Barack Obama Cancels Meeting With Philippines President After Public Insult

Barack Obama has cancelled a meeting with the president of the Philippines after Rodrigo Duterte appeared to call him a “son of a whore”.

The move followed a warning from Duterte to the US president to keep off the subject of extrajudicial killings in his country’s brutal drug war when they were due to meet on Tuesday at a regional summit in Laos. Duterte told a press conference that Obama “must be respectful”.

The firebrand president was answering a reporter’s question about how he intended to explain the extrajudicial killings to Obama, before boarding a plane to Laos for the Association of South-east Asian Nations summit.

“You must be respectful. Do not just throw away questions and statements. Son of a whore, I will curse you in that forum,” Duterte was quoted by as saying by Agence-France Presse. “We will be wallowing in the mud like pigs if you do that to me.”

When his comments reached the Obama camp, the US president initially said he was asking his staff to find out whether holding the meeting as scheduled would be useful.

But hours later the decision was made to cancel, a White House spokesman said. Instead, Obama will meet with South Korean president Park Geun-hye.

Read More

President Obama Meets with Philippines president to discuss Human right issues

Human rights concerns will be on the agenda when US President Barack Obama meets controversial Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte for the first time next week.

The two leaders will talk on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Laos, starting on September 6. It will be their first meeting since Duterte took power in June.

"We absolutely expect (President Obama) will raise concerns about some of the recent statements from the president of the Philippines," White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told media when asked whether Duterte's controversial remarks about vigilante killings, journalists and women would be on the agenda.

Rhodes said Obama regularly brought up issues around human rights offenses with treaty allies such as the Philippines.

Since Duterte took office, more than 1,900 people have died, including at least 700 in police operations as part of the president's hardline war on drugs.

"Double your efforts. Triple them, if need be. We will not stop until the last drug lord, the last financier, and the last pusher have surrendered or put behind bars -- or below the ground, if they so wish," Duterte said during his State of the Nation speech on July 25

Read More

Philippines President Threatens To Quit UN Over Drugs Censure

President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte has lambasted the United Nations and threatened to pull out of the organisation after its criticism of his anti-drugs policies.

Police chiefs have admitted they are responsible for the deaths of some 600 drugs suspects since July, with local media suggesting the true number could easily be more than 1,000 when vigilante killings are taken into account.

Last week, two UN human rights experts urged Manila to stop the killings, saying they amounted to a crime under international law. President Duterte has denied the government is responsible.

"I will prove to the world that you are a very stupid expert," he declared during a late-night news conference on Sunday.

He urged the UN to also consider the number of innocent lives lost to drugs, before laying into the organisation in a typically expletive-laden tirade.

Mr Duterte said the UN should not worry "about the bones of criminals piling up", but instead do more on issues such as hunger, terrorism and conflict in Syria and Iraq.

"Maybe we'll just have to decide to separate from the United Nations. If you are that disrespectful, son of a whore, then I will just leave you," the president added.

The riled up leader suggested he could create a new global organisation.

"I would invite everybody. I would invite maybe China, the African (nations)," said President Duterte.

When asked about the possible repercussions of his comments, he said: "What is ... repercussions? I don't give a s*** to them."

Read More