Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte mocked Secretary of State John Kerry during a speech Friday for giving the island country $32 million in aid and said all he needs to do to get more money out of the U.S. is keep the insults coming.
“After Kerry visited the Philippines, he left us $33 million,” Duterte told an audience at Camp Lapu Lapu. “I told myself, ‘this seems cool. Let’s take a swipe at them again so they will make amends with money.'”
After the meeting, presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said Kerry offered $32 million to the Philippines for law enforcement training. Duterte plans to split the funds between the military and the police.
In late July, Kerry stopped by the Philippines as part of his trip to Asia, in order to meet with Duterte and Philippines Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay to discuss newly implemented government policies since May.
“We are going to hear about (Duterte’s) priorities, we’re going to get to know him,” a U.S. official told Reuters in advance of the meeting. “We’re going to discuss how we can work together and where we want to focus.”
The official then added Kerry intended to bring up the “unhappy history” in the Philippines of extra-judicial killings.
“We hope to learn more from President Duterte about his thinking in connection with protecting human rights, civil rights, and maintaining the rule of law in law enforcement,” the official added.
But Duterte bragged afterwards that he declined to discuss human rights issues in connection with his governmental policies, namely his encouragement of a vigilante war on drugs.
“I have a job to do let us go to another topic,” he reportedly said during the meeting with Kerry.
So far, about 800 people have been killed in that war since Duterte won the presidential election in May.
Duterte is so hell-bent on eliminating drug abuse he Tuesday that if the judiciary blocks his actions, he’ll declare martial law.
The State Department told The Daily Caller News Foundation that Duterte’s post-meeting comments had been covered in Monday’s briefing, although the briefing mainly seemed to refer to Duterte calling U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg “gay” and a “son of a bitch.” During the briefing, press office director Elizabeth Trudeau said a Philippines official had come in to to discuss Duterte’s remarks, but otherwise declined to elaborate on what was said in those talks.
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