By Argyll Cyrus Geducos
Malacañang said President Donald Trump's standing invitation for President Rodrigo Duterte to visit the United States contradicts the provision of their new law that denies entry to those supposedly behind the arrest and detention of Senator Leila de Lima.
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo (OPS / MANILA BULLETIN)
"Exactly. That is a contradiction. There is a standing invitation. Kung totoo ‘yun eh 'di sana hindi na (If it was true that President Duterte was behind her arrest, then President Trump should have withdrawn his invitation already)," Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said Thursday.
Trump signed on Monday the United States's 2020 budget law which includes a provision that bars the entry of those behind De Lima's wrongful detention. De Lima named Duterte as one of those behind her imprisonment.
According to Panelo, Duterte is not worried about the new U.S, law, saying he does not want to travel to the United States in the first place.
"Na kay Presidente ‘yun, 'di ba sabi ni Presidente (It's up to the President if he will accept the standing invitation. He's been saying that), 'Ayoko naman pumunta dun in the (I don't want to go there in the) first place,'" he said. "Kung ayaw niya nga pumunta (If he doesn’t even want to go there), how can he be worried?"
Duterte has repeatedly said he has no intention of visiting the United States as president, especially after former United States President Barack Obama urged him to conduct the drug war "the right way."
Malacañang earlier explained that among the reasons behind Duterte's hesitation to visit the U.S. are the long flight and cold weather there. The President, however, was able to endure temperatures as low as 4°C when he went to Moscow and Sochi in Russia in October this year.
Earlier, Chief of Presidential Protocol for Foreign Affairs Robert Borje said it is up to the President which countries he will visit.
"I'm not saying weather is not a factor. What we're saying is the President decides on the import of an outbound visit," he said. "The President is entitled to exercise his decision on which visits he is going to undertake."
In July 2017, Duterte said he will never visit the United States during his term or anytime thereafter after U.S. lawmakers expressed that he should not be invited to the White House because of the alleged human rights violations in the country.
According to Duterte, he has already been to the US and he found it "lousy."
"There will never be a time during my admin that I’ll be going to America or thereafter. Tapos na ako diyan (I'm done with that already)," he said. "I’ve seen America and it’s lousy."
He also said that Trump's invitation was made with an air of sarcasm anyway.
Trump invited Duterte over to the White House last April. Duterte expressed gratitude to the US President but said he was too busy.