PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte’s tirade is not personally directed at US President Barack Obama, but a reaction on the seeming interventionist agenda in the guise of concern with the human rights situation vis-à-vis war on drugs.
PDP-Laban Policy Studies Group head and Membership Committee National Capital Region chairman Jose Antonio Goitia said that from his speech, Duterte is not only incensed because he is being told off by the US, but more because of the perception that the Philippines will just kowtow to what the Americans ask the Philippine president to do.
“In the manner of his usual outbursts, President Duterte cited the long history of US aggression in the Philippine soils, in particular, the Bud Dajo massacre in 1906, with 600 Moros killed by American soldiers,” stated Goitia.
“What President Duterte in fact has done through his statements was something no other Philippine president has done before—to recognize the long history of colonial relations between the US and the Philippines and proclaim the sovereignty of the Philippines as an independent nation,” he said.
Prior to the anticipated meeting between Obama and Duterte, the US Embassy in Manila has expressed its concerns with “reports regarding extrajudicial killings of individuals suspected to have been involved in drug activity” and even urged the Philippine government “to ensure its law enforcement efforts are consistent with its human rights obligations.”
According to Goitia, who is also the PDP-Laban San Juan City Council president, such statement, however, smacks of hypocrisy of the US government especially with the rising number of incidence of police brutality perpetrated against people of color.
“Earlier in August, President Duterte turned the tables against the US embassy when he called them out on the killings of African-Americans. In recent years, the Black Lives Matter movement has been protesting the brutal treatment of federal and state police of African-Americans. In 2015 alone, 258 black people, mostly young men, were shot dead by the police,” stated Goitia.
“The US government’s moral ascendancy on the issue of human rights is also questionable given its record of supporting authoritarian regimes and the numerous cases of human rights violations in the wars it has waged and backed in the Middle East and elsewhere in the globe.”
He added that the US government is being selective in condemning cases of human rights violations, depending on the strength and nature of its ties with a given country. Historically, the US has used the human rights issue as justification to intervene in the affairs of nations.
“While President Duterte has already expressed his regret over the fallout, he is optimistic that a meeting between him and President Obama will push through at a later time,” Goitia said.
“It is hoped that when this happen they will treat President Duterte, as a head of a sovereign state, as an equal. The US should listen first to where he is coming from before they make an appeal or judgment,” he said.