{"id":252682,"date":"2020-04-20T05:57:42","date_gmt":"2020-04-20T09:57:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=252682"},"modified":"2020-04-20T06:01:19","modified_gmt":"2020-04-20T10:01:19","slug":"duterte-trump-discuss-bilateral-cooperation-vs-coronavirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/04\/20\/duterte-trump-discuss-bilateral-cooperation-vs-coronavirus\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte, Trump discuss bilateral cooperation vs. coronavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and US President Donald Trump share a light moment prior to the bilateral meeting at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City on November 13, 2017. ROBINSON NI\u00d1AL JR.\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday night received a phone call from US President Donald Trump as the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic continues to affect almost every country and territory across the world.<\/p>\n

In a virtual presser on Monday, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque confirmed that the two leaders discussed bilateral cooperation against Covid-19 but he did not go into details.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe call came in at 10:10 in the evening. It was initiated by the US government. It lasted for about 18 minutes. It was cordial and it was about bilateral collaboration on Covid-19 but beyond that I have no authority to divulge any further details,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roque appealed for understanding from the public for not giving a full account of the conversation, stressing that diplomatic communications are an exception under the Executive Order No. 2 on the Freedom of Information program which mandates public disclosure of all government records involving public interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have notes and transcripts but even\u00a0that po hindi pupuwedeng inanunsyo sa publiko. Humihingi po ako ng inyong pag-iintindi<\/em>\u00a0(cannot be announced to the public. I am asking for your understanding),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roque said he had no knowledge about whether Duterte and Trump discussed the former\u2019s sentiment about the US\u2019 aggressive recruitment of Filipino nurses.<\/p>\n

On April 13, Duterte criticized the US for causing problems by luring Filipino nurses to their country instead of relying on their own human resources.<\/p>\n

He said that because the US also made it easier for Filipino nurses to apply for a working visa, he was concerned that the Philippines would run out of medical professionals to treat Covid-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cDapat kayo umasa sana sa sariling mga tao ninyo. Eh ngayon kinukuha, kinakaltasan mo ang Pilipinas pagdating ng panahon magkulang,<\/em>\u00a0sorry\u00a0na lang tayo<\/em>\u00a0(You should rely on your own people. Now you\u2019re getting them away from the Philippines. If there will be a shortage, we\u2019ll be sorry),\u201d Duterte said in a televised public address.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, Trump said China should face unspecified consequences if it was \u201cknowingly responsible\u201d for the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Asked to react on the US leader\u2019s pronouncement, Roque said all countries that have violated international obligations under the 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR), a treaty established under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO), may be held liable.<\/p>\n

However, Roque said Trump has to prove first that China \u201cknowingly\u201d suppressed crucial information about Covid-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng<\/em>\u00a0issue\u00a0nga lang po ay pati si Presidente<\/em>\u00a0Trump,\u00a0hindi sigurado kung merong ginawa ang<\/em>\u00a0China\u00a0na magiging isang paglabag sa kaniyang obligasyon sa larangan ng<\/em>\u00a0international law. He himself is unsure\u00a0pero siyempre po kung aakusahan niya ang Tsina na merong paglabag ay kinakailangang siya po magbigay ng pruweba<\/em>\u00a0(The issue is even President Trump is unsure if China violated its obligation under international law. He himself is unsure but if he wants to take action against China, he needs to give proof),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The total number of Covid-19 cases in the US is currently at 755,533, according to data from Johns Hopkins University (JHU).<\/p>\n

To date, the JHU said the disease has killed more than 40,000 people in the US, nearly a quarter of all deaths from Covid-19 across the globe.<\/p>\n

In the Philippines, there are a total of 6,250 confirmed Covid-19 cases in the country and 409 deaths as of April 19.<\/p>\n

Globally, there are more than 2.3 million cases while fatalities reached 164,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday night received a phone call from US President Donald Trump as the coronavirus disease …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":131292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-252682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252682","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=252682"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":252683,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252682\/revisions\/252683"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}