Malacañang said there will be no major changes in bilateral relations between the Philippines and the United States regardless of who wins the 2020 US presidential election.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said he was confident that bilateral ties would remain strong because the US State Department ensures continuity in terms of foreign policy.
“Of course, there is an issue of personal relations,” Roque said in an interview over CNN Philippines on Wednesday. “All the President needed really was a year or two and he was able to foster personal friendship with President (Donald) Trump.”
Roque said that even if there is a new US President, Duterte can also develop close ties with Democrat Joe Biden.
Duterte himself has repeatedly called Trump his friend.
Manila’s ambassador to Washington said the Philippines would remain firm in its stand against interference in domestic affairs if a Biden administration should bring up allegations of human rights violations in the country.
Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez said the government’s stand is that the alleged extrajudicial killings were not state-sanctioned and are “perpetrated by police officers who are involved in drugs.”
“The bottomline message that we continue to give here, both to Democrats and Republicans is that we are a sovereign nation, we are a country that is democratic like the United States, we have a President that is duly elected just like they have an election here now. We have to respect each other,” Romualdez said on ANC’s Headstart.