Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte refuses to apologise for gay slur against US ambassador
The US embassy on Friday reiterated that Duterte’s remarks were “inappropriate and unacceptable”
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday refused to apologise for calling the US ambassador “gay” and “the son of a whore” in remarks that sparked a diplomatic row.
The State Department had summoned the Philippine charge d’affaires on Monday to explain why Duterte last week ridiculed ambassador Philip Goldberg in a speech before soldiers. The US embassy on Friday reiterated that Duterte’s remarks were “inappropriate and unacceptable”.
But the president was defiant, insisting: “I will not apologise for anything. He did not apologise to me when we saw each other. Why should I apologise to him?”
Duterte told reporters that Goldberg started the dispute, recalling that during the campaign for May elections, the ambassador criticised him for joking about raping an Australian missionary who was sexually assaulted and murdered in a 1989 prison riot in Davao, the city he ran for two decades.
“Who would not get angry at him? It was election time and he said something like that?” Duterte said Friday during a sortie to a military camp on the strife-torn southern island of Jolo.
I will not apologise for anything. He did not apologise to me when we saw each other. Why should I apologise to him?
The US embassy warned that aid to the Philippines was tied to respect for human rights as Duterte waged a bloody war on crime that has prompted human rights groups to accuse him of tolerating extrajudicial killings.