The U.S. has contributed $100 million to the effort in the last 20 years, as annual deaths have fallen from more than 300 to fewer than 50, the White House said.
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Obama filled the hole in his schedule by meeting with South Korean President Park Geun-hye in a display of unity a day after North Korea fired three ballistic missiles.
Noting that the insult “elicited concern and distress”, Duterte’s presidential spokesman read a statement Tuesday saying his nation “regret [s] it came across as a personal attack on the USA president”.
The rant against Obama prompted the White House to cancel planned bilateral talks between the two leaders in Laos this week even though in a statement through his spokesman he regretted the rant and pointed out what triggered it.
Duterte last week said China had sent barges to the contested Scarborough Shoal and had appeared to begin construction there for the first time.
Obama and Duterte had been set to meet in Laos this week, where Obama is attending a meeting of Southeast Asian leaders.
MOVE TO SOOTHE TENSIONS Obama arrived in Vientiane just before midnight on Monday for the first visit by a sitting U.S. president to Laos, where he wants to begin to address the legacy of USA bombing during the Vietnam War. “He regrets that his remarks to the press have caused much controversy”, the statement reads.
The president says the US has a profound moral obligation to help clean up the unexploded bombs. He called Pope Francis by that epithet when he got stuck in traffic in Manila during the pontiff’s visit in January 2015, while Duterte was mayor of Davao City.
Duterte said Tuesday he regretted the tirade, sparked by the U.S. leader’s plan to raise the issue of extrajudicial killings under Duterte’s war on crime.
The Philippines has been central in this effort due to an worldwide court case it brought and won against Beijing.
When Duterte arrived in Laos that night, his tone had changed. And, used the insult against U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon after Ban said the killings were “illegal and a breach of fundamental rights and freedoms”. You must be respectful.
“I’m inspired by you”, he told one survivor, Thoummy Silamphan, who uses a prosthetic after losing a hand to one of the bombs.
“The areas that we believe we have robust, strong cooperation with them, we are not going to just simply throw that aside”.
“Maybe we’ll just have to decide to separate from the United Nations”, Duterte said.
Duterte often hurls abusive insults at critics and is waging a brutal war on crime in which almost 3,000 people have been killed since he took office on June 30.
Speaking to reporters here, he said, “I do not want to quarrel with the most powerful country on the planet”, but immediately returned to his typical combative approach, saying: “Washington has been so liberal about criticizing human rights (abuses), human rights and human rights”.
Obama has worked hard to develop the Philippines’ partnership with the US and as a regional counterbalance to China.
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Top Obama aide Rhodes told reporters in Laos on Tuesday evening the broader relationship with the Philippines “has been and remains rock-solid”.
