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A personal beef with the United States may be fueling the comments.
According to reports in Philippine media, Duterte’s discontent started
with an American national living in the southern city Davao during the
president’s 22-year term there as mayor. The American apparently
frequented the city amid his mysterious business dealings with investors
and high-ranking people including some in the Muslim rebel groups. One
day in 2002 a bomb hit his hotel room. While guarded by local police,
Manila Times reports say, the man was whisked out of the Philippines
under the guidance of U.S. security forces. The whole incident prompted
Duterte, who made a name in Davao as an effective crime fighter, to suspect the U.S. government was meddling in the case, political analysts say.
Duterte probably won’t parlay that grudge into action, analysts in the country believe. His foreign secretary Perfecto Yasay chased the remarks last week by saying the Philippines would honor its commitments with the United States and that the president’s comment about Mindanao was made for the safety of U.S. personnel.
The Philippine armed forces happen rank No. 51 in the world for strength, not too lofty. Yet they face four armed Muslim rebel groups and the vessels of No. 3 military power China just offshore in disputed waters. “The U.S. plays a crucial role right now and there will be a United States presence for quite a while,” says Jay Batongbacal, director of the Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea at University of the Philippines. Batongbacal attributes Duterte’s remarks to character. “He’s still not used to the idea he is really running the country,” he says. “It hasn’t sunk in yet.”
How The U.S. Will Stand Up To An Angry Philippine Leader
I cover under-reported stories from Taiwan and Asia.
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
In
back-to-back statements this month, Philippine President Rodrigo
Duterte suggested U.S. military personnel quit helping his country. He
said foreign powers should quit helping with patrols in the South China
Sea, where the Philippines has been resisting China since 2012 over contested maritime claims.
It’s the United States that has helped the most, part of a military
cooperation agreement reached in 2014. A day later, the 71-year-old
president generally known for rash remarks said U.S. forces should quit
their 14 years of low-key military advisory work in Mindanao, where
Duterte’s government of almost three months has stepped up its fight against the violent Abu Sayyaf terrorist group.
And the week he was due to meet U.S. President Barack Obama at a regional summit in early September, he reportedly called the fellow head of state a dirty name and the meeting was cancelled.
U.S. officials have lain low through a lot of Duterte’s harsh words.
But there’s no indication they will make any changes. First, Washington
gets something geopolitically from helping the Philippines, its former
Southeast Asian colony. Second, Duterte probably doesn’t mean what he
says beyond venting old frustrations toward the United States.
The U.S. Embassy in Manila this month called its alliance with the Philippines among the most “enduring and important” in the Asia Pacific. The technical, advisory role it has played since 2002 in Mindanao helps it contain a Muslim terrorist group, part of a bigger global American cause. Troop rotation and joint exercises with the Philippines in the South China Sea help Manila safeguard against vessels from China, which claims the same waters. The embassy calls U.S.-Philippine alliance ”a cornerstone of stability for over 70 years” but would not comment on Duterte’s remarks last week.
And maybe they shouldn’t. Duterte’s comments probably speak more to his outspoken character rather than a true intent to push the United States out, though he is courting China at the same time he shoots barbs at Washington. As long as “we stay with America, we will never have peace…We might as well give up,” the president was quoted saying on the Mindanao struggle.
And the week he was due to meet U.S. President Barack Obama at a regional summit in early September, he reportedly called the fellow head of state a dirty name and the meeting was cancelled.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on September 15, 2016. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)
The U.S. Embassy in Manila this month called its alliance with the Philippines among the most “enduring and important” in the Asia Pacific. The technical, advisory role it has played since 2002 in Mindanao helps it contain a Muslim terrorist group, part of a bigger global American cause. Troop rotation and joint exercises with the Philippines in the South China Sea help Manila safeguard against vessels from China, which claims the same waters. The embassy calls U.S.-Philippine alliance ”a cornerstone of stability for over 70 years” but would not comment on Duterte’s remarks last week.
And maybe they shouldn’t. Duterte’s comments probably speak more to his outspoken character rather than a true intent to push the United States out, though he is courting China at the same time he shoots barbs at Washington. As long as “we stay with America, we will never have peace…We might as well give up,” the president was quoted saying on the Mindanao struggle.
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Duterte probably won’t parlay that grudge into action, analysts in the country believe. His foreign secretary Perfecto Yasay chased the remarks last week by saying the Philippines would honor its commitments with the United States and that the president’s comment about Mindanao was made for the safety of U.S. personnel.
The Philippine armed forces happen rank No. 51 in the world for strength, not too lofty. Yet they face four armed Muslim rebel groups and the vessels of No. 3 military power China just offshore in disputed waters. “The U.S. plays a crucial role right now and there will be a United States presence for quite a while,” says Jay Batongbacal, director of the Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea at University of the Philippines. Batongbacal attributes Duterte’s remarks to character. “He’s still not used to the idea he is really running the country,” he says. “It hasn’t sunk in yet.”
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