President Rodrigo Duterte said Monday that Americans would constantly be in danger in the southern Mindanao region, where Islamic extremists would constantly try to kill or kidnap them for ransom.
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American colonial forces killed many Muslims in the southern Philippines more than a century ago “because you were here as imperialists, you wanted to colonize my country and because you had a hard time pacifying the Moro people”, Duterte said in the speech.
“The U.S. Special Forces, they have to go”.
The tough-talking Duterte has had a bumpy relationship with the USA since taking office in June.
In the meantime, the military takes the President’s statement to mean that he was just concerned about the safety of USA soldiers in Mindanao and that they “should be eased from harm’s way”, Colonel Edgard Arevalo, chief of the military’s public affairs office, said in a statement.
Upon his arrival from the ASEAN Summit Saturday past midnight, Duterte said that he will pursue an independent foreign policy.
He even denied any change in the country’s foreign policy with the United States, adding that Duterte was only trying to save the lives of the Americans who could be targeted by Islamist groups such as Abu Sayyaf.
He said their presence in Mindanao would make them more vulnerable to attacks from the Abu Sayyaf.
“We are not, we could never be, just a small country and to be shouted at or lectured upon”, he said in a speech at a recent air force event. “They have to go”. But apparently fearing that Obama would counsel him against using deadly tactics that contravene conventional human rights standards, Duterte lashed out at the United States president, calling him a “son of a whore”.
Duterte said that he did not raise the issue during a summit that both he and President Barack Obama attended in Laos last week out of respect, adding that he does “not want a rift with America”.
In Washington, the Pentagon and State Department said they had not been officially contacted by Manila about pulling out the remaining advisers, who Mr Yasay said now numbered about 100.
The Philippines was a US colony from 1898 until the 1940s.
RT: Do you think President Duterte will tone down his rhetoric when a new USA leader will take office in the White House early next year? USA Today reports Duterte attributes the restlessness of Muslims in the largely Catholic nation’s south to resentment for the killings, and has criticized the US for failing to apologize for the deaths.
His comments were in sharp contrast to an initial explanation by Duterte spokesman Ernesto Abella, who said the demand “reflects (Duterte’s) new direction towards coursing an independent foreign policy”.
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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has urged the United States to withdraw its special forces troops from a group of southern islands about a week after a diplomatic row between the two sides.
