{"id":129323,"date":"2017-11-07T22:42:31","date_gmt":"2017-11-08T03:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=129323"},"modified":"2017-11-07T22:42:31","modified_gmt":"2017-11-08T03:42:31","slug":"prrd-ph-and-us-are-still-best-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/11\/07\/prrd-ph-and-us-are-still-best-friends\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD: PH and US are still best friends"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"President<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Duterte (ROBINSON NI\u00d1AL JR.\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After back-and-forth criticisms between President Rodrigo Duterte and the United States of America (USA), the President assured on Tuesday that the two countries are still \u2018best friends.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWe remain to be the best of friends with America,\u201d the Chief Executive said in his speech during the 67th<\/sup> anniversary of the Philippine Marine Corps.<\/p>\n

Duterte was discussing that the Philippines should be ready for terrorism, and that part of this preparation is to purchase firearms. He had an order in the U.S, which was blocked by its Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me state it publicly here and now, wala akong problema sa<\/em> (I have no problems with) America. But you know in America, it is no \u2013 it cannot be trusted with this kind of things,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMagbili sana tayo ng<\/em> 23 000 M4s. Totoo \u2018yung<\/em> 5.56 but nabara sa<\/em> US Congress (We were supposed to buy 23 000 M4s. 5.56 is real but it was blocked by the US Congress),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Apparently, Duterte was saying that though US President Donald Trump has enormous powers, the US \u2018Congress almost seems to have parity in the powers.\u2019 The firearms order was stalled because of the US Congress\u2019 view of the Philippines\u2019 human rights conditions.<\/p>\n

He was, however, thankful that other countries came to aid like China, Russia, and Israel.<\/p>\n

According to Duterte, \u201cMost of you, pagkatapos niyan<\/em> or some of you went to schooling in America, and I do not blame you if your sentiments are really remain with the power who helped us for the longest time.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the President said that there are changes in the geopolitics situations that the country must adapt to. He specifically mentioned the North Korea tension.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just hope that Korea would have the \u2013 the sense \u2013 and to avoid it. Because you know, whether we like it or not, we remain to be friends, courteous,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It can be recalled that during Duterte\u2019s visit to Beijing in 2016, he \u2018broke\u2019 ties with the US economically and militarily. He was also angered when the Obama administration condemned the killings of his drug war.<\/p>\n

Trump has not openly criticized the Philippine President though \u2013 he even praised the drug war and said that \u2018the previous administration\u2019 did not understand its significance.<\/p>\n

A White House official also confirmed that Trump was \u2018very much looking forward\u2019 to his first meeting with Duterte. The two presidents have exchanged phone calls and letters which the White House official described as a \u2018warm rapport\u2019 between the two.<\/p>\n

(Read: White House: Duterte, Trump have \u2018warm rapport\u2019<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Both presidents are set to meet for the first time on Wednesday in a welcome dinner at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Vietnam.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After back-and-forth criticisms between President Rodrigo Duterte and the United States of America (USA), the President assured on Tuesday that …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":128685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24157,1145,16,95],"tags":[13506,22632,3596,420,9869,841,343,2444,512,287,22942,2866,9746],"class_list":["post-129323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-american-news","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-asia-pacific-economic-cooperation","tag-barrack-obama","tag-beijing","tag-china","tag-donald-trump","tag-israel","tag-philippines","tag-rodrigo-duterte","tag-russia","tag-terrorism","tag-us-congress","tag-usa","tag-white-house","mauthors-bea-kirstein-t-manalaysay","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}