Philippine president reaffirms his deadly anti-drug campaign

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said he believes Duterte is not angry with Obama but with Filipinos who keep on asking for his reaction to the U.S. president’s possibly bringing up the issue on killings. He made the comment to reporters in Manilla.

“I’m going to make an assessment”. Prime Minister Lee agreed saying that one drug trafficker destroys 10,000 lives.

Mr Obama played down the remarks, describing Mr Duterte as “a colourful character”, but he did not back away from cancelling the meeting.

Obama, the first sitting USA president to visit Laos, recalled that the United States had dropped more than 2 million tons of bombs on this country during the height of the Vietnam War, more than it dropped on Germany and Japan during World War II.

“Who is he (Obama) to confront me?” “As a matter of fact, America has one too many to answer for”, he said. Everybody has a awful record of extrajudicial killing.

“When the president of the Philippines insulted our president, it was appropriate and a very low-key way to say: sorry, no meeting”, she told reporters on her campaign plane. “If (Obama) can answer that question and give the apology, I will answer him”. “He’s the most powerful president. on the planet”.

Again, Duterte reminded the USA of the killing of African Americans by law enforcers as well as the massacre of Indians by early settlers.

The figure dwarfs Washington’s previous commitments to Laos – in the last 20 years it had given a total of US$100 million.

On Monday, Duterte said the USA should not interfere in Philippine affairs as the country is no longer a colony. “We must press on”, he declared Tuesday in a speech at a business and investment conference on the sidelines of a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which he is attending.

On Wednesday he is to attend a gala dinner with both Obama and Ban, as well as join a meeting that the two leaders will have with ASEAN heads of state and government.

Cluster bombs have been banned by an worldwide treaty signed by 119 countries, although the USA has so far refused to sign, saying that they “have demonstrated military utility [and] their elimination from US stockpiles would put the lives of its soldiers and those of its coalition partners at risk”, according to a statement on the Department of State website.

Too few Americans know of the United States’ covert bombing of Laos.. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have rival claims.

Obama ticked off the elements of the pivot – the deployment of a rotational force of Marines to Australia, a missile-defense system to protect South Korea from the North’s missiles, and a greater American voice in regional issues, like the disputes between China and its neighbors over disputed reefs and shoals in the East China Sea and South China Sea.

Since then, the Philippines has sent mixed signals to China.

“Plenty will be killed until the last pusher is out of the streets. It just so happened we’re part of the playing field”, he said.

Duterte has angrily rejected criticism from the Catholic Church, human rights groups, legislators and the United Nations.

Duterte declared a “state of lawlessness” in his country after an explosion Friday at an open-air market in Davao City killed more than a dozen people during a presidential visit to the city.

The government, however, has been keen to allay fears the obscure order might impinge on civil liberties.

“He is maybe feeling his way into the new job”, the official said.