Duterte says he wants U.S. special forces out of southern Philippines

"I do not want a rift with America. But they have to go."

|
AP Photo/Dita Alangkara
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte steps out of his limousine upon arrival at Merdeka Palace to meet Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday, Sept. 9, 2016. Duterte said Friday he told President Barack Obama during their encounter in Laos that he never cursed him.

President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday called for the withdrawal of U.S. special forces troops from a group of islands in the southern Philippines, saying their presence could complicate offensives against Islamist militants notorious for beheading Westerners.

Duterte, who was in the spotlight last week over a televised tirade against the United States and President Barack Obama, said the Americans still in Mindanao were high-value targets for the Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf militants as counter-insurgency operations intensify.

"They have to go," Duterte said in a speech during an oath-taking ceremony for new officials. "I do not want a rift with America. But they have to go."

He added: "Americans, they will really kill them, they will try to kidnap them to get ransom."

The comments by Duterte, a former southern mayor known for his terse words and volatile temperament, add to uncertainty about what impact his rise to the presidency this year will have on one of Washington's most important alliances in Asia.

A spokesman for the U.S. State Department, John Kirby, said it was not aware of any official communication by Manila calling for a withdrawal. He said Washington remained committed to the alliance.

Another U.S. official said there were only a "handful" of special forces in the Mindanao acting in limited liaison roles.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest emphasized shared concerns and interests with the Philippines, before taking a thinly veiled swipe at Duterte, appearing to compare him to Donald Trump, the outspoken Republican candidate in the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election.

"I think it's an indication of how important elections are," Earnest told a regular news briefing."Elections have consequences. Elections do say a lot about what kind of person is going to represent your country on the international stage.

"And it's why you are going to prize qualities like decorum and temperament and judgment in casting votes in elections, because you know that person is going to represent you on the international stage. That's certainly something that the Filipino people are well aware of."

Obama canceled a planned meeting with Duterte at last week's ASEAN summit after Duterte appeared to call him a "son of a bitch." The two did eventually meet briefly and on Friday Duterte said he told Obama the remark was not directed against him.

Washington deployed special forces soldiers to Mindanao in 2002 to train and advise Philippine units fighting Abu Sayyaf militants in a program that once involved 1,200 Americans.

It was discontinued in 2015 but a small presence has remained for logistics and technical support.

Washington has since shifted much of its security focus in the Philippines towards the South China Sea, where the two countries have shared concerns about China's territorial claims.

As a counter to China, shortly before Duterte came to office, Washington and Manila enacted the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement giving the United States rotational access to five bases in the Philippines.

Commander Gary Ross, a Pentagon spokesman, said on Monday that it would "consult closely with our Filipino partners to appropriately tailor our assistance to whatever approach the new administration adopts" on counter-terrorism measures. 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Duterte says he wants U.S. special forces out of southern Philippines
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2016/0913/Duterte-says-he-wants-U.S.-special-forces-out-of-southern-Philippines
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe