About 900 people linked to drugs have been killed in police operations since July 1 and a further 1,500 have been classified as “deaths under investigation”, a term human rights activists in the Philippines say is a euphemism for extrajudicial killings.
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Duterte often hurls abusive insults at critics and is waging a brutal war on crime in which almost 3,000 people have been killed since he took office on June 30.
He sought to address worries that United States’ new focus on Asia will leave smaller nations as pawns in a chess match between the USA and China.
Manila yesterday scrambled to defuse a row with the US and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, voicing regret for calling US President Barack Obama a “son of a bitch”, comments that prompted Washington to call off a bilateral meeting.
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte leaves the opening ceremony of the ASEAN Summit in Vientiane, Laos, on Tuesday. Duterte rolled his sleeves down and buttoned them when Laotian President Bounnhang Vorachith gave a speech to open the summit.
Clinton, who as secretary of state was an architect of Obama’s policy of emphasizing the importance of the Asia Pacific to US interests in the face of a rising China, said Obama was right to cancel the meeting.
A leader of the Hmong American Center in Wausau tells Wisconsin Public Radio numerous soldiers who came to the us had risked their lives in Laos to save downed American pilots, but the secrecy of the war meant their efforts were unknown to their new neighbors. “Today, I stand with you in acknowledging the suffering and sacrifices on all sides of that conflict”.
“How many died? Six hundred”, Duterte said Monday.
“We look forward to ironing out differences arising out of national priorities and perceptions, and working in mutually responsible ways for both countries”, his statement said.
“I just came out of a long day of meetings”.
“You must be respectful”, the President was quoted as saying in a media briefing before his departure for Laos Monday.
“The areas that we believe we have robust, strong cooperation with them, we are not going to just simply throw that aside”. Then, using a curse in Tagalog that can be translated as “son of a b****”, he added, “I will swear at you in that forum”. And U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is also part of the “son of a bitch” club, after Ban said the drug killings were “illegal and a breach of fundamental rights and freedoms”.
Upon arrival at the airport, Obama shook hands with the officials who were on hand to greet him.
Duterte has been dealing with political challenges, as well, after United States President Barack Obama canceled a Tuesday meeting with him. Everybody has a bad record of extrajudicial killing.
Duterte, 71, also claimed to keep two mistresses in cheap boarding houses who he took to short-stay hotels for sexual encounters. As chair of the Southeast Asian nations’ group, it has projected neutrality in other countries’ disputes with China over the South China Sea. Duterte proclaimed early in his presidency that he would pursue a foreign policy not dependent on the United States. The Philippine Supreme Court approved the return of USA troops in January.
Top Obama aide Ben Rhodes told reporters in Laos on Tuesday evening the broader relationship with the Philippines “has been and remains rock-solid”.
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“An invaluable occasion to have our leaders meet for the objective of discussing how to strengthen our comprehensive areas of cooperation would have been a golden opportunity”, del Rosario said.
