Duterte has had an uneasy relationship with America and has said he will chart a foreign policy that is not dependent on the USA, his country’s longtime treaty ally. She told reporters on Tuesday that the State Department was seeking “a better understanding of why that statement was made”.
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Now the Philippines’ president has caused a rift with the U.S. once again.
During this year’s election campaign, Duterte drew national and worldwide condemnation for saying he wished he had “been first” to rape an Australian missionary who was assaulted and killed during a prison riot.
“The Duterte regime’s war on drugs is bound to fail if it continues to rely on extrajudicial killings led by a corrupt and abusive police and military hierarchy, Crisostomo said, adding that the illegal drug trade is a symptom of deeper social problems, like rising poverty, joblessness and hunger, “which can not be wiped out by bullets alone”.
“I see a looming problem, in three to seven years from now, we will have a problem with ISIS”, Duterte said, promising the army modern equipment to fight Abu Sayyaf.
Responding to the furore yesterday, the President asked that the comments about Mr Goldberg be ignored.
But that’s exactly what Rodrigo Duterte, president of the Philippines, did in televised remarks made Friday.
He repeatedly refused to apologize for the comments and told the ambassadors of the United States and Australia, two of the Philippines’ closest allies, to “shut their mouth” after they criticized his “joke”.
A spokesperson for the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs, Charles Jose, confirmed Monday’s meeting in a statement but said Manila’s envoy had been “invited to the State Department to discuss the entire breadth of Philippines-US relations”, adding that, “Philippine-US relations remain strong”.
“The US ambassador is still the highest representative of the US government, an ally of the Philippines that has been providing us a lot of military and economic assistance”, Cuisia said.
But he insisted that Mr Goldberg should not have criticised him as he was running for president, saying: “They were true anyway. Why would he give a statement when the election is going on?”
He said Mr Goldberg “should not have meddled”. That is our business.
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“But I will reiterate our strong alliance with America”. A former USA colony, the Philippines and the United States have long shared a military treaty.
