Duterte was speaking with the press about how he would respond should Obama talk about human rights abuses in Duterte’s “war on drugs”, which has resulted in an estimated 2,400 deaths in the two months since he took the presidential reins.
Advertisement
The flap over Duterte’s remarks started when a reporter asked him how he intends to explain the extrajudicial killings of drug dealers to Obama.
Acknowledging the scars of a secret war, President Barack Obama on Tuesday said the United States has a “moral obligation” to help this isolated Southeast Asian nation heal and vowed to reinvigorate relations with a country with rising strategic importance to the U.S. But to ignore what Duterte is saying by focusing on how he delivers his message is to make the same mistake as those who thought he was too rough, uncouth and vulgar to become president. Obama had said he planned to raise the issue in his first meeting with Duterte, but the Philippine leader insisted he was only listening to his own country’s people.
The statement from Duterte expressed regrets that his comments had caused “much controversy” and said that he looked forward to “ironing out differences”. And it’s something that only someone like Duterte can say. I do not have any master except the Filipino people, nobody but nobody.
In reply to a reporter’s hypothetical question, Duterte cut loose with a withering tirade about the US’ own record on human rights, its policy of overseas intervention and its continued treatment of its former colony as its vassal. You must be respectful. “Putang ina, I will swear at you in that forum”, he said, using the Tagalog phrase for “son of a bitch”. And U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is also part of the “son of a bitch” club, after Ban said the drug killings were “illegal and a breach of fundamental rights and freedoms”.
“Who is he (Obama) to confront me?”
For Obama, the visit is a capstone to his years-long effort to bolster relations with Southeast Asian countries long overlooked by the United States. Duterte’s frustration is shared by many Filipinos, who can not understand why the foreign media will not look beyond the sensational stories and ask if what’s happening-meaning, the inroads being made against the illegal drug trade-is not really a good thing.
He has also taken on a more conciliatory position with USA rival China. Philippine-China ties were strained under Duterte’s predecessors due to territorial conflicts in the South China Sea. And that was how Duterte, on the eve of his very first foreign trip as President of the Philippines, hogged every headline between Manila and the eastern seaboard of the United States.
Advertisement
“An invaluable occasion to have our leaders meet for the objective of discussing how to strengthen our comprehensive areas of co-operation would have been a golden opportunity”, del Rosario said.
