TRANSCRIPT of a phone talk between President Duterte and U.S. President Trump last April, as leaked to Washington Post and published in that paper May 24, reportedly reveals:
-- Trump lauded Duterte for his anti-illegal drugs campaign: “I just want to congratulate you because I am hearing that you are doing an unbelievable job on the drug problem.”
-- Trump told Duterte there were two U.S. submarines located near the Korean Peninsula.
-- Trump would visit the Philippines in November.
Plaudits for DU30
If the transcript is genuine, and that hasn’t been refuted yet, there was a lot of praise for Duterte from Potus. We had an inkling of it from Palace initial report of the conversation but the leak paper firms up the claim.
Listen to Trump tell Duterte:
-- “What a great job you are doing. I just wanted to call and tell you that.” “We had a president who just didn’t understand what you were doing.”
-- “You are a good man.”
-- “Take care of yourself, Rodrigo.”
DU30’s attack on Kim
Duterte also laid it thick on North Korean chief Kim Jong Un, not praise but the scalding opposite.
-- (Kim Jong Un) is not stable. He keeps on smiling when he explodes a bomb.”
-- “His mind is not working well.
He might go crazy any moment.”
-- “Every generation has a mad man -- in our generation is Kim Jung Un.”
In case of a shooting war, no surprise if Nokor’s Kim would order, God forbid, one missile directed at the Philippines.
Not first ML since ‘72
On Dec. 4, 2009, then president Gloria Arroyo declared martial in Maguindanao and suspended habeas corpus in the province except some parts in it. Proclamation #1959 was her response to the Nov. 23 Maguindanao massacre that killed 67 people.
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