The firebrand president, who was under heavy media attention last week after a televised tirade against the United States and US President Barack Obama, said Americans in Mindanao were high-value targets for the Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf group amid intensifying counter-insurgency operations.
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High-profile Philippines officials are trying to reassure the U.S. that long-standing military ties between the two countries are to remain intact irrespective of comments by President Rodrigo Duterte.
“These special forces, they have to go”, Duterte said.
He added, “I do not want a rift with America, but they have to go”. They would demand ransom then kill him.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (C) raises his fist along with military officials during the 250th Presidential Airlift Wing (PAW) anniversary celebration at the Villamor Air Base in Pasay City, the Philippines, Sept. 13, 2016. “More critically, we are going to remain committed to our alliance commitments in the Philippines”.
However, the two met days later, with the Filipino president saying on September 9 that the insult was not directed against his U.S. counterpart.
Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said Duterte’s comments reflected the government’s “new direction toward coursing an independent foreign policy”.
United States special-forces have been advising local troops in the southern Philippines who are battling Muslim extremists.
Washington said on Monday that Manila had not officially communicated Duterte’s demand to pull USA military advisers, deployed in Mindanao for short periods to train troops battling extremists.
Duterte has also referred to U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg as a gay “son of a whore”.
The military said only a “token” number of American troops would be impacted by the withdrawal and broader military programs were intact.
The defense secretary also discredited Duterte’s justification for the removal of US troops, saying that USA troops are unlikely to be kidnapped by Islamic militants because they are armed soldiers, not civilians.
“Being a state party to eight out of nine core global human rights conventions, the Philippines’ utmost respect on human rights is resolute and uncompromising”, she said. The Philippine president’s office later expressed “regret” for his comments.
But the fiery Filipino leader said Monday he skipped another meeting there two days later between Obama and Southeast Asian leaders, following United States criticism of Manila’s anti-crime campaign which has claimed nearly 3,000 lives.
China and the Philippines have been involved in an increasingly ugly territorial dispute in the South China Sea.
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Duterte and Obama both attended the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Laos last week, but Duterte waited until the Monday after the summit to deliver his thoughts on the American troops.
