Duterte on Monday vowed that he would curse at Obama should the American leader question his handling of the Philippines’s war on drugs, which has drawn global concern with thousands reported dead.
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On Monday, Duterte said Obama must not throw questions at him, or “son of a bitch, I will swear at you in that forum”.
Duterte had previously also branded the USA ambassador to Manila a “gay son of a whore”, and sought to taint the reputation of Pope Francis’s mother in similar fashion.
The White House had said Obama did not plan to pull any punches on his concerns about human rights abuses in the Philippines, its treaty ally, when meeting Duterte.
“We. regret [the remarks] came across as a personal attack on the USA president”, Duterte’s office said in a statement issued Tuesday.
Most stories about President Duterte’s latest controversial remarks missed that part where he said he did “not want to pick a quarrel with Obama” but must insist that he is “answerable only to the Filipino people who elected” him as President.
Duterte added the Philippines wants to chart an independent foreign policy “while promoting closer ties with all nations, especially the United States with which we have had a long standing relationship”.
Second, U.S. -Philippine ties are no sideshow.
The two leaders discussed domestic and regional developments, and Mr Lee welcomed Mr Duterte to make a visit to Singapore.
“Fighting narco-trafficking is tough”, Obama said in China before departing for Laos. He said Washington needed to maintain a sense of urgency within the worldwide community on sanctions against Pyongyang.
It also soured Obama’s last swing as president through a region he has tried to make a focus of US foreign policy, a strategy widely seen as a response to China’s economic and military muscle-flexing.
The Obama administration says it will commit $90 million over the next three years to clear unexploded bombs the USA dropped on Laos during the Vietnam War.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong met with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday morning (Sept 6), ahead of the opening of the 28th and 29th Asean Summits in the afternoon.
Apart from the 10 ASEAN member states, East Asia Summit includes India, China, Japan, Republic of Korea, Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Russian Federation.
“President Duterte stressed that in securing and preserving the rights and liberties of our people, it is imperative that the fight against illegal drugs, terrorist, crimes and poverty must be won in order to preserve the principle and values upon which our democratic way of life is anchored”, it added.
Duterte has poured scorn previously on critics, usually larded with curses.
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He has accused a senator heading an inquiry into the killings of getting payoffs from drug lords.
