Joe.My.God. LGBT News
The Associated Press reports:
President Rodrigo Duterte said Saturday Donald Trump wished his deadly crackdown on illegal drugs would succeed during a telephone call, and he assured the U.S. president-elect the Philippines would maintain its ties with America — a departure from Duterte’s hostility toward the Obama administration.
Duterte called to congratulate Trump late Friday in their first talk that was described by an aide of the Philippine president as “very engaging, animated conversation” in which both leaders invited each other to visit his country.
In a video released by Duterte’s close aide, Bong Go, the Philippine leader is seen smiling while talking to Trump and saying: “We will maintain … and enhance the bilateral ties between our two countries.”
The other parts of the conversation were not aired in the video but in a statement released by his aides, Duterte said “he was wishing me success in my campaign against the drug problem.” “He understood the way we are handling it and I said that there’s nothing wrong in protecting a country,” Duterte said. “It was a bit very encouraging in the sense that I supposed that what he really wanted to say was that we would be the last to interfere in the affairs of your own country.”
“He said that … well, we are doing it as a sovereign nation, the right way,” Duterte said in his statement. It was unclear whether he or Trump remarked that the widely criticized crackdown was being carried out properly.
More from CNN:
Washington has been critical of the Philippines handling of drug dealers, including extrajudical killings — government executions without the benefit of judicial proceedings. That has sparked Duterte’s resentment. Duterte’s verbal tirades and tilt away from Washington have raised many eyebrows since he took office in May.
While on a trip to China in October, Duterte said that “America has lost,” and that he has realigned himself with China’s “ideological flow.” He later clarified his comments about relations with the United States saying he was rather pursuing a “separation of foreign policy” from the US.
From a TIME Magazine report in August:
The director general of the Philippine National Police (PNP), Ronald dela Rosa, told a Senate hearing on Aug. 22 that 712 people had been killed in police operations in the seven weeks since the crackdown began, and that another 1,067 had died at the hands of vigilantes. By one account, there is official pride in the death toll.
Nobody can claim to be surprised. The carnage is exactly what Duterte promised. “All of you who are into drugs, you sons of bitches, I will really kill you,” he said before his election, in April. A month later, when he was President-elect, Duterte offered medals and cash rewards for citizens that shot dealers dead.
“Do your duty, and if in the process you kill 1,000 persons because you were doing your duty, I will protect you,” he told police officers on July 1, the day after his inauguration. He was speaking at a ceremony installing dela Rosa, his loyal henchman, as the nation’s top cop. “If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful,” he was quoted as saying to another crowd that day. And so the killing time began.
Duterte has proudly compared himself to Adolf Hitler.