President Obama reportedly met Wednesday with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte after an initial meeting was scrapped when the southeast Asian leader called him a “son of a bitch”. Obama then decided that in light of Duterte’s comments, the two probably couldn’t have a “productive” discussion during his final presidential trip to Asia and canceled the meeting.
Advertisement
Mr. Obama met with other world leaders at a dinner for members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations during a summit in Laos.
“They met at the holding room”.
Alan Cayetano, who was Duterte’s vice-presidential running mate in this year’s election, described the atmosphere as “warm and cordial”, while a White House official said “the exchange consisted of pleasantries between the two”.
What was behind Philippine president’s “son of a whore” remark to Obama? “It all springs from the fact that the relationship between the Philippines and the United States is firm, very strong”.
Earlier this week, Duterte used profanity with reporters when they asked how he would respond if Obama asked about his overseeing the deaths of more than 2,000 suspected drug runners since he took office in June.
He questioned Obama’s right to challenge him on human rights and called the US President a “son of a whore”, in remarks widely reported by the global press.
At the dinner, Obama was seated six seats to the right of Duterte and directly next to the Sultan of Brunei and chatted with him as reporters were briefly allowed in.
“President Duterte may disagree with us strongly on that, and that’s part of the conversation between allies and partners”, Toner said.
Referring to Duterte and Obama, DFA spokesman Charles Jose said, “I think na-iron out na ang kanilang differences”.
But it is the South China Sea issue that is uppermost in the thinking of Philippine officials these days.
Obama strongly supports the agreement between the USA and 11 other countries to reduce tariffs on thousands of goods, but there is strong resistance to it in Congress.
Advertisement
U.S. presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump weighed in on the tiff, with the former saying Obama was right to cancel the meeting.
