As the Trump administration scrambles to tamp down reports (via the New York Times) that the National Security Council and the State Department were caught flat-footed by President Trump inviting Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte to the White House, details included in the State Department’s annual human rights report on Philippines released in March raise serious questions about the propriety of such an invite.
The report mentions the hard-nosed Duterte 18 times by name, most often in a negative light. It cites widely reported and credible allegations of misconduct, up to and including murder. Nevertheless, the NSC and Secretary Rex Tillerson’s State Department are falling in line with President Trump’s pragmatic approach regarding Duterte.
In addition to noting “President Duterte’s claims that he had personally killed several suspects during his earlier tenure as mayor of Davao,” the March human rights report says that as a candidate in early 2016, Duterte “told the media that journalists should enjoy no special protections and could be ‘assassinated’ if they were ‘corrupt’ and took money from politicians.” Not surprisingly then, civil society groups have reported that President Duterte’s public attacks on individuals and international bodies who have criticized his policies had a chilling effect on free speech and expression.”
Duterte’s disturbing behavior related by the State Department report is not limited to his time as a candidate:
Asked about concerns that the White House might have about Duterte’s visit and recommendations the NSC might make based on Duterte’s checkered history, an NSC official gave scant attention to the substance of the human rights report (euphemistically referring to “our concerns with aspects of the drug war”) and pinned hopes of effective engagement on “building a constructive relationship with the president and government of the Philippines, a close U.S. ally for nearly 70 years.”
When THE WEEKLY STANDARD inquired about Secretary of State Tillerson’s take on the same report, the State Department was more forthcoming than the NSC official. A State Department official explicitly linked the friendly overtures to Duterte with concerns about North Korea’s nuclear program. The official cited the Philippines’s position as 2016 chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and host of a “series of high-level regional engagements” as an opportunity to gain cooperation in “rolling back the DPRK’s nuclear program.” The official also denied that the president went rogue on the invitation to Duterte, saying that “White House and the NSC conferred with the interagency, including the State Department, in preparation for the call” and the invitation.
The same official also echoed the NSC’s “concerns with the drug war,” saying that the State Department has discussed the subject “on multiple occasions with the Philippine government,” including the importance of the rule of law even in the war on drugs.
Although the Obama administration and President Obama himself were subjected to severe and even profane verbals tirades by Duterte, Obama’s press secretary Josh Earnest as recently as December 2016 downplayed the impact of Duterte’s invective, saying:
Earnest went on to reference “our shared interests” and “the economic and cultural ties between the United States and the Philippines that extends back for multiple generations.” These words are similar to those of Trump’s state department official who told TWS Monday that the “United States and the Philippines are longstanding friends, partners, and allies … for nearly 70 years” with “a range of shared interests.”
Although the war of words between Duterte and the United States may be over now that Obama is out of office, the long standing, underlying relationship between the two countries seems unlikely to change dramatically under Trump. It remains to be seen if the status quo will prevail, or if Trump’s attempts strengthen personal ties with the (sometimes literally) gunslinging Duterte bear fruit in U.S. efforts to rein in the even more concerning and heavily armed Kim Jong-un of North Korea.
