American investors in the Philippines on Friday warned that President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal drugs war and foul-mouthed tirades, including branding United States leader Barack Obama a “son of a whore”, could hit foreign investment.
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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte gave a “passionate” speech on human rights before leaders of East Asia on Thursday, September 8, the Philippine government said.
“We want to partner with the Philippines on the particular issue of narco traffickers which is a serious problem in the Philippines, it is a serious problem in the United States and around the world”, said Obama.
Duterte made the comment in reaction to Obama’s promise to raise the issue of extrajudicial killing of drugs suspects in the Philippines at their scheduled meeting in Laos.
In a short statement, the White House only said that “Obama had a brief discussion with President Duterte before the ASEAN Gala Dinner in the leaders’ hold space”.
Obama initially responded by calling Duterte a “colorful guy”, but then called off the meeting after the global media reported heavily on the issue.
“I realize this raises tensions”, Obama said earlier as he met with ASEAN leader, referring to a recent global arbitration ruling against China on the maritime dispute. “I have confidence that if, in fact, people just listen to what he has to say or look at his track record – or lack thereof – that they’ll make a good decision”.
He said he had told the USA leader, “I never made that statement”.
Duterte, who is known for his tough talk, blamed the media for spinning stories.
Asked about Duterte’s profanity against him, Obama said, “I do not take these comments personally, because… this is a phrase he has used repeatedly, including directed at the pope and others”. That deal awaits ratification in the U.S. Congress, where there is opposition from both parties, but Obama said he planned to do everything possible to persuade lawmakers to approve it before year’s end.
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Earlier, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said in a briefing that the Philippines had only raised the issue of “human rights” and did not respond to a question of whether Duterte had touched on the SCS dispute. “This is the fault of the insane people in the State Department”, he said.
