but to Hitler," Presidential Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro said at a press briefing.

The Palace press officer pointed out that the former president had compared himself to Adolf Hitler.

"He even said, and I quote, 'Hitler massacred three million. Now there are three million—what is it? Three million drug addicts in the Philippines—there are... I'd be happy to slaughter them. At least if Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have me,'" Castro recalled the former president as saying.

Castro was referring to a 2016 statement by the former president, wherein he compared the killing of drug addicts with the massacre of Jews during the Holocaust.

The former president later apologized for the remark and claimed that he never intended to disrespect the memory of the Holocaust victims.

Castro was reacting to the Vice President’s remarks that her father could suffer the same fate as Ninoy if he returns to the country.

“He really wants to come home. I told him, ‘Pa, if you go home, that will be the end of your life. You’ll be like Ninoy Aquino Jr.,” the Vice President told Duterte supporters in The Hague.