Duterte: Never again to Holocaust

President Rodrigo Duterte and his daughter Sara Duterte-Carpio attend a ceremony commemorating the six million Jews killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust, at the Hall of Remembrance at Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem on September 3, 2018. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

President Rodrigo Duterte said Monday killings of innocent civilians similar to what the Nazi Germany did to six million Jews during World War II should never happen again.

In his brief remarks during his visit at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, Duterte expressed his disdain for “insane” leaders.

“I could not imagine of a country obey an insane leader. And I could not ever fathom the spectacle of a human being going into a killing spree, murdering old men, women, men, children, mother,” he said.

Duterte said despots and insane leaders “should be disposed of at the first instance.”

“I would like to say that we are one in saying that it will not happen again and my country will be the first to voice [against] such, I said a massacre of a race just because of hate,” he said.

The President also had a similar message he left on the memorial’s guestbook.

“Never again. May the world learn the lessons of this horrific and benighted period of human history,” Duterte said.

“May the hearts of peoples around the world remain ever open. And may the minds of all men and women learn to work together towards providing a safe haven for all who are being persecuted.”

Duterte’s visit to Israel’s largest Holocaust memorial came two years after he drew condemnation from the Jewish community after he mentioned that he would be "happy to slaughter" some three million drug addicts, similar to what the late German dictator Adolf Hitler did to the Jews during World War II

The President later apologized to the Jewish community, saying that it was not his intention to derogate the memory of Jews slaughtered during that period.

After Yad Vashem, the President will visit on Wednesday the Open Doors Monument before he leaves for Jordan for another official visit.

The President will lay a wreath at the monument, which was built to commemorate the humanitarian assistance extended by the Philippines to Jewish refugees escaping the Holocaust in the late 1930s. — BAP, GMA News