Obama said the United States has worked to build a constructive relationship with China.
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Using the Tagalog phrase for “son of a bitch”, he said: “Putang ina I will swear at you in that forum”. Bernadette Ellorin, chairperson of BAYAN-USA, talks about what the rise of Duterte means for the future of U.S. -Philippines relations.
On Tuesday, Malacanang Palace issued a statement in which the brash and tough-talking Duterte expressed his “regret” for his “personal” attack on Obama.
Duterte blasted Obama as a “son of a bitch” and warned he would not tolerate any violation of Philippines sovereignty he said such a question would entail, after which the White House canceled their planned parley. “He expressed his deep regard and affinity for President Obama and for the enduring partnership between our nations”.
Obama then made a decision to cancel a one-on-one meeting with Duterte.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte speaks during a news conference in Davao city, southern Philippines August 21, 2016.
A Buddhist monk poses next to unexploded bombs dropped by USA air force planes during the Vietnam War, in Xieng Khouang, Laos, Sept. 3, 2016. Instead, he’ll will meet with South Korean President Park Geun Hye, Price said in a statement.
“You must be respectful”, Mr Duterte said of Mr Obama.
USA president Barack Obama today met a survivor maimed by American bombs covertly dropped on Laos decades ago after pledging to help clean up a country he said was still living in the shadow of war. He announced that Washington would provide an additional $90 million over three years to help clear unexploded ordnance, which has killed or wounded over 20,000 people. The summits and related leaders’ meetings that run from Tuesday through Thursday also include ASEAN+1 Summits, ASEAN+3 (China, Japan and South Korea) Summit, and the East Asia Summit. As CBS News correspondent Adriana Diaz reported, the bombs are still found by Lao children today, who often mistake the small submunitions or “bomblets” they carried for balls, and they can have a devastating impact.
Such funds may be at risk if United States lawmakers grow more concerned at extra-judicial killings in Duterte’s drugs war, according to Ian Storey, a senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.
Duterte has repeatedly poured scorn on critics, usually larding it with curses.
He has accused a senator heading an inquiry into the killings of getting payoffs from drug lords. Duterte proclaimed early in his presidency that he would pursue a foreign policy not dependent on the United States. China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion of trade moves annually. That has allowed leaders like Hun Sen, Thailand’s coup leader-turned-premier Prayuth Chan-ocha, the faceless one-party communist rulers of Laos and Vietnam, and the general who once ruled Myanmar to occupy regional legitimacy and defy the West’s call for democratic governance.
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The Philippines has been central in this effort due to an global court case it brought and won against Beijing.
