Rody softens stand on US; to ask for help v China, if..

By Funny Pearl A. Gajunera
Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte appears to have softened his stand against the US, saying he will ask for the Americans’ help if China continues its incursions into disputed lands in the West Philippine Sea as a leader of the country.
“I will seek the help of the Americans,” Duterte told reporters on Saturday night when asked about reports that the Chinese government is building an airstrip in Kagitingan Reef.
“That’s the only thing that we can do. We cannot fight them (the Chinese). I do not want to fight with them,” he said.
Duterte said if given the chance, he will try to talk with the Chinese government “as a citizen of the Philippines” to tell it to stop its activities in the West Philippine Sea.
“If I can do it, why not? Sasabihin ko lang tama na (I will just tell them to stop it), you threaten the integrity of the country,” he said.
He added, however, that he currently does not have authority to talk with the Chinese government. But he said he can talk any time with China’s Ambassador to the Philippines about the matter.
He said if China insists on its claims on the West Philippine Sea, he will seek the help of the Americans.
Duterte had had a falling out with the US government when agents of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) spirited American citizen Michael Terrence Meiring out of the city and the country in 2002 without approval from the Philippine government.
Meiring had been injured in an explosion inside Evergreen Hotel in Davao City. He claimed to be a treasure hunter but was later accused of being a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent.
Duterte later revealed that then-US Ambassador to the Philippines Francis Ricciardone flew in to the city early morning after the explosion and met with him to express concern over the Meiring incident.

“Since then, the US government 9has) failed to fully explain to me how come they violated our sovereign right to prosecute Meiring who committed a crime here in our city,” Duterte was quoted as saying.
Since then, Duterte has regularly snubbed events attended by US ambassadors in the city. He has also never minced words about his view of the US government, at one time saying the Americans had connections with known terror groups in the Philippines.