GETTING OUT OF HAND
Bloody Filipino strongman croons to Trump
Brutal Filipino strongman Rodrigo Duterte showed President Trump his softer side on Monday — serenading the leader of the free world with a tender love song during a posh soiree in Manila.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I sang uninvited, upon the orders of the commander in chief of the United States,” Duterte said after crooning the Tagalog ballad “Ikaw,” which means “You.”
“You are the light in my world, a half of this heart of mine,” Duterte warbled along with pop singer Pilita Corrales at the gala before the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit.
Trump, 71, had plenty of praise for Duterte, 72, whom humanrights activists say has ordered thousands of extrajudicial killings of drug dealers and users.
But he apparently did not make a point of highlighting the country’s human-rights abuses, as his predecessors had done when visiting the nation, a longtime US ally.
Trump said he and Duterte have “had a great relationship” but ducked questions on whether he’d raise human-rights issues with the Filipino leader.
The White House later said the two leaders discussed ISIS, trade and illegal drugs during their 40- minute meeting. Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said human rights came up “briefly” in the context of the Philippines’ fight against illegal drugs.
That conflicted with the Filipino version of the meeting.
“There was no mention of human rights,” said Harry Roque, a spokesman for Duterte. “There was no mention of extralegal killings. There was only a rather lengthy discussion of the Philippine war on drugs, with President Duterte doing most of the explaining.”
The two sides later issued a joint statement saying that they had “underscored that human
rights and the dignity of human life are essential, and agreed to continue mainstreaming the human-rights agenda in their national programs.”
In May, Trump complimented Duterte for doing an “unbelievable job on the drug problem.”
Meanwhile, there was a comical moment at the summit when Trump appeared to be confused during a traditional, across-the-body double handshake with the other world leaders — grimacing and awkwardly twisting his body before completing the move with a smile.
On the sidelines of the international meeting, Trump looked to strengthen ties with Pacific Rim allies, aiming to strike bilateral, rather than multinational, trade agreements, and increase pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear program.
The president also said he would wait until his return to Washington on Wednesday to issue a “major statement” on trade.
“We’ve made a lot of big progress on trade,” Trump said. “We have deficits with almost everybody. Those deficits are going to be cut very quickly and very substantially.”