Philippines’ Duterte says chat with Xi was at Trump’s request

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said yesterday his telephone conversation this week with Chinese leader Xi Jinping to discuss the Korean peninsula crisis was at the behest of his US counterpart Donald Trump.Duterte said he spoke with Xi on Wednesday to convince him to play a bigger role in defusing tension in the Korean peninsula after North Korea test fired another missile early on Saturday.Duterte discussed the North’s test with Trump later on Saturday, at the end of a summit in Manila of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean), of which he is chairman this year.“So, I called President Xi Jinping, ‘I am calling you at the behest of the president of the United States’,” he said in a speech in his hometown in Davao City,“‘We have all agreed in the Asean and even President Trump that you can do something. Actually, the biggest contribution of all other is your intervention’,” he said, recalling the conversation.The United States has urged China, North Korea’s only major ally, to do more to rein in the North’s nuclear and missile programmes, which have prompted an assertive response from the Trump administration, warning that an “era of strategic patience” is over.“Definitely they are getting the help of everybody here,” Duterte said, referring to US diplomatic efforts in Asia to contain North Korea.Xi and Duterte spoke for about 26 minutes, a source at the Philippine president’s office told Reuters, and exchanged views about regional developments and how some concerns could be addressed.Duterte said if asked by Trump, he would happily relay what was discussed with Xi. The maverick and wildly outspoken Duterte has in the past week emerged as an unlikely collaborator in international efforts to prevent regional tension from escalating.As Asean chairman, he last week said he would urge Trump not to be provoked by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, warning of a catastrophe if the situation intensified and that Kim “wants to end to the world”.Trump and Xi have also formed a relationship lately that would have been unthinkable last year, when verbal attacks on China were central to the American billionaire’s election campaign. But Trump has been criticised for going beyond the phone call to Duterte and inviting him to the White House.Trump was condemned by human rights groups and some US legislators for what they see as tantamount to an endorsement of Duterte’s bloody war on drugs, which has killed thousands of people since he took office 10 months ago.l Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday blamed “lobby money” for the downfall of his outspoken environment secretary Regina Lopez, who earned the ire of the country’s mining industry after accusing it of corruption.Despite his widespread popularity and hardline posture, Duterte said he was helpless to save Lopez from failing to be approved as a cabinet member by lawmakers in congress.“It’s a pity about Gina. I really liked her passion,” he said, referring to Lopez by her nickname.“I made a pitch for her but you know how it is. This is a democracy and lobby money talks. I do not control everything,” he told a gathering of doctors.He did not specify who lobbied against Lopez or who he would appoint to replace her. The Commission on Appointments rejected Lopez’s appointment on Wednesday, in a big victory for the mining industry.Lopez sent shockwaves through the industry during her 10 months as environment chief, seeking to shut down roughly two-thirds of the nation’s existing mines and banning any new open-pit operations.Although Duterte’s allies control both chambers of the Philippine legislature, the commission chose to reject Lopez.Lopez has vocally blamed “big business”, for her rejection, saying many who voted against her were representing mining interests.She had previously sought to shut down 28 of the nation’s 40 mines and cancel the contracts of dozens of others.Last week she also announced the ban on new open-pit mining, which would have sounded the death knell for one of the world’s biggest planned copper projects in the south of the country.With the Philippines being the world’s biggest supplier of nickel ore and a major source of copper, Lopez’s campaign had impacted global prices.Mining Inc had run a high-profile campaign to have the commission reject her, arguing she was jeopardising the lives of 1.2 n people who were dependent on the industry.Even Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, a former mining executive whose family has big investments in the industry, opposed her, taking the unprecedented action of testifying against a fellow cabinet member at the commission hearings.However environmental groups expressed outrage at Lopez’s rejection, saying it showed Duterte had misled with his pledges to lead a government for ordinary Filipinos rather than the elite.Congress rejecting a president’s cabinet appointment is extremely rare in Philippine politics.The Philippine government will move forward with a second review of the country’s mines despite the removal of Regina Lopez as environment minister, a finance official said yesterday.The Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC), an inter-agency panel that includes the finance and environment ministries, ordered a review in February of the operations and the environmental and social impacts of the country’s mines.“Definitely it will continue because it’s the mandate of the MICC to do just that regardless of who’s in the (Department of Environment and Natural Resources),” Finance Undersecretary Bayani Agabin said in a statement.The review will cover all 41 mines operating in the Philippines, including the 26 that Lopez had earlier ordered closed or suspended in February after a months-long audit last year led by the environment ministry.She also cancelled dozens of contracts for undeveloped mines in the world’s top nickel ore supplier.The MICC ordered the review following criticism from miners that Lopez’s decision was baseless and lacked due process.Lawmakers comprising the Commission of Appointments rejected Lopez as environment minister at a vote on Wednesday, ending her 10-month mining crackdown, which was backed by President Rodrigo Duterte but led to demands for her removal.The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines has said it would seek to undo Lopez’s moves when a new minister was appointed.Agabin said the review will also include contracts for undeveloped mines.Lopez earlier asked Duterte to halt the second mine review, challenging its legality despite initially supporting it.The MICC is still in the process of selecting who will comprise the team that will inspect the mines, which is expected to take three months.