The expletives were not directed at the USA leader.
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“I engaged the leaders of Asean and its dialogue partners on important regional and global issues that impact on peace, security, stability and prosperity of our region”, he said. “Check it out”, the President told more than 500 Filipinos at the Shangri-La Jakarta Grand Ballroom yesterday noon.
A Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman, Charles Joe, also said Obama and Duterte met in the holding room.
The President said even if the meeting between him and Obama had been deferred to a later date, they had a brief interaction in a holding room before the gala dinner at the ASEAN summit in Laos. You must not just throw away questions.
US President Barack Obama urged President Rody Duterte on Thursday to conduct his war on drugs “the right way”, after 3,000 people were killed in the crackdown in just over two months. This prompted Washington’s cancellation of a bilateral meeting between the two leaders on the sidelines of the summit.
Duterte also said he would try to boost security for ships using the waters between Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia, where there have been several kidnappings and other attacks.
Mr Duterte blamed the media for distorting his words, saying he did utter “son of a bitch”, but it was not directed at Mr Obama. “It’s not son of a whore”, he explained. He insisted that his remarks were not directed at Obama, but at the U.S. state department, which has raised concerns over potential human rights violations in Duterte’s anti-crime campaign that has left around 3,000 dead in just over two months.
The incident happened after Duterte dropped his prepared speech at the East Asia Summit and instead talked about human rights violations committed by American colonizers against the Moros in Mindanao a century ago.
The traditionally strong ties between the United States and the Philippines have been “strained by language from Philippine leaders” which is also creating “investor concern”, the statement said.
Duterte has become famous for his profane outbursts, and has branded Pope Francis and the USA ambassador to Manila “sons of whores”.
Duterte said on Friday, “I was ready [for Obama]. [Son of a bitch, I’ll curse you infront of everybody.] Tell that to everybody”, Duterte said.
“As your President and a lawyer, I have every right to threaten criminals and how it develops to the ending is another problem”, he added. I was waiting for Obama to respond.
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At Monday’s press conference in Davao City, Duterte was asked by a reporter what he would tell Obama who was expected to raise the issue of extrajudicial killings linked to the administration’s drug war.
