“It all springs from the fact that the relationship between the Philippines and the United States is firm, very strong”.
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Teo said the chance encounter of the two leaders at the Gala Dinner for ASEAN and Dialog Partners should boost the possibility of a more substantive meeting in the near future that may impact bilateral relations and Asian regional security.
He added that such choice words were “a habit, a way of speaking for him”.
USA and Philippines officials have said the bilateral meeting could potentially be rescheduled before Obama leaves office, such as at the U.N. General Assembly in NY later this month. It’s the last of 10 trips Obama paid as president to Asia, where Obama lived as a youngster with his mother in Indonesia.
He bristled at the suggestion he had been slighted in Asia or that leaders in the region were rejecting his leadership – a criticism levelled by Mr Trump, who said he would have picked up and left had he been treated the way Mr Obama was in Asia. “I am the president of the Philippines, not the republic of the global community”, he said. “I told myself, you’re just one more fool”, Duterte said of Ban.
“I do not have any master except the Filipino people, nobody but nobody”.
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.
In his rant, Duterte also declared, “Son of a bitch, I will swear at you”, though he later claimed that remark was directed at a journalist and not at Obama.
The high-profile spat “could harm the long-standing optimism of American business to invest in the Philippines”, the chamber of commerce added.
It’s a rough few days for Duterte.
On the day he was sworn into office, June 30, Duterte urged people living in a Manila slum to kill drug addicts in their community.
He missed meetings with USA and Indian leaders at the summit, after having previously insulted President Barack Obama.
Accompanying the president on the visit are Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay, Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo, Communications Secretary Martin Andanar, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez and Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, among others.
According to Reuters, Duterte said: “Even Ban Ki-Moon weighed in. I guess it’s taken it’s toll on our president”.
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Andanar was unaware if Duterte’s absence in the meetings had anything to do with a reported miscarriage suffered by his daughter, the mayor of their southern Philippine city of Davao.
