The puzzling U.S.-Philippine relationship

[kscarbel2]

Philippines president calls US ambassador S.O.B. & gay, Washington demands clarification

RT  /  August 9, 2016

The US summoned the Philippines’ envoy after its president, Rodrigo Roa Duterte attacked America’s ambassador with expletives.

Giving a speech in front of servicemen in Camp Lapu-Lapu in Cebu City on Friday, Duterte described his attitude towards US officials.

The Philippine president said “I am okay with him,” referring to US Secretary of State John Kerry, who had visited the country in late July.

However, he then lashed out at the US ambassador to the Philippines, Philip Goldberg, saying “I had an argument with their ambassador, that ‘bakla’ [gay]. Son of bitch, he really annoys me.”

Goldberg has never publicly identified himself as gay.

Duterte also accused Goldberg of “interfering in elections, giving statements here and there… He was not supposed to do that.”

On Monday, US Press Office director Elizabeth Trudeau said that the remarks made by the Philippines’ president concerning Goldberg were “inappropriate,” while refusing to quote them.

“We have asked the Philippines charge [d’affaires] to come into the State Department to clarify those remarks,” she said.

A feud between the two goes back to before the country’s June 2016 election, when Goldberg commented on a gross joke made by Duterte regarding the 1989 murder of Australian missionary Jacqueline Hamill, who was gang raped and killed during a jail riot in the city of Davao, where Duterte was mayor at the time.

Back in April, then-presidential candidate Duterte effectively said that he had been mad about the Australian being raped at the time because “she was so beautiful. The mayor should have been first.”

The remark prompted outrage in Australia; Amanda Gorely, the country’s ambassador to the Philippines, said that violence against women must not be “trivialized.”

Goldberg also commented on the issue.

“I can only agree with the colleague from the Australian Embassy,” the US ambassador said in April. “Any statements by anyone, anywhere that either degrade women or trivialize issues so serious as rape or murder, are not ones that we condone.”

Presidential hopeful Duterte slammed Goldberg over what he called interfering in the Philippine’s national elections, while threatening to sever all diplomatic ties with Washington if Goldberg did not “shut [his] mouth.”

Rodrigo Duterte won the Philippine presidency in May, securing 38.9 percent of the vote.

[kscarbel2]

Philippines leader calls US ambassador 'gay son of a whore' prompting summons

The Guardian  /  August 10, 2016

Rodrigo Duterte has sparked a fresh diplomatic row with Washington who asked for clarification about his comments

The Philippines’ firebrand President Rodrigo Duterte has sparked a fresh diplomatic row with his colourful language, calling the US ambassador “gay” in comments that prompted Washington to summon Manila’s envoy to complain.

In the latest of series of tirades, Duterte used a local Tagalog language homophobic slur to express his displeasure with US Ambassador Philip Goldberg in televised comments made Friday.

“As you know, I’m fighting with (US Secretary of State John Kerry’s) ambassador. His gay ambassador, the son of a whore. He pissed me off,” Duterte said.

Duterte, 71, surged to power with a landslide in May following an incendiary campaign in which he gleefully used foul language to disrespect authority figures, from his local political rivals to the pope.

He first came into conflict with US envoy Goldberg on the campaign trail, after he said he wanted to rape a “beautiful” Australian missionary who was sexually assaulted and murdered in a 1989 prison riot in Davao, the city he ran for two decades.

Goldberg and the Australian ambassador both strongly criticised these comments.

“He meddled during the elections, giving statements here and there. He was not supposed to do that,” Duterte said Friday.

The US State Department said that the Filipino charge d’affaires, Patrick Chuasoto, had been summoned Monday to discuss Duterte’s comments.

“We had that conversation,” department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said.

“I think what we were seeking is perhaps a better understanding of why that statement was made,” she added.

Philippine foreign affairs spokesman Charles Jose confirmed the meeting but said Manila’s envoy had been “invited to the State Department to discuss the entire breadth of Philippines-US relations.”

“Philippine-US relations remain strong,” he told AFP Wednesday.

A former US colony, the Philippines and the United States have long shared a military treaty.

 

[kscarbel2]

U.S. complains after Philippines president uses homophobic slur to describe envoy

The Washington Post  /  August 10, 2016

The first rule of diplomacy?

Don't use a homophobic slur when referring to a foreign dignitary.

But that's exactly what Rodrigo Duterte, president of the Philippines, did in televised remarks Friday.

Washington reportedly summoned Manila's charge d’affaires in Washington on Monday to complain, in what must have been a rather awkward meeting.

Duterte, a fast-talking former mayor who swept to power this spring, was telling reporters about his relationship with U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg when he made the wildly homophobic — and utterly undiplomatic — remark.

"As you know, I’m fighting with [U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry’s] ambassador. His gay ambassador, the son of a whore. He pissed me off,” Duterte said.

(He was speaking in Tagalog, the main language of the Philippines, and the word for "son of a whore" isn't quite as pointed as it seems in English. It might be compared to calling someone an S.O.B.)

During this year's election campaign, Duterte drew national and international condemnation for saying he wished he had "been first" to rape an Australian missionary who was assaulted and killed during a prison riot. The Australian ambassador objected, as did Goldberg. Duterte told them both to "shut up."

The not-so-presidential comment came at a sensitive time.

With China pressing its claims to virtually the entire South China Sea, the Philippines and the United States have moved to deepen their long-standing military alliance. A defense pact upheld this year allows the U.S. military to build facilities at five Philippine bases, and more U.S. ships than ever are stopping by the former U.S. naval base at Subic Bay.

But Duterte has gone back and forth on his relationship with the United States, a fact that has raised questions about how he would handle a potential conflict in the South China Sea.

During his campaign, Duterte said he might be willing to make a deal with China in return for major infrastructure spending on his home island, then quixotically vowed to ride a water scooter to the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea and plant the Philippine flag. As president, he has thus far taken a more restrained approach, potentially laying the groundwork for better ties with China.

Duterte is also facing criticism from the United States and others over a bloody crackdown on alleged drug dealers.

[‘Shoot him and I’ll give you a medal’: Duterte urges public to kill drug lords]

Since Duterte took office, more than 400 suspected drug dealers have been killed, 4,400 have been arrested, and more than 600,000 people have surrendered themselves to authorities to avoid being killed, the Associated Press reported. [In this area, he’s effective]

“We are concerned by these detentions, as well as the extrajudicial killing of individuals suspected to be involved in drug activity in the Philippines,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said Monday.

Goldberg is not the first dignitary to be subjected to crude comments from Duterte. The now-president once made headlines for using the same "son of a whore" word to describe the pope.

Duterte later issued a letter of apology and said he would fly to the Vatican to apologize. He then backpedaled on the visit bit.

[kscarbel2]

RT  /  August 21, 2016

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened that his country could leave the United Nations, after the organization urged the Philippines to stop executing and killing people linked to drug business and threatened that “state actors” could be punished.

"I do not want to insult you, but maybe we'll just have to decide to separate from the United Nations," Rodrigo Duterte said Sunday. "Why do you have to listen to this stupid?"

“I don't give a sh*t about them,” he added. “They are the ones interfering. You do not just go out and give a sh*tting statement against a country.”

Calling the UN “inutile", Duterte said the Philippines could invite China, African nations and other countries to create a rival international body. He went further, slamming the UN’s response to other global issues.

“Look at the iconic boy that was taken out from the rubble and he was made to sit in the ambulance and we saw it," Duterte said. The picture of Omran Daqneesh, a five-year-old Syrian boy has recently gone viral around the globe.

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/160818142212-05-omran-daqneesh-aleppo-syria-super-169.jpg

"Why is it that the United States is not doing anything? I do not read you. Anybody in that stupid body complaining about the stench there of death?"

The Philippine leader also attacked the US for more members of the public dying as a result of police violence.

"What do you think the Americans did to the black people there? Is that not rubbing off also? And critics say what?"

The angry tirade at the news conference in Davao City came after the UN’s special rapporteur on summary executions, Agnes Callamard, urged the Philippines to stop extrajudicial executions and killings, saying “state actors” could be punished for the “illegal killings.”

