The acid-tongued Duterte bristled at warnings he would face questioning by the U.S. president over a crime war in the Philippines that has claimed more than 2 400lives in just over two months.
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“We look forward to ironing out differences arising out of national priorities and perceptions”, CNN quoted Philippines Prez Rodrigo Duterte as saying. “I’m not kidding”, Duterte said, according to an official video of his speech posted on Tuesday.
“I do not have any master except the Filipino people, nobody but nobody”, he said in remarks published by The Associated Press.
“I don’t give a sh*t about anybody observing my behaviour,”he said”. “God, do not do it”.
“We. regret [the remarks] came across as a personal attack on the USA president”, Duterte’s office said in a statement issued Tuesday. Year-to-date, the iShares MSCI Philippines ETF (EPHE) has gained 17.3%.
“I always want to make sure if I’m having a meeting that it’s productive and we’re getting something done”.
More than 2,000 alleged drug dealers and addicts are thought to have been killed in the Philippines since Mr Duterte took office, pledging to rid the country of its rampant drugs trade.
China sparked widespread alarm when it converted seven reefs in the Spratly Islands into islands that the United States says could be transformed into military bases to reinforce Beijing’s territorial claims and intimidate rival claimant countries.
Duterte insisted he would not take orders from the USA, a former colonial ruler of the Philippines, and did not care about how he was perceived.
The Philippines said on Tuesday that President Rodrigo Duterte regretted comments he made about US President Barack Obama came across as a personal attack and led to the cancellation of a meeting between the leaders of the allied nations. “Son of a b***, I will curse you in that forum”, Duterte told reporters when asked about his message for Obama whose country is a former colonial ruler of the Philippines. And Duterte has sought to heal relations with China rather than inflame them by pressing the tribunal’s ruling.
China rejects those accusations and accuses the United States of ratcheting up tensions unnecessarily.
“An invaluable occasion to have our leaders meet for the goal of discussing how to strengthen our comprehensive areas of cooperation would have been a golden opportunity”, del Rosario said.
The shoal is part of the larger dispute in the South China Sea between China and some ASEAN countries.
It also soured Obama’s last swing as president through a region he has tried to make a focus of USA foreign policy, a strategy widely seen as a response to China’s economic and military muscle-flexing.
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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”.
