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Duterte fiasco overshadows meetings
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Stay firm -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte boards his limousine upon arrival in Vientiane, Laos to attend the 28th and 29th ASEAN Summits and other related summits Monday, Sept. 5, 2016 in Vientiane, Laos. Laos is this year's host of the annual regional meeting and its dialogue partners that includes the United States, Canada, Russia, Japan, China, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India. (AP/Bullit Marquez)
T
hree days of back-to-back meetings as part of the 28th and 29th ASEAN summits in Vientiane have come to a close, with much of the spotlight directed at Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who will lead his country to become the next ASEAN chair in 2017.
Aside from comments made about his fashion sense, the firebrand Philippine leader seemed to make good on his pre-summit comments aimed at US President Barack Obama.
During the East Asia Summit (EAS) that capped off a series of ASEAN meetings, Duterte reportedly used his time to make off-the-cuff remarks about his war on drugs and allegations of human rights abuses, deviating from a speech prepared by his foreign ministry.
Sources privy to the closed-door conversations have said that Duterte launched into a tirade over human rights issues when he could have
used the opportunity to address the South China Sea (SCS) dispute and mention a long-awaited arbitration ruling instead.
Philippine Foreign Minister Perfecto Yasay Jr. did not deny that the incident had occurred, but said he was unable to disclose what Duterte had said.
“The president made his intervention statement, what he did was an impromptu speech that was part of his prepared speech and this is now all part of the records of the ASEAN Summit,” Yasay told reporters after the summit.
Earlier, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said in a briefing that the Philippines had only raised the issue of “human rights” and did not respond to a question of whether Duterte had touched on the SCS dispute.
The brazen Duterte previously vowed not to be lectured to by the US leader over alleged extrajudicial killings in the Philippines in a statement made before his departure for Laos.
“I will curse you in that forum,” he said of Obama on Monday in Davao, as quoted by AFP.
According to a copy of Duterte’s speech obtained by The Jakarta Post, the Philippine president was expected to make a statement on his “relentless” campaign to address the drug menace in the region.
The EAS intervention statement, as Yasay calls it, also refers to the recent arbitration ruling as “a part of international jurisprudence relative to the maritime domain”.
The Philippines, traditionally a US ally, recently agreed to start bilateral negotiations with China on the resolution of competing claims in the SCS. Manila initiated the arbitration process in 2013, the results of which Beijing does not recognize.
The significant buzz surrounding the Philippine president has perhaps overshadowed the more constructive aspects and results of the summits themselves, including the EAS.
Retno said the EAS managed to produce three outcome documents: the Vientiane Declaration on Promoting Infrastructure Development in East Asia; the EAS Non-Proliferation Statement; and the EAS Declaration on Strengthening Responses to Migrants in Crisis and Trafficking in Persons.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo viewed the EAS as an important and strategic forum, but warned against the looming distrust among states participating in the EAS, Retno said during the briefing.
“The President urges [all participating countries] to strengthen the partnership so that the EAS will be able to contribute to efforts reinforcing the regional security architecture,” the minister said.
Jokowi also mentioned the importance of maritime cooperation in the EAS context, she added.
Meanwhile, Retno revealed that the ASEAN-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) had experienced another setback and was now postponed until 2017.