About 900 people have been killed by unidentified attackers since May, when Duterte was elected, and another 665 died at the hands of security forces, according to the national police chief.

Duterte, however, has vehemently denied these accusations, and said that the police only fired in self-defense, while he also lashed out at the UN.

He shrugged off the prospect of repercussions that could follow as a result of his remarks.

"I don't give a shit about them. They are the ones interfering,” Duterte said.

[kscarbel2]

Philippines Leader to End Joint Military Exercises, Naval Patrols With U.S.

The Wall Street Journal  /  September 28, 2016

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday said joint military exercises scheduled next month between the Philippines and the U.S. will be the last for the longtime allies, as he seeks to avoid upsetting China, with which he hopes to build stronger trade and investment ties.

He also said he would end routine joint naval patrols in the South China Sea.

“I will serve notice to you now that this will be the last military exercise,” Duterte said

The Philippine leader did reaffirm that his country’s cooperation with the U.S. stands. “I will maintain the military alliance—the RP-US pact, which our countries signed in the early 50s,” Duterte said.

The military treaty with the U.S. was recently updated to allow more American troops to stay in the country for an extended period.

Duterte said he was ending the routine joint patrols in the South China Sea because they, too, risk military confrontation between China and U.S., with the Philippines caught in the middle.

“If the battleground will be in San Francisco, or China, then I’m OK with that,” he said.

Duterte said holding war games with the U.S. might undermine his efforts to improve relations with Beijing, which have soured in recent years as Manila tried to strengthen its claims to part of the South China Sea. China has increasingly asserted sovereignty over that body of water, which is also claimed in part by Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.

The Philippine military earlier this month invited U.S. troops to joint exercises in October, shortly after Mr. Duterte’s called for the Americans to withdraw their remaining military advisers from the southern island of Mindanao. Duterte had said their presence hurt efforts to find a peace with Muslim rebels.

Earlier this week, Duterte said he plans to establish trade alliance with China and Russia. He previously had ordered his defense secretary to seek military equipment from suppliers in China and Russia to fight drug traffickers and insurgents.

[kscarbel2]

CNN  /  October 20, 2016

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's surprise announcement of a military and economic "separation" from the US during a visit to Beijing Thursday left the Obama administration scrambling, as it raised questions about the US role in the region and threatened a realignment of US relationships in Asia.

Duterte's declaration is the latest indication that the Philippines' president, just five months into his six-year term, intends to reshape his country's ties to its closest ally by doubling down on his pivot away from the US and toward China.

"America has lost," Duterte said at a business forum Thursday during a four-day state visit to Beijing. "I've realigned myself in your ideological flow and maybe I will also go to Russia to talk to Putin and tell him that there are three of us against the world -- China, Philippines and Russia. It's the only way."

“With that, in this venue, I announce my separation from the United States, both in military, not maybe social, but economics also,” Duterte said to applause. “I have separated from them. So I will be dependent on you for all time. But do not worry. We will also help as you help us.”

During a speech addressing the Filipino community in Beijing Wednesday, Duterte said the Philippines had gained little from its long alliance with the US, its former colonial ruler.

“Your stay in my country was for your own benefit. So time to say goodbye, my friend,” he said, as if addressing the US.

He also repeated his denunciation of Obama as a “son of a whore”.

China, he said earlier, was “good”. “It has never invaded a piece of my country all these generations.” [In 2012, China seized control of Scarborough Shoal, a fishing ground in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.]

Duterte statement from 0:20

 

[gearhead204]

things are getting better by the day for the good olé  USA..............NOT!

[kscarbel2]

The U.S. approach thus far amounts to ignoring Duterte and pretending we can quietly our military and strategic operational activities. Shocking.

I have zero tolerance for a foreign country’s leader calling a U.S. president “the son of a whore”. It is not an internationally-accepted norm of behavior. It is an unforgiveable slap in the face to all Americans.

If it were me, I would refuse to play Duterte’s game.....and walk away. I would withdraw all U.S. military forces and shut down the U.S. embassy. I can play games too.

