Philippines signs agreement to combat transnational crime

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte concluded his trip to Cambodia yesterday afternoon after meeting with Prime Minister Hun Sen at Phnom Penh’s Peace Palace.Following a closed-door session, both leaders signed memorandums of understanding on transnational crime, sports collaboration and commerce.The ceremony was attended by professional Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao, who was invited to Cambodia at the request of Hun Sen, a personal fan.Pacquiao separately pledged to return to Cambodia to train local boxers, according to government news agency Agence Kampuchea Presse.Boxing is Cambodia’s most popular sport and Pacquiao is popular with many Khmers.While Duterte briefly posed for photos with Hun Sen, the usually outspoken leader did not make a statement or address the press.He did, however, take the opportunity to defend his controversial drug war at a Tuesday event for Phnom Penh’s Filipino community. “The other countries treat it with triviality, but I have here 4mn drug addicts to deal with,” he was quoted as saying in the Cambodia Daily. “It’s a legitimate statement when you say you will kill someone who wants to kill your country. When has it been wrong to say that?” Filipino expatriate Mark Huang, who attended the event, said that he and his friends approve of the president’s hardline law-and-order stance — although not with all of his methods.“We need a big change in a country like the Philippines where there’s a lot of corruption and drug use,” he said yesterday. “We all have the same mind.We definitely do not all agree with his methods, but a war on drugs — no matter what country — can never be a smooth and peaceful process,” he said. Fellow Filipino Katy Vitug said she also understands Duterte’s appeal, although she did not personally approve of his presidency so far. “I can see the charisma and I can see why people like him a lot. He disrupted how politics usually go like what happened in the US with (Donald) Trump,” she said.