Duterte says if Trump will raise human rights issue in their meeting, he’ll tell him to lay off

November 8, 2017

President Rodrigo Duterte said on Wednesday he would tell United States Donald Trump to "lay off" if he would raise human rights issues during their meeting.

Duterte and Trump would meet for the first time in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders' Meeting in Vietnam. But their bilateral meeting might take place in Manila when Trump attends the 31st Southeast Asian Nations Summit and Related Summits next week in Manila.

While no one asked him in the press conference before his departure for Vietnam regarding the possibility of Trump bringing up the human rights issue against the Duterte administration, Duterte said, "The Philippines is not beholden to anyone. The Philippines is a sovereign state. I will not allow anybody to impose anything on my country."

"That's why we're meeting there, we meet as sovereigns. I will not go there as a subservient lackey of anyone including what you would like to hear from me but which you cannot ask maybe or later on about human rights," he added.

"You want to ask a question? I'll give you an answer. Lay off. That's not your business. That is my business. I take care of my country and I will nurture my country," Duterte stressed.

He said he will also discuss with Trump extremism and terrorism.

"And third, maybe sa bilateral, they might want to ask a very definitive position of the Philippines vis-à-vis with China," he said.

Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, earned Duterte's ire when he criticized the alleged extrajudicial killings of drug suspects in the Philippines. Celerina Monte/DMS