page_title: Rodrigo Duterte
section_title: International stage
hierarchical_section_title: Rodrigo Duterte / Controversy and criticism / International stage
caption_attribution_description: English: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte converses with King Salman of Saudi Arabia in Riyadh during the former's state visit to the country on April 11, 2017.
context_page_description: Rodrigo Roa Duterte, also known as Digong and Rody, is a Filipino politician who is the 16th and incumbent President of the Philippines and the first from Mindanao to hold the office.
  He is the chairperson of PDP–Laban, the ruling political party in the Philippines. Duterte took office at age 71 on June 30, 2016, making him the oldest person to assume the Philippine presidency; the record was previously held by Sergio Osmeña at the age of 65.
  Born in Maasin, Southern Leyte, Duterte studied political science at the Lyceum of the Philippines University, graduating in 1968, before obtaining a law degree from San Beda College of Law in 1972. He then worked as a lawyer and was a prosecutor for Davao City, before becoming vice mayor and, subsequently, mayor of the city in the wake of the Philippine Revolution of 1986. Duterte won seven terms and served as mayor of Davao for over 22 years.
  Frequently described as a populist and a nationalist, Duterte's political success has been aided by his vocal support for the extrajudicial killing of drug users and other criminals.
context_section_description: Duterte's records on human rights and his long history of comments considered to be offensive, provocative, threatening, etc. have received sharp international criticism. He has been accused by his critics in the media of having a "dirty mouth". He had, however, promised to behave in a "prim and proper" manner on the national and international stage once he was to be inaugurated as President, to the point that, "almost, I would become holy."
  In July 2016, Duterte accused the United Kingdom and the United States of importing terrorism to the Middle East through its interventions, saying: "The U.S. destroyed the Middle East. ... Great Britain and the U.S. will not admit that they forced their way to Iraq and killed Saddam. Look at Iraq now. Look what happened to Libya. Look what happened to Syria."
  In August 2016, Duterte was criticized after he made a homophobic comment (using a Tagalog language slur) about the US Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg, stating "As you know, I'm fighting with (US Secretary of State John Kerry's) ambassador. His gay ambassador, the son of a whore. He pissed me off." Duterte added: "He [Goldberg] meddled during the elections, giving statements here and there. He was not supposed to do that." The U.S. State Department summoned the Filipino chargé d'affaires Patrick Chuasoto to discuss Duterte's comments. Duterte refused to apologize.
  In the same month, United Nations human rights experts called for an end to extrajudicial killings of suspected drug dealers, about 900 of whom had been executed since the May election, accusing Duterte of "incitement to violence and killing, a crime under international law". In response, Duterte threatened to leave the UN and form a separate organization with China and African nations. He announced in a news conference on August 19: "You now, United Nations, if you can say one bad thing about me, I can give you 10 [about you]. I tell you, you are an inutil ("useless" in Filipino street language, from the French inutile which means the same thing). Because if you are really true to your mandate, you could have stopped all these wars and killing [in Syria and Iraq]." Asked about possible repercussions, he stated: "What is ... repercussions? I don't give a shit to them." He said that the UN had acted against protocol: "You do not just go out and give a shitting statement against a country."
  At the 2016 ASEAN Summit, Duterte and U.S. President Barack Obama planned to meet with each other. The United States said that President Obama planned to discuss the 2,400 Filipinos who died during Duterte's war on drugs. Duterte criticized the planned topic of the meeting, saying, "I am no American puppet. I am the president of a sovereign country and I am not answerable to anyone except the Filipino people. You must be respectful. Do not just throw away questions and statements. Son of a whore, I will curse you in that forum." The vulgar insult prompted the White House to cancel the meeting instead. During a press conference at the 2016 G20 Hangzhou summit in China, President Obama discussed the cancellation of the meeting, saying: "I always want to make sure that if I'm having a meeting, that it's actually productive and we're getting something done." Obama and Duterte later met informally.
  On September 30, 2016, Duterte appeared to compare the killings of suspected drug addicts to the Holocaust saying: "Hitler massacred three million Jews. Now, there are 3 million drug addicts. ... I'd be happy to slaughter them." His remarks drew international outrage particularly from the Jewish Communities. World Jewish Congress president Ronald S. Lauder condemned the statement, as did the Anti-Defamation League. Israeli Foreign Ministry also condemned his remarks while the German government slammed Duterte's comments as unacceptable, and called in the Philippine ambassador to the Foreign Ministry over the matter. On October 2 he apologized to the Jewish community. When listening to the full conference, he was in fact referring to the accusation of genocide by lawyers of the Euro
caption: Duterte meets with King Salman of Saudi Arabia in April 2017
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