The country hosted US military bases until 1991, and has accepted troops from the USA military to aid in battling Abu Sayyaf insurgents since 2002.
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Duterte has also ordered an end to the joint US-Philippine patrols of the South China Sea.
Earlier Monday, Duterte said he was ordering all USA special forces to leave the troubled southern Philippines where they have been advising local troops in battling Muslim extremists, saying the West was at the root of the persistent Muslim insurgency.
Reiterating his insistence that the Philippines would not engage in military provocations with the US against China, he said the Philippines needs propeller-driven planes that it can use against insurgents and to fight terrorists in Mindanao.
But on Wednesday, Philippine Ambassador to the UN Cecilia Rebong said Duterte never empowered police to shoot to kill anyone.
The arms deal would be a direct hit to the US arms industry, which the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says has provided 75 percent of the Philippine’s arms imports since 1950. “They have to go in Mindanao, there are many whites there, they have to go”, he said, adding that he was reorienting the country’s foreign policy.
Foreign Secretary Julie Bishop has questioned Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte after he said he won’t join U.S. patrols through contested areas of the South China Sea. He added he opposes Filipino forces accompanying foreign powers like the US and China in joint patrols which could entangle the Philippines in hostilities.
“They were killed like chickens”, he said.
Matobato disclosed that after the 1993 bombing of the Davao Cathedral in Davao City, “Umorder si Duterte na massacre-in ‘yung mosque ng mga Muslim”. The military said only a “token” number of American troops would be impacted by the withdrawal and broader military programs were intact.
The United States said the Philippine government had not officially communicated President Rodrigo Duterte’s demand to pull U.S. military advisers out of the rebellion-torn southern Philippines.
“If [militant groups] see Americans, they’ll really kill them”, Duterte said.
He was elected in a landslide in May after pledging to kill 100 000 criminals and promising to protect police from prosecution if they are charged over the deaths. He spoke about several instances when President Rodrigo Duterte, then mayor of Davao City, instructed them to execute people.
Let’s not forget last week’s widely-reported incident, in which Duterte referred to President Barack Obama as a “son of a wh*re”.
“We will maintain our alliance with our traditional allies”, Lorenzana said, according to the Manila Bulletin.
The remarks were the latest from a Philippine president who has had an uneasy relationship with the US but also has tried to mend relations with China strained over South China Sea disputes.
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He commented that he wanted Filipino forces to only patrol Philippine territorial waters, or the 12 nautical miles of sea from Philippine coastlines that are considered sovereign territory under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
