“They were killed like chickens”, said Matobato.
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Duterte also said he is considering purchasing weapons and military equipment from two nations “where they are cheap and where there are no strings attached and it is transparent”. While Deputy National Security Advisor Benjamin Rhodes maintains that the alliance remains “rock solid”, one wonders what more Duterte could do before the White House starts changing its rhetoric for the USA relationship with the Philippines.
“The U.S.is the No. 1 human rights violator”.
“Jamisola (the justice department official) was still alive when he (Duterte) arrived”.
The president’s undiplomatic comments and erratic approach to foreign policy has the US anxious.
“Let me say that the Philippines Foreign Minister and its defense ministry have issued statements… affirming the importance of the closeness of the alliance”, said Nina Hachigian, the U.S. ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
All that said, a more than significant nudge is being contemplated in Beijing’s direction, while the president envisages refocusing the broader struggle on domestic maladies: drug trafficking and niggling insurgencies.
The defense secretary also discredited Duterte’s justification for the removal of USA troops, saying that US troops are unlikely to be kidnapped by Islamic militants because they are armed soldiers, not civilians. Bottom line from Duterte: “I do not like the Americans”. “Initially it seemed that these comments were just a bit of a kerfuffle and just an interesting personality”, said Ms. Searight.
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff General Ricardo Visaya signaled support for Duterte’s call, while Lorenzana, his superior, argued that the Philippines needs the USA troops stationed in Mindanao. The next day, in an address to the Philippine Air Force, he said the Philippines would no longer stage joint patrols with the United States in the South China Sea.
The United Nations and United States have expressed concern about his latest crackdown, and received profane and angry rebukes from Duterte, who has told them not to interfere.
“I don’t think he’s capable of giving a directive like that”. “And they’ll be asking Duterte-if you ask the Americans to leave do you really want to face China alone?”
Defense Secretary Lorenzana is scheduled to be meeting US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter in Hawaii before the end of the month.
“The Philippines is not a vassal state”. Since a military junta rose to power in Thailand, another US ally in the region, the USA has pulled back on some of its cooperation but hasn’t publicly broken with the country. And, ultimately, the Philippines has the most to lose from a fracturing of relations. Gary Ross, a Pentagon spokesman, said this week. The current administration is waging an all-out war against illegal drugs.
The Philippines and the USA signed three vital defense treaties – the Mutual Defense Treaty in 1951, the Visiting Forces Agreement in 1999, and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement in 2014.
The White House played down the developments, attributing Mr Duterte’s statements to his erratic temperament rather than a fundamental re-evaluation of the 65-year-old alliance.
Emerging in the 1990s, the Islamic insurgency in the southern Philippines appeared as a by-product of a separatist movement fought by Moro Muslims, a minority group in a predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines.
China has declined to recognize the ruling while Mr. Duterte has repeatedly said he wants peace with China, but will not make concessions on any part of the tribunal’s conclusion.
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“The Filipino people made a decision”, Mr. It’s also possible that neither of these options explains the behavior and that Duterte is, as Obama said, just a “colorful guy” who sometimes forgets to keep the importance of the US alliance in perspective (although the three are not entirely mutually exclusive).
