Why did the Philippine president call Obama a “son of a whore”? It has to do with the politics of terror and violence he is pursuing in the country against drug trafficking, which has caused nearly two thousand deaths.
He called United States president Barack Obama a "son of a whore" using an expression in the Tagalog language, then added "I will insult you". The American delegation consequently decided to cancel the bilateral meeting with Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte that had been scheduled for 6 September in Laos during the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
Duterte uttered those words in response to a question from several journalists who asked what he would say to Obama should the latter raise the issue of executions and extrajudicial killings linked to drug dealing and drug use. "I am the president of a sovereign state and we have ceased to be a colony for quite some time," Duterte declared on Monday, before departing for Laos. "I have no masters except the Filipino people, none whatsoever," before going on to apologise that his words had become "a personal attack on the American president".
Rodrigo Duterte, 71, elected president of the Philippines on 10 May and officially sworn in on 30 June, is no stranger to this kind of language and these sorts of attacks. He directed the same insult, laced with homophobia, at US ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg, who had been guilty of criticising the then presidential hopeful during the election campaign over his remarks concerning the rape and murder of an Australian nun during a prison riot. Duterte had expressed regret at not having been the first to have committed the abuse, as the city's mayor.
Duterte served for many years as mayor of one of the country's largest cities, Davao. During his administration he became known in the Philippines and abroad for his no-holds-barred policy against criminals, drug users and drug traffickers. He has never denied his ties to the vigilante group known as the Davao death squads, which is said to have killed over a thousand people since the 1990s on suspicion of having links to drug trafficking. For this he was nicknamed "Duterte Harry", a play on the name of the violent Inspector Harry Callahan ("Dirty Harry") portrayed by American actor Clint Eastwood in his films. He promised the same methods before the presidential election and put them into practice as soon as he came to power. On 22 August, Ronald dela Rosa, one of the most senior officers in the Philippine police, stated during a Senate hearing that killings by police officers and vigilantes in anti-drug operations had reached nearly 1,800 in the seven weeks of the presidency. Though many outlets, such as the Wall Street Journal, report that the death toll has already exceeded two thousand. In the Philippines, the presidential term is a single, six-year mandate.
The United Nations also condemned the Manila government's policy of support for extrajudicial killings, through the words of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (Unodc). The UN considers such actions "illegal and a violation of fundamental rights and freedoms". In response, the Philippine president declared a "state of lawlessness" following the attack that took place on 2 September in Davao itself, which claimed 14 lives. Attributed by the Defence Ministry to the Islamist separatist group Abu Sayyaf, the episode provided an opportunity to expand the powers of the military, which will now be able to carry out checks in cities, conduct searches, impose curfews and increase checkpoints. In practice, according to experts, it will now be even easier for Duterte to continue and extend his violent anti-drug policy.