Malacañang emphasized today (October 1) that the Philippines recognizes the tragic experience of the Jews during World War II.

In a radio interview, Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-illegal drugs campaign aims at saving the next generation of Filipinos.

He clarified that President Duterte and the Philippines do not wish to diminish the tragic experience of the Jews during the Second World War.

“The Philippines recognizes the deep significance of the Jewish experience especially their tragic and painful history,” Abella said in a statement he read over government-run Radyo ng Bayan.

“We do not wish to diminish the profound loss of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust and the deep midnight of their story as a people,” he said.

Abella explained that the President’s reference to the slaughter was “an oblique deflection of the way he has been pictured as a mass murderer,” adding that President Duterte rejects being labeled a Hitler.

“He likewise draws an oblique conclusion that while the Holocaust was an attempt to exterminate the future generation of Jews, the so-called extrajudicial killings, wrongly attributed to him, will nevertheless result in the salvation of the next generation of Filipinos,” Abella said.

The Palace official explained that President Duterte was merely correcting the negative impression made by people between him and Hitler.

Since the beginning of his administration on July 1, President Duterte has launched a relentless campaign against illegal drugs, saying that the 3.7 million drug users and pushers posed a grave threat to Philippine society as a whole. PND