In a New York minute, the vast support for Duterte in the Philippines would probably end. I would also announce the end of “preferential” immigration policies for Philippine nationals, resulting from Mr. Duterte’s respected “decision” to move away from the United States. He has a right to navigate in any direction he wishes.......as well do we.

The United States brought prosperity to the Philippines prior to WW2, and returned at great cost of American life to rid the country of Japanese invaders. We then granted them independence [and the country has been a cesspool of corruption and chaos ever since, e.g. Ferdinand Marcos].

[kscarbel2]

BBC  /  October 21, 2016

US State Department spokesman John Kirby said the US was "baffled by this rhetoric" and that Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel would be in Manila this weekend and would try to get some answers.

"We are going to be seeking an explanation of exactly what the president meant when he talked about separation from the US," Mr Kirby told reporters.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apparently, some of our State Department folks have lost their command of the English language. Duterte's statement was perfectly clear to me. I suggest we respond to it in kind.

[david wild]

Seems like the man knows what he is talking about to me, I look to Washington and see the same thing ?????

[41chevy]

Their country, they'll go to whom ever offers goods, protection and trade. A friend from service moved from the U.S. to Cebu a few years ago and they like Americans but do not want our telling them how to run their country and do not trust this administration to act in their best interests.  Paul

Edited October 23, 2016 by 41chevy

[david wild]

Obama only helps Muslim Countries if he can.

[kscarbel2]

America’s grip on the Pacific is loosening

Gideon Rachman, The Financial Times  /  October 24, 2016

There is more than bluster involved in the Philippines’ pivot towards China

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are criss-crossing America in the last frantic weeks of the presidential election campaign. But events will not stand still, while “America decides”. On the other side of the world, the US has just suffered a significant strategic reverse.

That setback is the apparent decision by the Philippines to switch sides in the emerging power struggle between the US and China. On a visit to Beijing last week, Rodrigo Duterte, the president of the Philippines, announced a “separation” from the US and a new special relationship between his country and China.

In one of the odder diplomatic pronouncements of an odd year, Mr Duterte proclaimed in the Great Hall of the People in the Chinese capital: “There are three of us against the world — China, Philippines and Russia. It’s the only way.” This statement was greeted by warm applause from his audience.

Mr Duterte has a tendency to shoot his mouth off. In an appearance soon after taking office, he made headlines by calling US president Barack Obama the “son of a whore”. But there is more than mere bluster involved in the Duterte pivot. The Filipino leader has also said that he intends to end military co-operation with the US. Joint naval patrols in the Pacific will apparently come to a stop, as will joint counter-­terrorism operations on the southern island of Mindanao. Some American strategists are worried that the Philippines might even now become a base for the swiftly expanding Chinese navy.

Mrs Clinton, in particular, will understand the significance of all this. A central theme of her period at the state department was an effort to bolster America’s position in Asia and the Pacific. It was Mrs Clinton who proclaimed in 2010 that the US has a “national interest” in freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. This statement outraged the Chinese, whose famous “nine-dash line” on oceanic maps appears to claim that almost all of the South China Sea lies within Beijing’s territorial waters.

As Mrs Clinton told Goldman Sachs, in a speech given in 2013 and recently leaked, she is worried that China’s maritime claims will give it a “chokehold on sea lanes and also on the countries that border the South China Sea”. Those concerns have since been further stoked by China’s programme of “island” building in the disputed waters.

The Philippines was at the centre of America’s strategic and legal efforts to loosen China’s potential chokehold over the South China Sea. Some of the tensest disputes in the sea — such as arguments over the ownership of Scarborough Shoal — involve a face-off between China and the Philippines. It was Manila that brought a legal challenge against Beijing’s claims over the South China Sea, winning a ruling at an international tribunal in July. This ruling is crucial to Washington’s argument that its dispute with China is not a crude power struggle but rather an effort, by the US, to protect the international legal order in the interests of all.

