{"id":291259,"date":"2016-09-12T09:16:11","date_gmt":"2016-09-12T13:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/?p=291259"},"modified":"2021-01-09T09:20:33","modified_gmt":"2021-01-09T14:20:33","slug":"well-never-have-peace-philippines-leader-duterte-wants-to-boot-us-troops-out-of-countrys-south","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/sk\/well-never-have-peace-philippines-leader-duterte-wants-to-boot-us-troops-out-of-countrys-south\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWe\u2019ll never have peace\u201d: Philippines leader Duterte wants to boot US troops out of country\u2019s south"},"content":{"rendered":"
RAEL\u2019S COMMENT:<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n
Yes! Yankees go home! And from everywhere around the world!<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Philippines president says US troops \u201chave to go\u201d from the south of his country. He blames American soldiers for inflaming tensions with the local Muslim population, saying they would \u201cnever have peace\u201d with a US military presence.<\/p>\n

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte says he is opposed to US soldiers being stationed in the southern Mindanao region, recalling how American troops took part in a pacification plan against Muslim Filipinos going back over a century. He said that this has caused a long period of resentment from the minority Muslim population against a majority of Catholics in the south.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor as long as we stay with America, we will never have peace in that land,\u201d Duterte said on Monday, as cited by the AP.<\/p>\n

He displayed some black and white photographs dating from the early 1900s that showed women and children that had been killed by US forces.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe special forces, they have to go. They have to go in Mindanao, there are many whites there, they have to go,\u201d he said, adding that he was reorienting the country\u2019s foreign policy. \u201cI do not want a rift with America, but they have to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also warned that US troops would face difficulties if they decided not to heed his advice and leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they see Americans, they\u2019ll really kill them. They\u2019ll get ransom and then kill you, even if you are a black or a white American as long as you\u2019re an American,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Despite the bold declaration of his intention to kick the US military out of the south of the Philippines, Duterte did not say how this would be achieved or give a timeframe within which this might happen.<\/p>\n

Washington did not receive an official demand from the Philippine government with regards to the matter, US State Department spokesman John Kirby told a news conference when asked about the statement made by Duterte, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n

He stressed that the US remains committed to its alliance with Manila but is\u00a0\u201cnot aware of any official communication by the Philippine government … to seek that result.”<\/p>\n

Joseph Cheng, a political analyst from Hong Kong City University, told RT that he believes President Duterte is playing to segments of Philippine society that want US troops to leave the country for good.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems he is trying to gain popularity and gain support through a popular nationalist stand, on the other hand it appears that he does not want to depend too much on the United States for the country\u2019s security in contrast to his predecessor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Cheng added that provoking a series of disputes with the United States could be a calculated move on Duterte\u2019s part to bring about a warming in relations with neighboring China.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe probably wants to initiate negotiations with Beijing on the territorial dispute, with the intention of improving economic ties between the two countries, as well as perhaps seeking economic aid from Beijing,\u201d he told RT.<\/p>\n

US soldiers were stationed in Mindanao in 2002 to train and advise local government forces that were fighting Abu Sayyaf militants with links to Al-Qaeda. While the majority of the US military presence withdrew in 2015, US officials said that some troops have remained in an advisory role.<\/p>\n

Since being elected to office in June, Duterte has had an uneasy relationship with Washington. The Philippine president has been particularly annoyed at what he perceives as lecturing from the US about human rights abuses, which have followed his brutal crackdown on drugs and traffickers in the country.<\/p>\n

The Philippine National Police (PNP) says that it has killed 1,466 suspected drug offenders so far, while another 1,490 have been killed by suspected vigilante groups, which the PNP classifies as \u201cdeaths under investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe number of (police) operations conducted since the launching of Oplan Double Barrel has already reached 17,389, resulting in the deaths of 1,466 drug personalities and the arrest of 16,025 drug suspects,\u201d PNP spokesman Senior Superintendent Dionardo Carlos said on Sunday, according to the Philippine Star publication.<\/p>\n

President Barack Obama snubbed a possible meeting with Duterte at the recent G20 Summit in China after the Philippine leader called him a\u00a0\u201cSon of a b****.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Duterte later backtracked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was ready [for Obama]. I was waiting for Obama to respond. Lawyer to lawyer, we are both lawyers anyway… I said I never made the statement. Check it out,\u201d he said, adding that \u201c…I said that, but not in relation to Obama\u2026 I\u2019m not fighting with America.\u201d<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/359104-philippines-usa-soldiers-leave\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RAEL\u2019S COMMENT: Yes! Yankees go home! And from everywhere around the world!  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":291260,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-291259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/sk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}