Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte showered invectives on ex-Colombian president, angered by his comments on the bloody anti-drug campaign going on in the county since the former Davao mayor became the president.
Duterte said former Colombian president Cesar Gaviria was an idiot and pledged that he supports the extrajudicial killings of drug suspects.
"To tell you frankly ... they say that Colombia leader has been lecturing about me. That idiot," Duterte said during his speech at the 115th founding anniversary of the Bureau of Customs, the Rappler reported.
Gaviria, who was president of Colombia from 1990 to 1994, is now part of the Global Commission on Drug Policy. He criticised the heavy handed policy of Duterte in confronting drug crimes in an article titled "President Duterte is repeating my mistakes' published in New York Times.
The article argued that a drug war cannot be won by the government with the use of weapons and military. However, Duterte justified the violent crackdown on drug suspects and said the situations in the Philippines and Colombia are different.
"You know, they have cocoaine there. Cocaine and heroine, not really; cocaine and marijuana are kind of okay. You can still communicate," Duterte said, referring to Colombia.
Duterte insisted that force is the only way to deal with the drug menace in the3 country, which has nearly five million drug addicts. He also said he will take responsibility for this drug policy and expected his officers, police and military to obey his orders.
"These extrajudicial killings and issues, just put it aside. For those really done in the performance of duty... I take full legal responsibility. And if there's somebody who should go to prison, it's not the policemen; it is not the military; it is not the Customs; the PDEA; ako (me). Me. I will answer for anything that I ordered and I am obeyed, following the law," Duterte said.
More than 4,000 people, including political leaders, have died in the wide-scale crackdown on drug peddlers since Duterte became president.