On a purely strategic level, the Philippines is (or was) also vital to America’s efforts to counter the military facilities that China seems to be building on its artificial islands. Earlier this year, Manila and Washington agreed to increase America’s military presence in five bases on Filipino territory, including an air base on the island of Palawan, very close to the disputed Spratly Islands. Those US-Philippine agreements now look likely to be revoked. More broadly, America’s moral case for “standing up to China” looks much weaker if China’s own neighbours no longer seem so worried by its territorial claims.

Some American strategists take comfort from Mr Duterte’s obvious eccentricity. They argue that, in the long run, the Philippines will rediscover its strategic interest in seeking the protection of Uncle Sam. But it is also possible that Mr Duterte, for all his wild man antics, is actually part of a larger trend in Southeast Asia.

Next year, the Philippines will lead the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. And this will happen just as two other important US allies in the region — Thailand and Malaysia — have begun to tilt towards China. The military coup in Thailand in 2014 led to a downturn in relations between Bangkok and Washington, as the Americans called for a swift return to democracy and the Thai generals resisted. In 2015, Thailand announced the purchase of Chinese submarines. Najib Razak, the prime minister of Malaysia, has also looked to Beijing for succour as he has attempted to fend off corruption investigations in the west.

Faced with all these setbacks in Southeast Asia, the US will be on the lookout for some new diplomatic and strategic opportunities. One country that seems certain to continue to push back against Chinese dominance of the region is Vietnam. This month, the USS Frank Cable and the USS John S McCain became the first two American warships to visit the Vietnamese naval base of Cam Ranh Bay since the end of the Vietnam war in 1975.

At the height of that war, Cam Ranh Bay served as a crucial base for both the US Navy and Air Force in the fight against North Vietnam. It is a historic irony, and a sign of how the rise of China is changing Asia, that Vietnam could yet invite the US military back to Cam Ranh Bay — this time as an ally, not an enemy.

 

[kscarbel2]

BBC  /  October 26, 2016

Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte has said he wants US troops to leave the country.

Speaking while on a state visit to Japan, he also called for an "independent foreign policy".

Under a current defence pact, the US maintains troops at five military bases in the Philippines.

"I want, maybe in the next two years, my country free of the presence of foreign military troops. I want them out," Duterte said on Wednesday.

"I want them out," he said. "And if I have to revise or abrogate agreements, executive agreements, I will."

He reiterated the possibility of cancelling current agreements with the US, as well as his desire to be "closer to China".

"If you chastise me, reprimand me before the international crowd and you say: 'Mr. Duterte, you stop the killings there... stop it because we will withhold aid and assistance to your country' -- it's like saying, 'I am a dog on a leash, and if you do not stop biting the criminals, we will not throw the bread right under your mouth, we will throw it further so you'll have to struggle to get it.'

 

"That's what America wants me to be, a dog barking for the crumbs of their favor."

 

"I do not want to see any military man of any other nation (in the Philippines), except the Filipino soldier," he said.

[kscarbel2]

Philippines' Duterte rails at U.S. 'monkeys' for halting gun sale

Reuters  /  November 2, 2016

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte chided the United States on Wednesday for halting the planned sale of 26,000 rifles to his country.

U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said he regarded Duterte's latest salvo as "inexplicably at odds with the close relationship that we continue to have with not just the Filipino people, but the Filipino government."

The State Department halted the sale of the assault rifles to the Philippine police after staff from U.S. Senator Ben Cardin's office said he would oppose it.

Aides said Cardin, the top Democrat on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was reluctant for the United States to provide the weapons given concern about human rights violations in the Philippines during Duterte's bloody, four-month-old war on drugs.

"Look at these monkeys, the 26,000 firearms we wanted to buy, they don't want to sell," Duterte said.

"Son of a bitch, we have many homemade guns here. These American fools."

"They're blackmailing me that they won't sell weapons? We have lots of explosives here," Duterte said.

" remember what the Russian diplomat said: Come to Russia, we all have here anything you need."

More than 2,300 people [drug dealers and buyers] have been killed in police operations or by suspected vigilantes as part of Duterte's anti-narcotics effort, which was the linchpin of his election campaign.

Duterte has vented his anger at the United States for raising concerns about the extrajudicial killings.

"That's why I was rude at them, because they were rude at me," he said.

