President Donald Trump met Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, but didn’t mention not one of the things everyone expected him to mention, like Duterte’s bloody drug war, or the fact that he called former President Barack Obama a “son of a whore”, or the fact that he boasted that he murdered a man with his own hands. Trump did not mention human rights and both leaders ignored the numerous questions related to the drug war. They laughed when Philippine President called reporters spies.
According to the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, ISIS, illegal drugs, and trade were the things Trump and Duterte talked about. She added that the leaders briefly talked about human rights, but did not say if Trump criticized the violence.
Duterte has been strongly criticized for his war on drugs by human rights advocates around the world. According to the Philippine government, over three thousand people have died so far in the crackdown, but human rights groups believe that the total is maybe 9,000.
“Human rights groups, I think, will be quite disappointed by the visit. It’s unlikely that human rights or rule of law or due process are going to be topics that President Trump will raise,” said Amy Searight, director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Associated Press reported.
According to White House advisers, Trump may offer criticism behind closed doors in order not to embarrass Duterte.
Meanwhile, the police in the Philippine had to use water cannons and batons to disperse Trump protesters. The protesters demonstrated against his visit to Manila. Left-wing demonstrators were prevented from gathering outside the U.S. Embassy. Their placards read “Down Trump” and “Down With U.S. Imperialism”.
“Trump is the CEO of the imperialist U.S. Government,” one demonstrator, student Alexis Danday, 18, said.
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