By Roy Ramos and Hader Glang
ZAMBOANGA, the Philippines
The Philippines president has declared that his administration will adopt an “independent foreign policy” hours after arriving home from an almost weeklong trip to the ASEAN forum in Laos and a quick stop off in Indonesia.
In a speech to reporters at Davao International Airport early Saturday, Rodrigo Duterte said that he would shun interference from foreign governments after arriving by plane from Jakarta.
"In our relations with the world, the Philippines will pursue an independent foreign policy," Duterte told the news conference in his hometown in the southern Philippines.
“We will observe and I must insist -- I repeat, I must insist -- on the time honored principles of sovereign equality, non-interference and commitment to the peaceful settlement of disputes to best serve our people and protect the interests of our country."
Duterte's declaration comes days after a controversial expletive-laden statement made prior to his trip to Laos for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-East Asia Summit, during which he lashed out at U.S. President Barack Obama for his perceived
meddling in his government's crackdown on drug traffickers, pushers and peddlers.
He said it would be "rude" for President Obama to raise the question of human rights when they met.
Such a conversation would prompt him to curse Obama, he said, using a Filipino phrase which can mean "mother of whores", "son of a bitch", or "son of a whore".
Duterte cited the 600,000 Moro he said were killed during the American colonizers’ pacification campaign of the Philippines at the turn of the century.
"America has one too many to answer for the misdeeds of this country... We have not heard any apology until now,” Duterte underlined.
“I do not, I said, I do not kneel down before anybody else, except for the Filipinos in Quiapo walking in misery and in extreme hunger and poverty."
Quiapo is an impoverished district of the capital Manila where many Muslims live.
Last month, the U.S. state department and two United Nations human rights experts urged Duterte and Filipino authorities to stop the extrajudicial killings taking place in the country in the fight against illegal drugs, while ensuring law enforcement compliance with international human rights obligations.
Duterte responded to the criticism by threatening to pull the Philippines out of the international body.
"I am the president of the Philippines, not the republic of the international community," he underlined.
Duterte– accompanied by an entourage of cabinet secretaries and other officials – arrived in Davao from Jakarta aboard a chartered Philippine Airlines plane around 12.50 a.m. (0450GMT Friday).
The president had been in Indonesia to push for a joint maritime security operation to deal with rampant vessel hijacking perpetrated by the Daesh-linked Abu Sayyaf in the seas between Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
"We expressed grave concern over the security of our waters. We agreed to step up joint measures to address the issue of piracy and lawlessness in the waters in our region," the Philippine News Agency quoted Duterte as saying in Jakarta.
During his speech in Davao early Saturday, Duterte underlined that pushing the interests of the Philippines has been his objective at ASEAN.
“I engaged the leaders of ASEAN and its dialogue partners on important regional and international issues that impact on peace, security, stability and prosperity of our region,” Duterte was quoted by the Philippine Daily Inquirer as saying.
He added that he also brought up the issue of the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) -- where the Philippines is engaged in a long running territorial spat with China -- but stressed "commitment to the peaceful settlement of disputes in accordance with international law, including UNCLOS [United Nations on the Convention on the Law of the Sea]”.
In July, the international arbitration court ruled in a case brought by the Philippines that there was no “legal basis” for China to claim historic rights in the waters.
Duterte brought up his concerns about terrorism and violent extremism, saying that he had urged ASEAN and other leaders to “redouble our cooperative efforts in order to address this menace”.
He then turned his attention to the purges of drug sellers that had so raised the U.S. and UN's ire.
Duterte said that nobody had expected how serious the drug problem had become until he brought it up, claiming that in the Philippines alone there were now about 3.7 million drug addicts.
“So it is never wrong to threaten criminals [to end the problem],” he said.
“As your President and a lawyer, I have every right to threaten criminals and how it develops to the ending is another problem."
