The president had been in Indonesia to push for a joint maritime security operation to deal with rampant vessel hijacking perpetrated by the Daesh-linked Abu Sayyaf in the seas between Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
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The Philippines would let Indonesian forces pursuing pirates enter its waters, he said.
“[Indonesian forces] can go ahead and blast them off. That’s the agreement. Blow them up”, he said.
“I would be on the frontline to eradicate all the traffickers”, he said.
“I underscored the Philippines’ grave concern over social illness that breeds corruption at the highest levels”, Duterte said, highlighting his administration’s relentless campaign against illegal drugs. Waseso, like Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, is known for his controversial remarks; previous year he said he’d like to jail drug traffickers on an island prison surrounded by crocodiles.
Mr. Duterte also said remarks he made before a regional summit in Laos, in which he appeared to utter an expletive toward Mr. Obama while vowing to push back against any criticism of his antidrug campaign, was misinterpreted and not directed at the us president.
“You know, people commit mistakes”, Duterte said.
Duterte, who is known for his expletive-laced speeches, referred to US President Barack Obama as a “son of a bitch” a couple of days before the summit.
Can a public relations makeover change President Rodrigo Duterte’s image from a foul-mouthed no-holds-barred tough guy to that of a more discreet and diplomatic statesman? He said he was in favour of “soft landing” for the issue.
Duterte pointed out he focused his attention in maintaining such policy to protect the country’s interests during his attendance at the annual summit of leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and their dialogue partners hosted by Laos Sept.6 to 8.
In stark contrast to his fiery speech before leaving for the ASEAN summit, President Rodrigo Duterte sounded very calm – and in his own words, “humbled” – when he returned home from his first official trip overseas early Saturday morning.
In a statement, he said Duterte and Obama shared “a warm handshake [and] a good conversation”.
Duterte would have said, “We can be open to exploring other options to settle disputes, provided that these are in accord with global law and ASEAN core values”.
“This time we make it clear that if the chase began in Indonesia, then crosses in worldwide waters, and inside Philippine waters, they can go ahead and blast them off”.
Malacañang’s statements on the Asean forum were also released by Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay, presidential legal adviser Salvador Panelo and Sen.
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Duterte launched into a tirade about USA military killings in the Philippines when it was an American colony from 1898 to 1946, according to 3 diplomats in the room, who spoke with wire agency Agence France-Presse.
