Duterte and Trump are BFFs; human rights comes up very briefly

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte called American media "spies," much to the amusement of Donald Trump.

PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte sang a Filipino love song to Donald Trump. Uh, oh. Should Vladimir Putin be worried?


In their first face-to-face meeting, Trump praised his “great relationship” with Duterte. The issue of human rights abuses because of the drug crackdown didn’t come up, according to Duterte spokesman Harry Roque — or came up only “briefly,” according to White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders.

At the welcome dinner the first night in Manila, Duterte took to the mike and sang a duet with songstress Pilita Corrales. The song was ""Ikaw" (You), a song of love. It was an awkward moment, to be sure, since the Philippine strongman would not win any karaoke contests and it's not clear if Trump understood the Tagalog lyrics.


"In addition to their shared, racially tinged loathing of Obama — just last week, the Philippine leader called the former American president 'so black and arrogant' — Trump and Duterte also bonded over their inability to deal with tough questions from reporters," reported The Inquisitor, a Filipino newspaper. When Duterte called American reporters “spies” for wanting to know if the two had discussed human rights, Trump laughed out loud.

Duterte and Trump had a side meeting during the Asean conference being held in Manila. In their first face-to-face meeting Monday, Trump praised his “great relationship” with Duterte. Immediately after the meeting, Duterte spokesman Harry Roque said the issue of human rights abuses because of the drug crackdown didn’t come up — or came up only “briefly,” according to White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders.

However, late Monday, a joint statement was released. "The two sides 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 to promote the welfare of all sectors, including the most vulnerable groups," read the statement .

The only mention of Duterte''s controversial war on drugs that has claimed thousands of lives came later in the statement.

"The two sides discussed the ongoing campaign in the Philippines against criminality including illegal drugs," it said. Expounding on this, the statement said both countries would share best practices in "transparency in investigations."

"Both sides acknowledged that illegal drug use is a problem afflicting both countries and committed to share best practices in the areas of prevention; enforcement, including capacity-building and transparency in investigations; and rehabilitation."

Duterte, sometimes referred to as the Donald Trump of Asia, and 45 have at least one thing in common: They both don't like former President Barack Obama.

"I have been your friend since I was elected," said Trump to Duterte. "My predecessor was not your friend."

Trump finally found someone he could admire who is not Putin. 

Duterte has boasted of killing people he didn't like, he arrested and imprisoned his chief critic in the Philippine Congress, journalists live in fear for their lives (over 120 journalists have been killed in the past year), lamented that he didn't rape a woman, and, despite all this, Duterte enjoys an 80% to 90% approval rating from the Filipino people.

They both consider themselves outsiders in the political circles of Manila and Washington, respectively. Their campaigns had populist themes.

Duterte, like Trump, has upset the world order, aligning with former enemies and disregarding long time relationships with allies.

Trump left the Manila believing he had mended the century-old relationship between the U.S. and the Philippines that frayed when Duterte came into power. Duterte called former  Obama a "son of a whore" and shifted the balance of power in Asia when he seemed to rebuff the U.S. by turning to China and Russia for assistance.


The Philippine visit was the last leg of a 12-day trip to five countries during which Trump visited Japan, South Korea, China and Vietnam.

Trump's silence "adds insults to grievous injury to the thousands of victims and their families, to the efforts of Filipinos dedicated to the rule of law and accountability," Phelim Kine, Deputy Director for Asia Human Rights Watch, said to Rappler.

"Trump is failing to understand that words have power and failure to speak out could have a lot of symbolic value in terms of how Filipinos view the United States and the Philippine relationship with the United States."_________________________________________________________________________________