By Ellen T. Tordesillas
THERE’S an expression in English,”Cutting off the nose to spite the face” which refers to a person’s self-destructive action as he hits back at someone he thinks had done him wrong but his needless action actually hurts him more than the object of his anger.
That appears to be what President Duterte is doing against U.S. President Obama after his disastrous performance at the 2016 Asean summit in Vientiane Laos last week.
That sad thing about it is that, it is not himself that he is hurting but the country. And it was he who unnecessarily caused this series of snubs with his tirade against Obama in answer to a hypothetical question in a pre-departure for Asean summit press conference.
Duterte’s rancor over Obama’s snub – the White House cancellation of his meeting with Obama on the first day of the Asean 2016 summit and Obama’s failure to shake hands with him at the end of the East Asia Summit –is eating him up.
Even their brief meeting before the Wednesday Asean 2016 gala dinner which Malacañang drumbeaters made a big deal of, sounded like a put-down, as related by Duterte.
Duterte, in his speech before the Filipino community in Indonesia, said in the holding room he approached Obama and introduced himself:“President Obama, I’m President Duterte. I never made that statement; you can check it out. Check it out.”
Duterte said Obama tersely replied: “My men will talk to you.”
There was nothing from Obama that assured Duterte he believed him or understood him.
Obama’s version of the brief meeting as he told media was that of a chief executive on top of the situation:”I did shake hands with President Duterte last night. It was not a long interaction, and what I indicated to him is that my team should be meeting with his and determine how we can move forward on a whole range of issues.”
A week after the Asean summit, Duterte is still at it, revealing more behind the scenes happenings that he probably thought would show him he was able to score against Obama but only revealed his immaturity.
The other day, Duterte said it’s not true that he skipped the Asean-US and Asean-India meetings because “he was not feeling well” as announced by the Philippine delegation.
He revealed, “I purposely did not attend the bilateral talks between Asean countries and the president of the United States. Talagang ini-skip ko ‘yun…The reason is not I am anti-West. The reason is that I do not like the Americans. It’s simply a matter of principle for me.”
If it’s not true that he was not feeling well, what’s the reason he also skipped “Asean-India?”
Before Obama left Laos, he commented on Duterte’s style of carrying out his anti-drug campaign that has killed more than 2,000 people in less than three months of his presidency. ”We do want to make sure that the partnership we have is consistent with international norms and rule of law. So we’re not going to back off our position that if we’re working with a country, whether it’s on anti-terrorism, whether it’s on going after drug traffickers, as despicable as these networks may be, as much as damage as they do, it is important from our perspective to make sure that we do it the right way…’Because the consequences when you do it the wrong way, innocent people get hurt. And you have a whole bunch of unintended consequences that don’t solve the problem,” Obama said.
That did not sit well with Duterte who thinks it’s foreign intervention. Waving the Constitutional provision of “an independent foreign policy,” he discarded his prepared speech at the East Asia summit and presented photos of atrocities committed by American soldiers against Filipinos During the Philippine-American was more than a century ago to underscore his retort that Americans are in no position to lecture him on human rights.
That was the last event in the 2016 Asean and EAS summit. That was also Obama’s last Asean and AES meeting. He personally bid farewell to each and every leader- 16 in all – except Duterte.
Duterte’s tantrums are making a fool of his officials.
At Karen Davila’s morning show in ANC, Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay, Jr. stood pat with the official reason DFA released about the absence of Duterte in the Asean-US meeting that it was due to the Philippine President’s migraine.
Then ANC showed the video clip of Duterte’s revelation made the night before, that he did not attend the Asean-US meeting because “ I do not like the Americans. It’s simply a matter of principle for me.”
Yasay fumbled all over: “Maybe after I hear it, and if in fact he said it, I will talk to him and I will ask him what he meant and maybe at that time I could explain, but as of now, I would not even say that he said it because I did not hear what he allegedly said.”
Continuing his tirades against the Americans, Duterte said Monday he wants the U.S. Special Forces out of Mindanao as they are in danger of being kidnapped and killed by the bandit group Abu Sayyaf.
Special Forces in Mindanao was allowed starting with the administration of Gloria Arroyo supposedly to help combat terrorism. Their role has now evolved into monitoring China’s activities in the South China Sea.
The U.S. State Department said they have not received any formal notice from the Philippine government on the pull-out of U.S. Special Forces from Mindanao.
Yasay is leaving for Washington D.C. for a meeting with U.S. State Department Secretary John Kerry and Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana is off to a meeting with US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and his counterparts in the ASEAN in Honolulu to discuss security issues in the region.
How are they going to explain the President’s latest announcement? That it’s a joke just like his announcement that the Philippines will leave the United Nations and form another group with China and some African countries?
