By: Genalyn D. Kabiling
DA NANG, Vietnam – After developing “warm rapport” with each other, President Duterte is expected to hold a “candid and productive” meeting with United States President Donald Trump today.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr. made the statement after two US lawmakers demanded Trump to raise the drug-related killings in his meeting with Duterte.
The world’s two popular outspoken leaders are expected to meet for the first time on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Cooperation Summit in Vietnam. A formal bilateral meeting between the two leaders has also been scheduled during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Manila next week.
“The Palace will not comment on an internal US government matter,” Roque said about the US congressmen’s pronouncement.
“President Duterte and President Trump have warm rapport and can have candid and productive discussions on matters of shared interest,” he added.
US Reps. Randy Hultgren and James McGovern recently wrote a letter to Trump asking to “impress upon President Duterte the United States’ profound concern” over the alleged extrajudicial killings related to his drug war.
Hultgren, a Republican lawmaker from Illinois, and McGovern, a Democrat representative from Massachusetts, are co-chairmen of a US congressional panel on human rights.
In the letter, they recognized that the US must keep its strong partnership with the Philippines, amid the tensions in the Korean peninsula and the South China Sea, but it must remain “a champion of human rights, due process, and the rule of law.”
Duterte’s spokesman assured that the government continues to adhere to the rule of law and respects human rights.
“We reiterate that our adherence to the rule of law remains as firm as ever, as is our commitment to the protection of human rights,” Roque said.
