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Duterte: ‘Crazy, rich’ people are thieves, should be ‘killed’


President Rodrigo Duterte lashed anew against businessmen involved in water concession agreements with the government, calling them thieves and saying that they should be killed.

"Who doesn’t want his fellowmen to prosper?  Who wants to see his constituents wallowing in poverty? Is there a Filipino who would be happy to see the rich get richer?" he said in a speech in San Isidro, Leyte Thursday night.

"There are rich people in the Philippines who are crazy. They’re the ones whom we should kill. Just wait for my go signal. . . ." Duterte said.

Duterte added that the Filipinos have been "gravely fooled by rich people."

"Just like Ayala and Pangilinan, who own Globe and Smart.  They are all thieves, those sons of b******.  That's the whole truth." he said.

He said the two tycoons have "violated the rights of the people."

"They are just distributors of water, yet they have become millionaires because they overpowered the Filipino.  That's why I am angry at them," he said.

Duterte earlier protested a liability clause in the concession agreements with the Pangilinan-led Maynilad Water Services Inc. and the Ayala-led Manila Water Company Inc. that holds the government liable if it interferes with the implementation of water rates and accountable to indemnify the companies for losses incurred.

The government’s contracts with the water concessionaires are set to expire in 2022 after the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System canceled the extension of the agreement that was supposed to be until 2037.

Duterte said the government will present new contracts with the concessionaires, which he said, they should take, otherwise, he would nationalize the distribution of water. —Virgil Lopez/LDF, GMA News

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