Duterte feels ‘like a saint’ after Trump praise of crackdown

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. Presidential Photo

President Duterte said on Wednesday night he felt “like a saint” when US President-elect Donald Trump praised his government’s antidrug war during a recent telephone conversation.

“I know you worry about the Americans criticizing you. You’re doing good. Go ahead,” he mimicked Mr. Trump as telling him.

“I felt like a saint,” he said because Trump’s comments were a change from those by the current US administration, which he had cursed for allegedly wanting him investigated by the International Criminal Court.

He said that Trump also extended an invitation for them to have coffee when Mr. Duterte visits either New York or Washington.

“Maybe you can give a suggestion or two about how to solve this certain son of a bitch,” he told a UN-sponsored event in Malacañang, drawing laughter from the audience, which included Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales.

The Chief Executive said Trump also told him of the “border problem” of the United States with Mexico, notoriously known as one of the world’s biggest producer of illegal drugs.

Bilateral ties had been strained by Washington’s earlier criticism on the rising death toll in the war on drugs.

The unconventional Mr. Duterte has resented the administration of US President Barack Obama for criticizing his human rights record as police forces in the Philippines left thousands dead in his brutal antinarcotics drive.

 ‘Choose Trump’

On Monday, the new US ambassador to Manila, Sung Kim, met with the President at Malacañang, where they had a brief exchange and Mr. Duterte gave him some advice.

“You want to be an Obama? Then, suffer the consequences. You choose Trump, he is my friend,” he said he told the envoy.

Two months ago in China, Mr. Duterte said he would order his defense and military leaders to cut down joint exercises with US forces and review an existing deal allowing their deployment in local bases.

In earlier comments about the phone call, Mr. Duterte said Trump wished him well on his drugs crackdown.

He said he assured the US president-elect the Philippines would maintain its ties with America, a departure from Mr. Duterte’s hostility toward the Obama administration.

Obama canceled what could have been his first formal meeting with Mr. Duterte at an Asian summit in Laos in September after the Philippine leader unleashed an expletive-laden warning for Obama not to lecture him on human rights.

In one speech, Mr. Duterte told Obama to “go to hell.” —WITH REPORTS FROM REUTERS AND AFP