Duterte said he purposely skipped ASEAN-US meeting
President Rodrigo Duterte said Monday he purposely skipped last week’s meeting between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the United States in Laos.
“The reason is that I am not anti-West. The reason is not I do not like the Americans. It’s simply a matter of principle to me,” Duterte said in a speech during the awarding ceremonies of Metrobank Foundation’s outstanding Filipinos in Malacanang.
Duterte had said he was not feeling well enough to attend the ASEAN-US and the ASEAN-India Summits on the last day Thursday in Vientiane..
Earlier in the day, Duterte said US soldiers in Mindanao should leave.
In a speech during the oath taking of newly-appointed government officials in Malacanang, Duterte brought photos of the First Battle of Bud Dajo, also known as the Bud Dajo Massacre, which he presented during the East Asian Summit in Laos.
Internet searches showed the massacre was a counter-insurgency action fought by the US Army against Moros in March 1906, during the Moro Rebellion phase of the Philippine-American War.
Duterte presented the photos during his intervention with East Asian leaders, including US President Barack Obama, to counter US, the United Nations, and other critics who raised concern over alleged extrajudicial killings in the Philippines due to the government's all-out war against illegal drugs.
"Look at the bodies there...for as long as we stay with America, we will never have peace in that land. We might as well give it up," Duterte said in the speech during the oath taking.
He said no Moro had ever confronted the US during its pacification campaign.
"That's why the Special Forces, they have to go. They have to go (out) in Mindanao. There are lots of white there," Duterte said.
A source said there are less than 200 US soldiers in Mindanao which are based in Zamboanga.
He added when he was in Laos, he wanted to speak about his plan of asking US forces to leave Mindanao.
"(But) I couldn't tell it out of respect and I do not want a rift with America. But they have to go," Duterte said.
He later said his reason for shooing away the Americans in Mindanao was because they might be abducted.
Apparently referring to the Abu Sayyaf bandits, Duterte said these kidnappers might abduct the Americans and kill them if they fail to pay ransom.
In a statement, Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said Duterte's pronouncement on the pullout of American forces reflects his "new direction towards coursing an independent foreign policy."
"He has made reference to the unrecognized, unrepented and un-atoned for massacre at Bud Dajo in Sulu by the Americans, hence our continued connection with West is the real reason for the 'Islamic' threat in Mindanao."
"The American silence on the matter lacks congruence with its 'moral' position, in the light of actions taken in the past by the Germans who confessed and made atonement for the Holocaust, and Japan which made reparations for the atrocities it perpetrated among the peoples they conquered."
"Mr. Duterte is on morally firm ground by breaking up walls that cover dark corners in US-RP relations." Celerina Monte
