VIENTIANE – US President Barack Obama urged Philippines leader Rodrigo Duterte Thursday to conduct his crime war “the right way”, as the pair clashed at an Asian summit over the crackdown that has claimed 3,000 lives.
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Duterte sparked a storm on the eve of an Asian summit this week by labelling Obama a “son of a whore”, prompting the U.S. president to cancel a planned meeting.
Duterte said he had clarified his comments to Obama when they met.
But before the high-level meeting of the leaders from ASEAN and their counterparts from ASEAN dialogue partners, controversy hounded Duterte for making “strong remarks” against US President Barack Obama in connection with comments made by US officials on drug-related extrajudicial killings in the Philippines.
President Rodrigo Duterte was unable to meet imprisoned OFW Mary Jane Veloso during his working visit to Indonesia, owing to a tight schedule, media reports said.
In particular, Duterte said he and Widodo vowed to collectively address terrorism and extremism, piracy in the high seas, maritime security and law enforcement as well as the unresolved maritime disputes of some Asean members in the South China Sea with China. “I never made that statement, check it out”.
On his part, President Widodo expressed gratitude to the Philippines on the cooperation and expected to end this problem in the future. The Philippine president also apologized to Jokowi on the high frequency of abductions of Indonesian citizens in his country’s waters.
“Every time you press that button in your camera, you record history of this country kaya importante kayo (that’s why you are important)”, he said, adding the media’s duty to report “true and accurate” stories.
“You must be respectful. Check it out. Check it out”, Duterte recalled telling Obama in a holding room.
More than 2,800 suspected drug dealers and users have been killed since Mr Duterte took office.
Mr. Duterte has called Pope Francis a “son of a bitch” for causing traffic jams in Manila during his visit to the Philippines previous year.
Trump said the progress of US military generals had been stymied, or “reduced to rubble” with Obama as commander-in-chief and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton as his first secretary of state.
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He also said he showed a picture of an atrocity during the US pacification campaign in the southern Philippines at the beginning of the last century at the East Asia Summit in Laos that included Obama, in order to stop criticism over human rights violations in the war on illegal drugs. “Also gave a statement before, several weeks ago, about the human rights violation”.
