The two leaders, noted for their tough approach to drug offenders, signed an agreement to strengthen cooperation on maritime security in the volatile Sulu Sea separating the two archipelagoes.
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When asked whether he spoke with Mr. Widodo about the two countries’ policies toward drug offenders, the Philippine president said he would respect Indonesia’s judicial process.
JAKARTA-President Duterte took up the case of convicted Filipino drug mule Mary Jane Veloso in his meeting with Indonesian President Joko Widodo in Jakarta on Friday, but the details, he said, were “not for public consumption”.
Duterte also said that they would work together to tackle the “menace” of illegal drugs, at a time both countries claim to be fighting a war against rising narcotics use.
“We can make it clear that if the chase begins in Indonesia and continues in global waters, and inside Philippine waters, they can go ahead and blast them off”, said the firebrand leader, relating what he told President Joko Widodo at the recently concluded Asean and East Asia summits in Laos.
“They [Indonesian forces] can go ahead and blast them off”.
Duterte also said he meant to forge the same agreement with Malaysia.
“We thank the Filipino government for its cooperation in relation to 700 Indonesian pilgrims who had arrived in Saudi Arabia through Philippine”, President Jokowi said, adding that the issue would be discussed in a bilateral meeting.
“Next year the Philippines will assume the Asean chairmanship as the organization celebrates its 50th anniversary”.
“Certainly, the ties that bind the Philippines and Indonesia are long and enduring”. Security analysts have said the Islamist threat, along with a growing piracy problem in the waters between the two countries, has begun having a knock-on effect on trade.
Nine Indonesians are among 16 foreign hostages now being held by the Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf in the southern Philippines, where Muslim separatist rebellions have raged for decades.
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“We have agreed to cooperate on prevention, and the arrest and prosecution of terror actors in our regions”. “I never made that statement, you can check it out”, he said.
