Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose also confirmed Obama and Duterte met in the holding room. “I am the president of the Philippines, not the republic of the worldwide community”.
Advertisement
Duterte blamed the media for distorting his words, saying he did utter “son of a bitch” but it was not directed at Obama.
“I don’t think the guy’s qualified to be president of the United States”, Mr. Obama said in a press conference early Thursday, shortly before his return to the U.S.
During the “Commander in Chief” forum broadcast Wednesday on NBC, Trump criticized Obama for his national security decisions, condemned his leadership and accused the president of damaging the US military.
“You must be respectful”.
Duterte delivered the insult in his native Tagalog tongue, just as he had with the statement about Obama, which he now claims he never made.
Obama was asked about the future of Guantanamo as he conducted a news conference wrapping up his final visit as president to Asia.
The “increased number of killings during the heightened antidrug campaign is harming the country’s image… some investors are now asking whether this campaign reduces the rule of law”, it said in a statement sent to Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Friday.
CLARIFYING the insult that made world headlines, foul-mouthed Philippine President Rodrigo explained to Barack Obama that he never called the US president a “Son of Bitch” earlier this week.
Obama made history on the trip when he became the first USA president to visit Laos, the small country that still bears the scars of a formerly secret US bombing campaign during the Vietnam War that left behind millions of unexploded bombs.
Duterte was elected to office in a landslide this year after pledging to kill 100,000 people in an unprecedented war on crime.
He said that it was not his intention to offend anybody in that meeting, adding he just wanted “to send message that we have every right to pursue an independent foreign policy without interference”. The photograph showed about 200 dead Filipino Moros stacked in a common pit, with an American soldier holding a rifle while stepping on the breasts of a naked Moro woman.
The whole room was silent and he waited for Obama to respond but he remained quiet, Duterte said.
Advertisement
“The consequences of when you do it the wrong way are innocent people get hurt, and you have a bunch of unintended consequences that don’t solve the problem”, Obama said.
