Duterte expressed regret on the cancellation of his upcoming meeting with the US president after his strong comments the day before he left for ASEAN.
President Rodrigo Duterte expressed his regret that his supposed to be first meeting with United States President Barack Obama is cancelled.
Before he left for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) forum summit in Laos on Monday, September 5, Duterte angrily responded to a question from the media who sent him off from the airport.
The reporter asked what Duterte will say and do once the issue on the extrajudicial killings in the Philippine shall be brought up during his meeting with Obama.
The president responded that he does not care and reiterated that the Philippines had long been gone from being a colony of the United States.
He was quoted saying in mixed Filipino and English language, “Wala akong pakialam sa kanya. Who is he? When as a matter of a fact, at a turn of the century, before the Americans left the Philippines in the pacification campaign of the Moro in this island, there were about 6 million ang population ng Moro. How many died? Six hundred. If he can answer that question and give the apology, I will answer him. I am not beholden to anybody”.
Following Duterte’s statement, U.S. National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said that there will be no more Duterte-Obama to take place during the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit. Instead, Obama will be talking to South Korean President Park Geun-hye.
“President Obama will not be holding a bilateral meeting with President Duterte of the Philippines”.
On mid-Tuesday, Duterte claimed that the cancellation of his meeting with the American president was a mutual decision between the two of them.
“While the immediate cause was my strong comments to certain press questions that elicited concern and distress, we also regret it came across as a personal attack on the US President”, said Duterte in a statement read by Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella.
Duterte explained that his sole intention was to build an independent policy while strengthening the country’s relationship with other states, especially the US that has been an ally of the Philippines for a long time.
“We look forward to ironing out differences arising out of national priorities and perceptions”.