US won’t shut up on Philippine rights issue

WASHINGTON – The United States will continue to express its concerns about reports of human rights violations in the Philippine government’s fight against drug trafficking despite President Duterte’s strong disagreement.

“That’s part of what we believe to be a healthy bilateral relationship, where we can express those kinds of concerns, as we do with countries around the world and governments where we believe there are credible reports of human rights abuses,” US State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said.

“President Duterte may disagree with us strongly on that, and that’s part of the conversation between allies and partners,” Toner said.

He said it was unfortunate President Barack Obama and Duterte were unable to have a productive and constructive conversation in Vientiane on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit.

Obama scrapped the meeting after Duterte insulted him when asked at a news conference what his reaction would be should the US leader lecture him over concerns about the brutal war on illegal drugs that has claimed more than 2,400 lives in the Philippines in less than 10 weeks.

Duterte later expressed regret that his tirade came across as a personal attack on Obama.

Asked if there would be any consequences on the US military aid to the Philippines or on the Phl-US alliance, Toner said, “I don’t have anything to announce in that regard.”

“We value our relations with the Philippines,” he stressed. “It’s one of our most important relationships in the Asia Pacific region.”

Toner said fighting the kind of drug war that the Duterte administration is fighting right now is difficult and a significant burden.

“But we’re going to continue to say that there must be due process, there must be ways to fight against drugs that are consistent with international standards and norms,” he said.

“And that’s going to consistently be our message going forward.  And of course, with any assistance and any cooperation that we have with the Philippines in that regard, we’re always going to keep an eye on assessing that, whether they’re living up to that obligation,” he explained.

Toner said some of the rhetoric coming out of the Philippine government has raised questions on whether Washington can have a productive conversation with Manila on such issues as the security sphere, counterterrorism and drug trafficking.

Words matter, and the US wants to see an atmosphere that’s cordial and open to strong cooperation.

”But what’s clear is that there has a been a pattern here or a couple of incidents that, again, speak to the tenor of the new administration that, frankly, raise concerns. But that doesn’t undermine the fact that we have had 70 years of strong bilateral relations with the Philippines and we want to see that continue,” he added. – With Pia Lee-Brago