The Philippine police chief, Ronald dela Rosa, said if the arms sale does not go ahead, "We have many options and it's their loss, not ours, if the report is true."

Duterte reiterated that Russia and China had shown willingness to sell arms to the Philippines.

"Russia, they are inviting us. China also. China is open, anything you want, they sent me brochure saying we select there, we'll give you.”

[kscarbel2]

Malaysia to buy navy vessels from China in blow to U.S.

Bloomberg  /  November 2, 2016

Malaysia said it will buy at least four littoral naval Ships from China, as Prime Minister Najib Razak announced “new steps” in military cooperation between the two countries.

A key security partner of the U.S., Malaysia undertook its first bilateral military exercise with China two years ago amid increasing uncertainty over Beijing’s territorial ambitions in the South China Sea. China’s claims to more than 80 percent of the waters that host around $5 trillion of trade a year were rebuffed by an international court in July.

China has been Malaysia’s largest trading partner since 2009, with two-way trade last year valued at $86.3 billion.

Nearly two years since Najib enjoyed a cozy round of golf with U.S. President Barack Obama, the two leaders’ close relationship was shaken in July by a U.S. Justice Department bid to seize $1 billion linked to alleged money laundering involving a Malaysian state fund known as 1MDB. The lawsuits allege over $3.5 billion was misappropriated from 1MDB, some of which ended up with a 'Malaysian Official 1,' identified later by U.S. and Malaysian authorities as Najib.

Najib said that former colonial powers should not lecture nations they once exploited on their internal affairs, in a veiled attack on the West as he looks to strengthen ties with China.

His visit to Beijing follows that of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who announced a "separation" from the United States and signed a raft of memoranda of understanding for Chinese investment in the country.

Najib said that larger countries should treat smaller countries fairly.

"And this includes former colonial powers. It is not for them to lecture countries they once exploited on how to conduct their own internal affairs today," Najib said.

"The truth is we could have bought these from a number of countries. But China is the only country that has provided political support for Malaysia during the 1MDB scandal. This is payback for that political support," said Najib.

[kscarbel2]

Reuters  /  January 26, 2017

The United States [taxpayer] will upgrade and build facilities on Philippine military bases this year, Manila's defense minister said on Thursday, bolstering an alliance strained by President Rodrigo Duterte's opposition to a U.S. troop presence.

The Pentagon gave the green light to start the work as part of an Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), a 2014 pact that Duterte has threatened to scrap during barrages of hostility towards the former colonial power.

"EDCA is still on," said Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana.

EDCA allows the expansion of rotational deployment of U.S. ships, aircraft and troops at five bases in the Philippines as well as the storage of equipment for humanitarian and maritime security operations.

Lorenzana said Washington had committed to build warehouses, barracks and runways in the five agreed locations and Duterte was aware of projects and had promised to honor all existing agreements with the United States.

This week, Republican Senator John McCain, who headed the U.S. Senate's Armed Services Committee, proposed $7.5 billion of new military funding for U.S. forces and their allies in the Asia-Pacific.

The geopolitical landscape in Asia has been shaken up by Duterte's grudge against Washington, his overtures towards erstwhile adversary China, and the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration has indicated it may take a tough line on China's activities in the South China Sea.

The Philippines has said it wants no part in anything confrontational in the strategic waterway and will not jeopardize promises of extensive Chinese trade and investment, and offers of military hardware, that Duterte has got since he launched his surprise foreign policy shift.

Lorenzana said the Philippines had asked China for two to three fast boats, two drones, sniper rifles and a robot for bomb disposal, in a $14 million arms donation from China.

The arms package would be used to support operations against Islamist Abu Sayyaf militants in the southern Philippines, he said.

"If these are quality equipment, we will probably buy more," he said.

Lorenzana said Russia was offering hardware such as ships, submarines, planes and helicopters.

As with China, those offers have come as a result of a charm offensive by Duterte, who has praised Russia and its leadership. Duterte last year said if Russia and China started a "new order" in the world, he would be the first to join.

[kscarbel2]

I've no time nor pity for a country blatantly playing both sides of the fence. Choose your side. Don't play games.