President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday urged foreign businesses in the Philippines worried about his deadly drug war to “pack up and leave”, as he launched another anti-American tirade before flying to Japan to attract investments.
Duterte voiced outrage at comments made the previous day by the top US envoy to Asia that his fiery rhetoric and crime war, which has claimed about 3,700 lives in four months, were bad for business.
“These Americans are really crazy,” Duterte said, as he held up a newspaper with headlines reporting criticism from US assistant secretary of state Daniel Russel.
“Russel says ‘Duterte comments causing worries in business communities’. Then you pack up and leave. We will recover, I assure you.”
Duterte then flew to Japan, one of the top US allies in Asia, for a three-day visit that is partly aimed at building on two-way trade of more than $18bn last year.
“With Japan as the Philippines’ top trading partner, I shall seek the sustainment and further enhancement of our important economic ties,” Duterte, 71, said in prepared remarks at Manila airport.
“I look forward to meeting business leaders in Japan. I will tell them clearly that the Philippines is open for business.”
Upon arrival in Tokyo, he proceeded to a hotel for an event with members of the local Filipino community where he heaped more invective on Washington.
“I do not want to fight,” he said. “But these stupid Americans, you know the Americans are really a bully...they are bullies, these pests.”
In contrast, Duterte had nothing but praise for Tokyo.
“Japan has really been our biggest helper,” he said, citing assistance in the form of an airport and road-building projects.
“The fact is they are really so very kind,” he added.
But his harsh criticism of Washington — which guarantees Japan’s security — is likely to be seen as embarrassing.
Duterte will meet with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and have an audience with Emperor Akihito during the trip, which follows his headline-grabbing state visit to China last week.
A self-proclaimed socialist with close links to communists, Duterte last week announced in Beijing the Philippines’ “separation” from the US, throwing into doubt a 70-year alliance that is anchored on a mutual defence treaty.
He quickly walked back from his comments after returning from China, saying “separation” did not mean he would “sever” ties and that the US alliance would continue.
Still, the anti-American vitriol kept flowing.
Prior to departure for Tokyo, Duterte said he was not a “lapdog” of the US, and again voiced anger at American and European criticism of apparent extrajudicial killings on his watch.
“You are a son of a w****,” he said referring to his critics.
“Do not make us dogs. Do not. As if I am a dog with a leash and then you throw bread far away that I cannot reach.”
Duterte has previously branded US President Barack Obama a “son of a w****” and told him to “go to hell”.
Russel, the US envoy, said after meeting Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay on Monday that many people around the world were becoming increasingly worried about Duterte’s tirades.
Japan, which is wary of China’s rising influence in the region, signalled it would be looking for clarification from Duterte about his foreign policy plans.
“It is important to have good communication and to listen directly to what Mr Duterte has in mind,” Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters ahead of a meeting with the president when asked about his comments on ties with Washington.
Abe had worked to improve bilateral relations with Duterte’s predecessor, Benigno Aquino. Japan provided patrol boats to support the Philippines in its territorial row with Beijing over rival claims to the South China Sea, as it sought backing in its own maritime dispute with China.
Aquino took Beijing to an international tribunal over its extensive claims in the South China Sea — where it has built artificial islands capable of hosting military facilities — and the Philippines won a resounding victory in July.
But Duterte has sought not to use the verdict to anger China, instead worked to improve ties and attract billions of dollars in Chinese loans and investments.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is greeted by Japan’s Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida upon his arrival at a Japanese restaurant for a dinner hosted by Kishida in Tokyo yesterday.
Envoy says US wants to stay in south Philippines
AFP
Manila
The United States wants to remain involved in the campaign to quell militancy in the southern Philippines, its ambassador to Manila said yesterday after President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to kick out American forces.
Ambassador Philip Goldberg said the security threat in the conflict-plagued region was “very serious”, warning the Islamic State group was among a number of foreign militant organisations trying to increase its involvement there.
“We’ve helped the Philippines as it has reduced the threat over time,” Goldberg told ABS-CBN television.
“But we are concerned obviously about any new intrusion of ISIS (Islamic State group) or any other group that wants to take advantage of open space in the south of the Philippines. So we want to continue doing that.”
The United States had deployed from 2002 to 2014 a rotating force of about 600 troops to the southern Philippines to train local soldiers in how to combat militants.
The presence was scaled down after the United States deemed the militants there had “largely devolved into disorganised groups resorting to criminal undertakings”, according to a US statement in 2014.
Militant attacks spiked after that, most prominently with the homegrown Abu Sayyaf group abducting dozens of foreigners and locals to extort ransoms. About 100 American troops remain in the south, Goldberg said yesterday.
But Duterte, who took office on June 30, has said they are adding to tensions with the Islamic communities in the southern region of Mindanao.
“These US special forces, they have to go in Mindanao,” Duterte said last month.
Duterte, who describes himself as a socialist and part Muslim, has called for their ejection as part of a general effort to dilute his nation’s 70-year alliance with the United States.
Militants have waged a decades-long separatist insurgency in Mindanao that has claimed more than 120,000 lives.The region is the ancestral homeland of the Muslim minority in the mainly Catholic Philippines.
The major rebel organisations are no longer waging armed struggle, but harder-line splinter groups such as the Abu Sayyaf have remained a threat.
Goldberg warned Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian group responsible for the deadly 2002 bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, and other foreigners were in Mindanao.
“This is a very serious issue,” Goldberg said.
“We are not just dealing with Abu Sayyaf but groups from the region like Jemaah Islamiyah. We see increasing efforts from ISIS to become involved.”
US Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg (front) stands next to Filipino military generals during the turn-over ceremony of a newly acquired C-130T cargo plane from the US at a military airbase in Manila on Monday.
