Philippines' President Rodrigo Duterte said on Friday that he had told the US President Barack Obama he never cursed him. After the said "insult" has been made, Obama then called off the bilateral talks with the Philippines.
Duterte in a press appearance on Monday, prior to his presence in the ASEAN summit where he got elected as 2017 Chairman, has stated that he cannot be questioned by anyone. In that said speech, Duterte added the phrase "son of a whore" while undisruptedly lecturing about "respect" and since the person he was referring to was Obama, it came out easy to throw out that the former's curse was intended for the latter.
The video below shows what Duterte has said in the conference:
According to a report by Aljazeera, Duterte has expressed his regrets on saying such dirty words in the conference. "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," a statement from Duterte said on Tuesday. However, the damage has been done as the White House already cancelled the first ever meeting there could have been between US' outgoing president and the Philippines' new leader, immediately after the cursing was made, which was due that same day the disclaimer was released.
But in a visit to a Filipino group at Shangri-La Jakarta, Duterte shared that he has personally told Obama the curse was not for him. Duterte allegedly said, "I told him in a holding room, 'President Obama, I'm President Duterte. I never made that statement. Check it out,'" reports Inquirer.net. Obama reportedly replied that his men would later on talk with Duterte. The PH leader simply responded with "OK."
No Turning Back
In the East Asia Summit meeting held in Vientianne, Laos with Obama and the rest of the leaders from Asia, Duterte has prepared a dramatic speech on Human Rights. The sharp-tongued president probably knew that this issue would be fired on him, with that of the hundreds of death in the Philippines when he took over his seat as a result of his "war on drugs." He perfectly had a strike back.
Although no one has dared to question his ways in the meeting, Duterte still showed off his ace. In a report made by The Seattle Times, the PH president showed a picture where hundreds of dead Filipino bodies were piled up in a hollow and American soldiers were standing, atop them holding their rifles. This particular photo was taken during the early 1900's where the US had a pacification campaign in the Southern part of the Philippines. This campaign had taken the lives of about a thousand Filipino Moros.
Duterte then told the leaders that: "This is human rights, what do you intend to do?" He also added, "Human rights violations whether committed by Moses or Abraham, is still violation of human rights."
Basing on this statement and act, the PH president just showed his immovable stance on his "war on drugs." He and his allies continuously believe that when these drug users, dealers, and lords choose drugs over change, then whatever's happening in the Philippines today would likely to continue until the last bit of them are gone.
