US and Philippine presidents expected to touch on human rights on September 6
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and US President Barack Obama are expected to meet at the East Asia Summit which will be held in Laos on September 6.
The White House said the two heads of states are geared to talk about the security concerns in the region and human rights issue in the Philippines.
“We absolutely expect that the president will raise concerns about some of the recent statements from the president of the Philippines,” White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told a media briefing.
This was the response of the official when asked whether inflammatory remarks by Duterte about women, journalists and others would be a topic of discussion in the sidelines of the meeting.
Aside from human rights issue, Rhodes said, however, there were important security issues to tackle as well, particularly tensions over navigation in the West Philippine Sea, claimed by China.
Beijing did not respect the ruling against its claims in the South China Sea by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands.
In a press conference, Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella, said he was “not sure” about a meeting between the two presidents.
Abella said, “We’re not referring to” human rights or the extrajudicial killings that have been attributed to the government’s war on drugs.
Any meeting between Obama and Duterte would be to “establish acquaintances” and “cordial relationships”, Abella added.
The White House said Obama would meet Duterte on the sidelines of a summit in Laos, which will start on September 6, and the US president likely to express his reactions over the bloodshed and Duterte’s abusive remarks when asked by the media or during his speeches.
Rhodes told reporters in Washington,”We regularly meet with the leaders of our treaty allies where we have differences, whether it relates to human rights practices or derogatory comments. We take the opportunity of those meetings to raise those issues directly.”
Since Duterte took his seat as the president, police have reported that 756 people were already killed during drug operations where they have branded drug suspects, although they have insisted they are only acting in self-defense.
Last week, the US State Department said it was “deeply concerned” about reports of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines.