Duterte’s recent demand to remove US military personnel from Philippines’ territory got an official answer of Washington, which said it had not received a formal request to remove its troops. “We haven’t been happy about everything we’ve heard”, he added.
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Since 2002, up to 600 U.S. advisers have been deployed to the Mindanao region under a visiting forces treaty, to train troops battling Muslim extremists, but their numbers have been scaled down in recent years.
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte declared Tuesday that he will no longer permit Philippines forces to conduct joint patrols with the U.S.in contested areas in the South China Sea, reports Bloomberg News.
Just days after declaring that the Philippines “will pursue an independent foreign policy”, Duterte said on Monday in a rambling speech from the presidential palace. “We’ve been honest about that and forthright as friends and allies should do”, Kirby said.
The security alliance has since shifted its focus toward the South China Sea dispute, where both countries share concerns about China’s territorial claims.
For decades, the Philippines had hosted major USA naval and air bases.
Kirby said if and when an official communication from the Philippines on USA forces in Mindanao is communicated, it would be up to the Pentagon to look into the matter. Duterte, meanwhile, has taken a far more adversarial approach to relations with Washington. But this was a context on why we have a conflict (in Mindanao).
Duterte’s first attendance to an worldwide meeting since he assumed the presidency on June 30 was hounded by controversy.
“If the Philippines is closely aligned with the United States, it risks being dragged into the intensifying big-power rivalry, with potentially grave dangers for national interests and the Filipino people”, the Times commentary added.
President Duterte said he is opposed to U.S. soldiers being stationed in Zamboanga, Southern Mindanao region, recalling how American troops took part in a pacification plan against Muslim Filipinos going back over a century.
“I will review the foreign policy”.
“I could not speak then out of respect and I do not want a rift with America, but [the troops] have to go”, he said, according to PhilStar.
“Hence our continued connection with the West is the real reason for the “Islamic” threat in Mindanao”, Abella said in a statement issued through the Philippines News Agency.
Duterte, who was in the spotlight last week over his televised tirade against USA imperialism and President Barack Obama, said that the US special forces now training Filipino troops were high-value targets for the Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf as counter-insurgency operations intensify. “If [Americans] are seen there, they will be killed”.
Activists in the city lauded President Rodrigo Duterte’s statement calling on the United States’ responsibilities on the human rights violations in the island of Mindanao, in a picket rally held Sunday, September 11. “We might as well give it up”, Duterte of the massacre.
The US is the country’s main defense ally and former colonial ruler.
The Americans, they (Abu Sayyaf bandits) will really kill them.
In April, the Filipino navy began joint South China Sea naval patrols with the United States as Washington responded to Chinese actions in the waterway, including building artificial islands over disputed reefs.
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“It is going to take a lot of work to get this relationship back on track”, Abuza said.
