US, Philippines and the Drug War: A Meddlesome Affair?

THE STEADFAST war on drugs of the Duterte administration provoked world leaders and global humanitarian groups to express deep concern over the high casualty count. Among the many critics, the United States received the most intense expression of President Rodrigo Duterte’s ire as he accused the US president and other officials of meddling in Philippine internal affairs.

Duterte has not ceased his tirade and use of expletives when speaking about the US.  In his Nov. 4 speech during an Integrated Bar of the Philippines regional convention, he said that he “really loses his civility” when he is threatened and mistreated (“inaapi-api mo ako”), referring again to the US. Duterte has said more than once that he is breaking ties with the US militarily and economically in order to pursue an “independent foreign policy.”

Duterte did not campaign on an anti-US platform. He never indicated that he would undertake a pivot to China so sharp that it would involve a cancellation of any previous agreement with the US. What has caused this ceaseless expression of anger? Is the president’s rhetoric, the chain of abusive language, justified?

In April this year, Duterte made a remark during a campaign speech about the rape of an Australian missionary by inmates inside a Davao prison in 1989. “She was very beautiful, the mayor should have been the first in line,” Duterte said. The quip elicited a backlash from, among others, the Ambassadors of Australia and the US. Australia Ambassador Amanda Gorely had earlier tweeted that “rape and murder should never be joked about or trivialized.” Duterte was forced to apologize but not before telling Gorely to shut up.

US ambassador Philip Goldberg, when asked by a reporter about Duterte’s “rape joke,” said “statements by anyone, anywhere that either degrade women or trivialize issues so serious as rape or murder are not ones that we condone.” Both Gorely and Goldberg did not name Duterte in their comments.

Below is an extended timeline of the statements given by Duterte and US officials from July to October.

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