PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte said Saturday that he does not harbor any ill feelings towards the media, even after he took exception to the American press for making false reports about him allegedly cursing United States President Barack Obama.
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Duterte set the tone for the week when, just before flying to Laos on Monday, he launched a barrage of insults at Obama in response to the United States president’s plans to question him over his war on drugs. “‘Can anybody in this room tell me what human rights is all about?'” Duterte said.
He said he assumed the Presidency “midterm” that there was simply no budget available for it and he welcomed China’s offer.
On a visit to the Indonesian capital on Friday, Mr. Duterte told a group of Filipinos that the slur was not directed at the U.S. President and that he had told him so.
Media reports about President Duterte’s remark prompted Obama to cancel his bilateral meeting with his Philippine counterpart during the Summit.
The high-profile spat “could harm the long-standing optimism of American business to invest in the Philippines”, the chamber of commerce added.
Duterte was elected to office in a landslide this year after pledging to kill 100,000 people in an unprecedented war on crime.
However, after fears that the two would not get along were allayed during their brief banquet meeting, Duterte once again attracted the spotlight by calling UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon “a fool”.
A Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman, Charles Joe, also said Obama and Duterte met in the holding room. Sabi ko ‘wag ninyo ako bastusin, (I said do not disrespect me) p***** i** ninyo.
President Jokowi also expressed his appreciation to the Philippine government for guaranteeing security in the Sulu Sea. P***** i** mo mumurahin kita sa forum na yan (I will curse you in that forum.) There are a lot of you so much about extrajudicial killings and then connect it with Obama.
“Reiterating what the Constitution requires, we must carry on and pursue independent foreign policy, maybe perhaps in the past this Constitutional mandate has not been followed strictly, but so far as President is concerned, he vowed to pursue this independent policy very firmly”.
Mr Obama shrugged off the comments, saying he didn’t take it personally and confirmed he shook Mr Duterte’s hands.
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He said he told the leaders, “This is human rights, what do you intend to do?” and “Human rights violations whether committed by Moses or Abraham, is still violation of human rights”.
