United States President Barack Obama on Thursday said he did not take Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s controversial statements personally.
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Duterte later apologized for his vulgar comments, in which he threatened to curse at Obama if he questioned the Philippine president about violence associated with the anti-drug push, which has left more than 2,000 people dead. Asked on Thursday what he said to Duterte, Obama replied, at a briefing, that he told the Philippine leader to fight criminality “the right way”.
During the EAS, Najib said Duterte also showed him pictures of the increasingly serious drug-related problems in the Philippines, as well as pictures from the colonial era, in which thousands of Filipinos were killed by the United States and Spanish armies.
Asked for his views on the diplomatic furor – which at one point saw Obama cancel a meeting with Duterte after the Filipino leader referred to him as a “son of a whore” – Pacquiao’s position was clear.
“People start thinking behavior that in normal times we would consider completely unacceptable and outrageous becomes normalized”, Obama said during a news conference at the tail end of his visit to Laos.
The presidents spoke with each other Wednesday night at a holding room before going to a dinner for leaders attending the summit.
An Indonesian diplomat said Duterte held up a picture of Filipinos killed in colonial times to underscore his point. “The basis for this relationship is historical and both leaders realise this”.
He added that such choice words were “a habit, a way of speaking for him” and had used the same “phrase” against other people, including Pope Francis.
“We will be wallowing in the mud like pigs if you do that to me”. Entirely coincidentally, he also missed a United Nations meeting last week after Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon expressed similar worries over the human rights situation in the Philippines.
“I don’t know the details but that was what was discussed”, Jose said.
On Wednesday evening, however, Duterte and Obama’s brief chat was “warm and cordial”, according to Filipino politician Alan Cayetano.
US Summit in Vientiane on September 8, 2016. Yasay stood as Duterte’s alternate in the photo session.
Mr. Duterte was elected to office in a landslide this year after pledging to kill 100,000 people in an unprecedented war on illegal drugs.
The United Nations special rapporteur on summary executions, Agnes Callamard, has warned incitement to kill is a crime under global law.
On his final day in Asia, Obama met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose help Obama is seeking to galvanize further action on climate change, especially among developing countries.
Despite growing condemnation of the comments and what rights groups say are rampant extrajudicial killings, Mr. Duterte has vowed to continue.
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“More people will be killed, plenty will be killed until the last pusher is out of the streets”, Duterte said on Monday.
