Duterte warms to US:
American ties boosted by Marawi mission
MANILA: The president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, seldom holds back. His anti-drug crusade has led to the extrajudicial killings of thousands of people. He is fond of boasting about how he has personally killed criminals and even strangers. He unleashes profane diatribes about countries and world figures he dislikes, with the United States often on the receiving end.
But more quietly, he seems to have warmed to the US and its president Donald Trump, who also has a notably provocative style.
As his country hosted an Asean summit on Sunday, the more charming side of Mr Duterte’s personality was on display, both in his meetings with Mr Trump and in his foreign policy goal of closer relations with China.
One big reason for his shift in rhetoric when it comes to the US is clear: Mr Trump is a marked improvement in Mr Duterte’s eyes over Barack Obama, who urged the Philippine leader to follow the rule of law in tackling the illegal drug trade.
On Saturday, Mr Trump and Mr Duterte met for the first time on the sidelines of an economic summit meeting in Vietnam. The two shook hands and spoke warmly about having a longer discussion over the next two days, Philippines officials said.
“These two are talking as friends,” said Ramon Casiple, the executive director of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform, a nonprofit promoting democracy in the Philippines. “I don’t see any reasons when they meet face-to-face that there will be any big problems.”
But the longer-term game for Mr Duterte has been his determination to court China. Since his election, he has backed down from contentious territorial disputes with Beijing — last week, he halted a construction project in the South China Sea that brought Chinese complaints — despite an international ruling early in his presidency that backed the Philippines.
Harry Roque, a Duterte spokesman, described his policy as a deliberate turn toward closer relationships with countries in Asia, and with China in particular.
Mr Duterte hopes his strategy will bring billions of dollars in Chinese investment, though the money has been slow in coming, said Richard Javad Heydarian, an assistant professor of political science at De La Salle University in Manila.
Still, the US and its former colony are treaty allies with a long history of cooperation. And it is clear that Mr Duterte’s and Mr Trump’s styles seem to mesh more than clash.
Mr Trump set the stage for improved relations when he called Mr Duterte in April and congratulated him for doing an “unbelievable job on the drug problem”. The US also provided valuable military assistance — including drones and intelligence — that proved instrumental in defeating Islamic extremists during a five-month siege of Marawi, which ended last month.
On Sunday, Mr Trump offered to help mediate the disputes in the South China Sea, which have also pit China against Vietnam and other countries in the region. “I’m a very good mediator and arbitrator,” he said at the start of a meeting in Hanoi with Vietnam’s president, Tran Dai Quang.
Last year, Mr Duterte called for a “separation” from the US, threatened to expel US troops and accused the CIA of plotting to kill him. When asked how he would respond if the US president were to criticise his anti-drug campaign, Mr Duterte replied with a vulgar epithet to describe Mr Obama, who was president at the time.
Mr Roque said Mr Duterte changed his tune after seeing the value of U.S. help in Marawi.
“He hasn’t been criticising the United States lately,” Mr Roque said. “He looks forward to closer ties with the United States.”
Mr Trump landed in the Philippines on Sunday and attended a gala dinner hosted by Mr Duterte.
The two leaders shared a warm handshake, and were seated side by side at the dinner. They were seen leaning in to chat animatedly at the start of the evening.
Yesterday, following a meeting with the leaders of Australia and Japan, Mr Trump did not respond to questions shouted by reporters about whether he planned to press Mr Duterte on human rights issues.
Mr Trump has been tied to the Philippines for years through his business dealings, and before this trip, his brand had arrived well ahead of him. Trump Tower at Century City, a US$150-million, 57-storey residential building, has been under construction since 2012 in metropolitan Manila. It is one of several international business deals that pose potential conflicts of interest for Mr Trump.
Mr Duterte won election on a vow to kill drug users and said the fish in Manila Bay would grow fat feeding on their corpses. In the early months of the anti-drug campaign, the police said thousands of drug users had been killed. But as the extrajudicial killing has continued, they have refused to release the death toll.
The president’s Duterte popularity
soared after the killings began. While his support rating has declined in recent months, it stood at 67% in September, according to a survey by the nonprofit Social Weather Stations.
While past US presidents have used meetings with foreign leaders to promote human rights, activists have little expectation that Mr Trump will raise the extrajudicial killings with DMr uterte.
“A lot of the issues that underpin the USPhilippine relations will go unaddressed, and one of those will be rule of law,” said Phelim Kine, the Human Rights Watch deputy director for Asia.