DUTERTE DOGGED BY PAST RHETORIC IN ISRAEL VISIT
Both sides expected to play down his blunders and promote commercial, military ties
WHEN Rodrigo Duterte makes the first visit to Israel by a president of the Philippines next week, officials on both sides will try to play down his record of jarring invective while promoting commercial and military ties.
Israel sees the four-day tour by Duterte and his top ministers as a chance to thank Manila for taking in Jews during the Holocaust and backing the Israeli independence campaign that followed.
Tourism, labour and defence deals are on the agenda, cementing ties between the Asian power and booming Israel, both historical United States allies.
Yet Israel’s Government Press Office said most of the visit would be closed to the media, an apparent precaution against faux pas by a president whose crime-fighting tactics and rhetoric have raised hackles at home and abroad.
Some Israeli pundits have recoiled at his planned attendance at Holocaust commemorations.
In 2016, in a bungled reference to an opponent’s remark that his rise could be like that of Adolf Hitler, Duterte said he himself would be “happy to slaughter” drug addicts on the scale of the Nazi leader’s Jewish genocide.
While Duterte apologised for that, he has been dogged by accusations that thousands of killings in his war on drugs were executions, which he rejects, and is rebuked by women’s groups for remarks that make light of rape.
“There’s just no knowing what he will say from one moment to the next, so both sides want to keep this (Israel) visit as low-key as possible,” said one official involved in the planning.
Aides said Duterte hoped to regulate labour relations with Israel, where between 24,000 and 28,000 Filipinos work, mostly as caregivers, and to promote Holy Land tourism from the predominantly Catholic country. Establishing a direct air connection between Israel and the Philippines is in discussion.
Duterte also wants to improve security cooperation with Israel, which has sold the Philippines three radar systems and 100 armoured vehicles, and which Manila is eyeing for an aircraft deal. According to Israeli government data, exports to the Philippines were worth US$143 million (RM588 million) last year.
Duterte, who has kept domestic opinion on edge by hankering for retirement before his term ends in 2022, makes no secret of his personal disdain for Washington and its foreign policy.
Still, he shares Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rapport with US President Donald Trump. That has stirred modest hope in Israel that the maverick Asian leader might use his visit to announce recognition of Jerusalem as the country’s capital, as Trump did in December, outraging Palestinians.
Duterte arrives in Israel today and on Wednesday departs for neighbouring Jordan.