US PRESIDENTIAL bets Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump weighed in on President Rodrigo Duterte’s son of a whore remark, expressing disappointment with the newly elected leader of the Philippines.
Clinton, the Democratic Party candidate, told reporters during her campaign sortie that Obama’s decision to cancel the meeting was the prudent thing to do.
“When the president of the Philippines insulted our president, it was appropriate and a very low key way to say: sorry, no meeting. And since then there’s been an apology and an expression of regret, which is appropriate,” Clinton said.
Clinton, wife of former US President Bill Clinton, said that it was the “right decision” after Duterte’s remarks about Obama.
“When you meet with anyone, ally or adversary, you come in with a list of issues that are important to be raised. You determine what they are,” Clinton said.
Clinton noted that there are ties between the US and the Philippines and that both leaders must maintain diplomatic respect.
“We have a lot of ties between the United States and the Philippines. And I think it’s very important that we have a relationship, but there has to be a certain level of respect that is expected on both sides,” she said.
Trump, the Republican candidate, took to Twitter to express his disappointment over Duterte’s expletive-laden attack.
“Philippines President calls Obama ‘the son of a whore’. Terrible!” Trump wrote.
The White House on Tuesday called off a scheduled meeting between Obama and Duterte after his attack on the United States.
In a press briefing at the airport, Duterte threatened to curse at Obama if the American leader raised his concern over the extrajudicial killings of alleged drug pushers and users.
Clinton said she herself would want to also raise the concern..
“On the other side, they determine what they want to raise. And clearly the president was going to raise concerns that are global about what is going on in the Philippines with extrajudicial killings of alleged drug dealers, that is now somewhere up near 2,000 killings,” she said.
The US has been allocating $32 million in human rights and security assistance to the Philippines.
Those funds will now be under “vigorous vetting,” given the spike in extrajudicial killings.
US State Department spokesman Mark Toner, in a press conference in Washington, said that “words matter” to see if both leaders will have a productive meeting.
“Words matter, and we want to see an atmosphere that is cordial and open to strong cooperation,” Toner said.
He added that the cancellation of the scheduled meeting was the consequence of Duterte’s foul-mouthed remarks.
“The consequence is that the decision was clearly made that they couldn’t have a productive and constructive conversation, so there was no meeting between the President and President Duterte,” Toner said.
Toner said despite the incident, the US still values its relations with the Philippines.
“It’s one of our most important relationships in the Asia Pacific region. They’re a treaty ally of ours. It’s a significant and important relationship, and so the fact that our two leaders now don’t have the possibility of meeting is unfortunate,” he added.
Last month, Duterte also called the US Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg an “annoying homosexual son of a whore.”
Former permanent representative to the United Nations for the Philippines Lauro Baja Jr. urged Duterte to learn some diplomacy.
“We must learn the art of diplomacy and the intricacies of international relations…We should also learn to navigate well,” the retired senior foreign diplomat said.
He also said that the Philippines must move on and not “unduly worry” about the adverse effects of the latest kerfuffle.
“The cancellation of the meeting with President Obama is unfortunate… We must not unduly worry though about adverse effects and move on,” Baja said.