President Obama cancelled his meeting with the president of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Laos Monday after Duterte called Obama a “Son of a bitch.” Duterte, known and loved in his country for speaking his mind, released a statement Tuesday saying that he regrets his comments “came across as a personal attack on the U.S. president.”
Duterte’s rant on Obama was intended to be a warning for the President to not broach the subject of the extrajudicial killings that have taken place in the Philippines since Duterte took office on June 30th. In those 2 months, an estimated 2,400 people have been killed as part of Duterte’s efforts to eradicate drug dealers and users from his country.
Many of these killings in this war on drugs can be attributed to the police, while a little more than half of the killings have not been solved, the Philippines Police Chief told CNN last month. These unsolved killings have most likely been caused by vigilantes or hired killers. In June, the AP reported that Duterte encouraged citizens to take the law into their own hands, and said he would “give you a medal” if you shoot a drug dealer yourself.
WGBH News Analyst and founder of the GroundTruth Project Charles Sennott told Boston Public Radio Tuesday that President Obama made the right decision to cancel his meeting with Duterte. “Here I thought that President Obama did act presidential…you don’t have any obligation to be meeting with a world leader like that,” he said.
Sennott went on to call the Philippines a “scary populous government gone awry,” and believes that they have turned a blind eye to extrajudicial killings. “This is a real issue in the Philippines,” he said.
Duterte’s brand of no filter diplomacy and disregard for political correctness are becoming attractive traits for leaders says Sennott, who called the desire for populist rulers like Duterte a “global phenomenon.”
“I have a feeling that he and Trump would get along,” Sennott said.
You can listen to our interview with WGBH News Analyst and founder of the GroundTruth Project Charles Sennott above.
