Mr Duterte said he would demand that Mr Obama allow him to first explain the context of his crackdown before engaging the USA president in a discussion of the deaths.
Advertisement
“You must be respectful”, Duterte said, pointing out he would not take orders from the US.
“More people will be killed, plenty will be killed until the last pusher is out of the streets”.
He was set to give an address on the importance he has placed on Southeast Asia in his foreign and economic policy during his two terms in office, which will end on January 20, setting the stage for three days of meetings with regional leaders.
“I just heard to the announcement earlier that there is that possibility [that Duterte-Obama meeting will be cancelled.] But I don’t think it should be cancelled”, Medialdea said.
According to the AFP news agency, Obama and Duterte are scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting Tuesday on the sidelines of a gathering of global leaders hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Laos’ capital Vientiane.
On Monday, Duterte said not even Obama could “lecture” him over the growing number of slain individuals allegedly involved into drugs.
The acid-tongued Duterte bristled at warnings he would face questioning by the USA president over a war against drugs in the Philippines that has claimed more than 2,400 lives in just over two months.
Duterte responded to that with his “son of a bitch” comment to reporters on Monday before leaving to join fellow leaders of Southeast Asian and East Asian leaders for the summit.
Responding to question about how he meant to explain the extrajudicial killings to the US President, before boarding a plane to Laos for the Association of South-east Asian Nations summit (ASEAN), he said, “You must be respectful”.
But perhaps Duterte’s aides realized it would be unwise to take on the most powerful official in the world, and there would be a price to pay for insulting the president of the United States.
The 10-member ASEAN will meet leaders of other regional powers: China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, India, Russia and the United States. “We have some problems, which we have to address”, Medialdea said.
Duterte had threatened to curse out the United States commander in chief if Obama raised the issue of extrajudicial killings by Philippine authorities in a sweeping crackdown on drug trafficking. He called Pope Francis a “son of a w@#$%” in May, and called USA ambassador Philip Goldberg a “gay son of a w@#$%”.
Duterte has previously been linked with vigilante “death squads” that have killed scores of people in his home city of Davao and has vowed to widen his campaign when he becomes president.
Advertisement
An arbitration court in The Hague in July invalidated China’s vast territorial claims to the waterway after a case was brought by the Philippines, a ruling that Beijing refuses to recognise. “Until the last drug manufacturer is killed, we will continue and I will continue”.
