On Monday, Duterte said Obama must not throw questions at him, or “son of a bitch, I will swear at you in that forum”. “We will not stop until the last drug lord, the last financier, and the last pusher have surrendered or [been] put behind bars – or below the ground, if they so wish”, Duterte said during his State of the Nation speech on July 25.
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Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte is expressing regret after his obscenity-laden rant against President Barack Obama prompted the White House to cancel planned bilateral talks between the two leaders.
Duterte was reacting to press reports “that President Obama would “lecture” him on extrajudicial killings”, which “led to his strong comments, which in turn elicited concern”, the Philippines government said in a statement.
While Price’s statement didn’t give a reason for the scheduling change, Duterte on Monday rejected US criticism of the methods he’s using in his anti-drug campaign, saying it was an internal Philippine matter.
It also soured Obama’s last swing as president through a region he has tried to make a focus of USA foreign policy, a strategy widely seen as a response to China’s economic and military muscle-flexing.
The firebrand president usually shrugs off any backlash, but angering the US could have serious consequences. Over nine years, over 2 million tons of ordnance was dropped on the country – more than “we dropped on Germany and Japan, combined, in all of World War II”, Obama said.
Mr Abella said Mr Duterte was “looking forward to ironing out differences out of national policies and perceptions and working in mutually responsible ways for both countries”.
Phillipines and United States are at loggergeads over the issue of Philipines’ handling of drug dealers, including extrajudicial killings, which are government executions without the benefit of judicial proceedings.
Duterte on Monday vowed that he would curse at Obama should the American leader question his handling of the Philippines’s war on drugs, which has drawn worldwide concern with thousands reported dead. “We will end up disrespecting each other if you do that to me”.
“Who is he (Obama) to confront me?”
But the US canceled the meeting early that day through diplomatic channels.
Duterte swept to power in May on promises to wipe out crime and corruption within six months, pledging to wage a war on drug dealers and crush widespread addiction to methamphetamines in the country of 100 million. We have long ceased to be a colony of the United States.
Certainly, most people are upset by the killings in that country. China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion of trade moves annually.
The East Asia summit will be attended by the leaders of the 10 Asean nations and those of India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, the U.S. and Russian Federation.
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Top Obama aide Rhodes told reporters in Laos on Tuesday evening the broader relationship with the Philippines “has been and remains rock-solid”.
