Friday, November 07, 2008 Duterte could care less about US elections By Grace L. Plata
WHILE many Dabawenyos showed interest in the recently concluded US elections where Senator Barack Obama emerged as the 44th US president, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said he could care less.
Laced with invectives, the mayor said Tuesday he is not interested in the activities of the United States "as long as they respect our nation's sovereignty".
Duterte's anti-US government sentiments have long been known especially with the joint military exercises or Balikatan activities.
The mayor also readily supported moves to scrap the Visiting Forces Agreement between the Philippines and United States after six US servicemen were accused of raping a Filipina in Subic in 2005.
For years, he has not explained why he does not want the Balikatan exercises to be held in Davao City and has apparently no intention of letting it happen.
"Basta ayaw ko! (I don't like it and that's it)," he said in 2007 after an alleged intercession by a Cabinet member to allow the Balikatan exercises to be held in Davao.
Under no circumstance during his term would he allow the VFA to take place in the city, he said, whether or not the insurgency movement in the Davao Region continues to fester as it has done for four decades.
The mayor said that the problem of armed struggle by communist rebels would be resolved by the Filipino soldiers and not by foreigners.
While the mayor has not been so chummy with the US since he became mayor, the relationship has since turned to disdain since the bomb blast inside Evergreen Hotel on May 16, 2002 in the room of an American citizen, Michael Terrence Meiring. The bomb was believed to have been set up by Meiring himself.
But instead of allowing the interrogation of Meiring for possible terrorist activities and the issuance of a warrant of arrest for him by the court, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) whisked him out of the country while he was confined in a hospital for his injuries, without the consent of the city, the local police, and the court.
Duterte said the incident was a form of sheer disrespect for the sovereignty of the Filipino people and the laws that abound its territory. And that is something the city mayor will never forget.
Since the explosion and Meiring's flight, US officials who were asked about the bomb suspect have vowed to pursue the case, but nothing ever came out of it. (GLP with SSD file)
