The White House now says President Barack Obama will not meet with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte at a gathering in Laos of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Mr. Obama and Duterte had been scheduled to meet Tuesday on the summit’s sidelines. The Philippine leader has been under intense global scrutiny over the more than 2,000 suspected drug dealers and users killed since he took office, and Mr. Obama has said he planned to raise the issue.
But Duterte said if Mr. Obama questioned him about extrajudicial killings, he would swear at him. Duterte also used the Tagalog phrase for “son of a bitch.”
National Security Council spokesman Ned Price says Obama will meet instead with President Park Geun-hye of South Korea.
Mr. Obama said during a news conference on the last day of the G-20 economic summit in China that he had heard about the comment and instructed his aides to determine whether now was the time to have “constructive, productive conversations” in a face-to-face meeting with Duterte.
Duterte said before flying to Laos that he is a leader of a sovereign country and is answerable only to the Filipino people. He was answering a reporter’s question about how he intends to explain the extrajudicial killings to Mr. Obama. More than 2,000 suspected drug pushers and users have been killed since Duterte launched a war on drugs after taking office on June 30.
In his typical foul-mouthed style, Duterte responded: “I am a president of a sovereign state and we have long ceased to be a colony. I do not have any master except the Filipino people, nobody but nobody. You must be respectful. Do not just throw questions. Putang ina I will swear at you in that forum,” he said, using the Tagalog phrase for son of a bitch.
Duterte has earlier cursed the pope and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
It wasn’t clear whether Mr. Obama had planned to raise the issue of extrajudicial killings with Duterte during the scheduled meeting on the sidelines of the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
“Who is he to confront me?” Duterte said, adding that the Philippines had not received an apology for misdeeds committed during the U.S. colonization of the Philippines.
He pointed to the killing of Muslim Moros more than a century ago during a U.S. pacification campaign in the southern Philippines, blaming the wounds of the past as “the reason why (the south) continues to boil” with separatist insurgencies.
Duterte also pointed to human rights problems in the United States.
Last week, Duterte said he was ready to defend his bloody crackdown on illegal drugs, which has sparked concern from the U.S. and other countries.
Duterte said he would demand that Mr. Obama allow him to first explain the context of his crackdown before engaging the U.S. president in a discussion of the deaths.
The man basically a tell Obama seh fi address the human rights issue of negroes getting killed in America. Until the killing of unarmed men get address don’t come chat to we negro.
MAN DEH YAH DUARTE EXECUTE 2,000 DRUG DEALERS, HIM A SAY OBAMA NOT SUPPOSE TO TELL HIM WA FI DO EENA HIM TURF. THE M BEEP OR DELETE OUT THE WORD, HE SAID HE WOULD SWEAR AT THE PRESIDENT IF HE EVER ASK ABOUT THE KILLINGS, NO MATTER WHAT HE HAD NO RIGHT TO REFER TO THE RASS MAN AS (SON OF A WHORE) IF IT WAS A WHITE PRESIDENT HE WOULD NOT HAVE SAIDS THAT ALL A DEM A RUN EEN PON HIM CAUSE HIM BLACK, AND A FOLLOW SAUSAGE FINGERS TEK LIBATTY OF HIM, NO ONE IS PERFECT BUT ITS GOING DOWN IN HISTORY AS ONE OF THE BEST U.S. PRESIDENTS IF THEM TOAST BUN UP DEM SAY A HIM CAUSE IT,
Stand up to the imperialist yes Filipino yute!! Send him up unda him mumma a million times for what him being a figurehead represents!! Unno nuh hear puff daddy sey him regret geTting votes for Bama cuz him nuh do nutten fi black ppl who still under oppression!
Wid all due respect, nuh baddy caan style President Obama dem way deh. Is weh dat shithouse Fillipino president hear bout. As tuh tri-sexual Diddy, him need fi shut him dutty mouth and figure out how Biggy and Pac duppy nuh gang up and strangle him inna him sleep yet…:travel
HIM A FOLLOW TRUMP AND A RUN EEN WHORE LIKE HIM MA, DUARTE THINK HIM WHITE BY DAYLIGHT HIM SORRY, IT WAS NOT MEANT TO BE A PERSONAL ATTACK THE PRESIDENT CANCELLED THE VISIT, NOT EVEN JAMAICA WE NO CALL NO POLITICIAN MOTHER WHORE, THERE IS NO RESPECT AGAIN CAUSE THEY FEEL HE SHOULD NOT BE IN THE WHITE HOUSE, WITH JAMAICANS ON STAFF SOME OF WHO WAS IN COLLEGE WITH HIM, AND THESE PHILIPINE IN U.S. AND CANADA WITH 3 JOBS IS A NEDDA SET FIGHT OUT JAMAICANS CARRY NEWS FROM I COME TO TORONTO 20YRS JAMAICAN DROP KICK ONE IN A NURSING HOME, NOT SAYING IT IS RIGHT BUT DEM SNEAKINGLY DO THINGS SMH. DEM ALL OVER THE NURSING SYSTEM LIKE ROACHES, METTERS MI CANT FIND MI GLASSES, SOOO ME DEH TYPE BIG, OBAMA GO IN WHITEHOUSE HANDSOME AND COME OUT LESS THAN, DID 2 TERMSITS TIME THEY LEFF HIM BLOOD CL…. ALONE
love Janice son, DIDDY, but at the same time people say the same of him caue he is rich, plus its alleged he capitalize off a dead Jamaican plus the rumors of what really happen, there are 2 levels of govt its explained time and time executive, judicial, I stand to be corrected lot a things he could not do without the senate’s approval, cnt please everyone same thing why damian Crawford was not reelected, u fix the road and they want money to put on their pot like a politician breed them or send man pon top a dem, now the family planning no mek sense, and the critics are coming out saying in fear that its too much pickney is Jamaica’s problem
97% of people do not realise the USA government is owned by a private company, this company owns the Federal Reserve, this company prints money when it feels like and lend it to the USA government who have to pay back with interest, USA is heavy in debt to this private company…
Most countries have Bank of (their Country) written on the money. … Check your USA dollar it says… Federal Reserve… In other words the USA GOVERNMENT HAS BEEN TAken over and who ever is president have to mostly do as they are told….