Trump Defends Invite to Philippines' Duterte Amid Drug War Toll

[demmiblue]

Source: Boomberg

U.S. President Donald Trump underscored his eagerness to meet with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte despite international condemnation of the Asian leader’s violent crackdown on drug addicts and dealers.

“The Philippines is very important to me strategically and militarily,” Trump said Monday in an Oval Office interview with Bloomberg News, two days after he invited the Philippines leader to Washington. “I look forward to meeting him. If he comes to the White House that’s fine.”

A White House statement after the April 29 call said the two leaders discussed “the fact that the Philippine government is fighting very hard to rid its country of drugs.” Trump also committed to taking part in a summit with leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations near Manila in November.

...

“You know he’s very popular in the Philippines,” Trump said. “He has a very high approval rating in the Philippines.”

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-05-01/trump-defends-invite-to-philippines-duterte-amid-drug-war-toll?utm_content=politics&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&cmpid%3D=socialflow-twitter-politics

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Approval ratings fetish and business deals.



Image via Raw Story: https://www.rawstory.com/2017/05/ivanka-trump-hawks-familys-new-development-in-philippines-as-dad-invites-strongman-to-white-house/

[LibTexan49]

1. It just gets worse and worse

While no fan of drug dealers, I condemn any one that admits to committing summary executions in the street. In fact the death penalty is barbaric and
inhumane in all instances!
Trump is a barbarian any way we look at it!
Has any other President invite a killer to the White House?

[frazzled]

3. Well, you remember his response to the question of how he could support Putin

who has a reputation for killiing journalists and political opponents: he said "You think our country's so innocent?"

Facepalm doesn't even come close to expressing the anxiety this man produces.

[demmiblue]

4. These aren't just dealers, the majority are drug users. n/t

[frazzled]

2. Chilling

"A White House statement after the April 29 call said the two leaders discussed “the fact that the Philippine government is fighting very hard to rid its country of drugs.”

They left out just how they are fighting to rid the country of drugs. Does Trump think he can do that here? Does he even know the facts? From Human Rights Watch:

On the afternoon of October 14, 2016, four masked gunmen stormed the Manila home of Paquito Mejos, a 53-year-old father of five who worked as an electrician on construction sites. An occasional user of shabu, a methamphetamine, Mejos had turned himself in to local authorities two days earlier after learning he was on a “watch list” of drug suspects. The gunmen asked for Mejos, who was napping upstairs. “When I saw them with their handguns going upstairs,” a relative said, “I told them, ‘But he has already surrendered to the authorities!’ They told me to shut up, or I would be next.”

Two gunshots rang out. Police investigators arrived moments later and were assisted by the gunmen. In their report, the police referred to Mejos as “a suspected drug pusher” who “pointed his gun [at the police] but the police officers were able to shoot him first hitting him on the body causing his instantaneous death.” They said a shabu packet was found along with a handgun. “But Paquito never had a gun,” said his relative. “And he did not have any shabu that day.”

Since the inauguration of President Rodrigo Duterte on June 30, 2016, and his call for a “war on drugs,” Philippine National Police officers and unidentified “vigilantes” have killed over 7,000 people. The anti-drug campaign dubbed “Operation Double Barrel” has targeted suspected drug dealers and users ostensibly for arrest but in practice has been a campaign of extrajudicial execution in impoverished areas of Manila and other urban areas. Duterte’s outspoken endorsement of the campaign implicates him and other senior officials in possible incitement to violence, instigation of murder, and in command responsibility for crimes against humanity.

https://www.hrw.org/report/2017/03/01/license-kill/philippine-police-killings-dutertes-war-drugs

[demmiblue]

5. Thanks for the link.

Trump knows very little. I think he just likes the authoritarian nature of Duterte (and covets his ratings).

Time did an excellent photo essay on Duterte's drug annihilation:

http://time.com/philippines-drug-war/



The coffins of Domingo Mañosca and son Francis, 5, on Dec. 14. Both were killed by shots fired through the plywood window of their tiny Manila home. Elisabeth Navarro, nine months pregnant, survived with Erika, 1, and a second girl

[Eugene]

6. Philippines says Trump recognized 'great job' Duterte is doing

Source: Reuters

WORLD NEWS | Tue May 2, 2017 | 8:58am EDT

Philippines says Trump recognized 'great job' Duterte is doing

U.S. President Donald Trump was aware of the criticism Philippine counterpart Rodrigo Duterte had received over his controversial war on drugs, but praised him for doing a "great job" when they spoke, Duterte's spokesman said on Tuesday.

Trump's invitation to the Philippine leader to visit him at the White House unleashed a storm of criticism in Washington due to the scale of the bloodshed of Duterte's anti-drugs campaign, which has killed thousands of people over the past 10 months.

The White House defended the invitation made during a phone call on Saturday, acknowledging that though human rights were an important issue, Washington needed allies in Asia to address the global threat of North Korea's development of nuclear weapons.

Duterte's spokesman, Ernesto Abella, said Trump was very much aware of the criticism of Duterte, but had praised him for "doing a great job considering the weight and the enormity of the conditions in the Philippines".

It was not clear if Abella was quoting Trump as praising the anti-drugs campaign specifically, or Duterte's performance as president in general.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-philippines-usa-idUSKBN17Y1B3