MANILA: The United Nations has said Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has a “striking lack of understanding” of its human rights institutions in a rebuke over his crime war that has killed more than 3,000 people. 'I do not want a rift with America — but they have to go,' the Filipino president added. Carter insisted that the U.S. did not intend to be provocative and was “trying to tamp down tensions here.” But Gazmin said he expected that U.S. forces, “with their presence here, will deter uncalled-for actions by the Chinese.”

On Monday, Duterte said he wanted U.S. military forces out of the southern Philippines and blamed America for inflaming local Muslim insurgencies, in his first public statement opposing the presence of American troops in a part of the country.
In last week's meeting between Indonesian president Joko Widodo and Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, Widodo today says that Duterte allegedly said that he '(would) not interfere' in the execution of accused drug smuggler and Philippine national Mary Jane Veloso. However, today a Manila Bulletin article says that Manny Piñol, the Philippines Agriculture Secretary, states that Duterte actually asked for clemency for Veloso.