It was the presidents’ first encounter since Barack Obama canceled their last scheduled meeting two days earlier, following a verbal outburst in which Duterte called the United States leader a “son of a b*tch/whore” during a discussion on the Philippines’ attitude towards human rights amid a crackdown on drug crime.
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President Barack Obama said Thursday that the United States and Southeast Asian nations gathered in Laos have advanced a vision of an open, dynamic and competitive economic system in which all nations play by the same rules.
Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, who accompanied Duterte in his trip, said that this was how the two presidents met informally in a holding room before attending a gala dinner at the ASEAN Summit. The pair met briefly later after Duterte expressed regret.
Duterte delivered the insult in his native Tagalog tongue, just as he had with the statement about Obama, which he now claims he never made.
In election campaigns prior to his election, Duterte had pledged to kill 100,000 people and urged people living in Manilla slum to kill drug addicts in their community.
Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte, center left, waves with his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo during their visit at Tanah Abang Market on the sidelines of their meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday, Sept. 9, 2016.
“I do not have any pity for them”, Duterte said, referring to criminals, adding that he wants people to be able to “walk freely” in the Philippines.
Mr Obama shrugged off the comments, saying he didn’t take it personally and confirmed he shook Mr Duterte’s hands.
Salvador Panelo, chief legal counsel of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, has taken his job to another level.
“I told myself, you’re just one more fool”, Duterte said of Ban.
Yasay declined to elaborate on what Duterte said at the East Asia meeting but the President, during a speech before the Filipino community in Jakarta, Indonesia on Friday, confirmed that he did talk about the bloody U.S. pacification campaign against the Moros.
Obama’s call came shortly after Duterte gave what diplomats said was a “fiery” address to leaders of the 18-nation East Asia group, including Obama. It is the last of 10 trips Mr Obama paid as president to Asia, where Mr Obama lived as a youngster with his mother in Indonesia.
Duterte, in a statement, said both sides have agreed to move the meeting to a later date.
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No, Obama did not lecture Duterte on human rights.
