Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte answers questions in Yokohama on October 27, 2016.
It's only Wednesday, but President Rodrigo Duterte must be ready for the weekend.
Fresh off his trip to China and his call for a "separation" from the U.S., the president of the Philippines is for the first time feeling the impact of what has seemed like to some to be a concerted effort to alienate his allies.
The first hit: the defection of former president Fidel Ramos. Duterte's camp on Wednesday confirmed that Ramos, Duterte's China envoy, has resigned from his post just four months into the president's tenure.
The news came after Ramos, who helped Duterte get elected, put out his second scathing critique of the Duterte's short tenure. The piece, published Sunday, accused Duterte of "unwittingly shooting himself in the mouth" and taking "101.5 million Filipinos" down with him by insulting allies.
"He may claim that to be more 'insulting than friendly' to our long-established allies is part of his God-given 'destiny.' But, this is obviously wrong, and full of S. . .. T!!!," he wrote.
In an earlier letter, Ramos called Duterte first 100 days on the job a "huge disappointment and letdown." The former president faulted Duterte for a bloody campaign against suspected drug users and dealers that's claimed thousands of lives, as well as his anti-U.S., anti-U.N. rhetoric.
Ramos, a former armed forces head, was particularly critical of Duterte's comments on U.S.-Philippine military ties. Over the last few months, Duterte surprised many by calling for the withdrawal of U.S. special forces from the southern island of Mindanao and the cancellation of future U.S.-Philippine military exercises, only to back down days later.
"Are we throwing away decades of military partnership, tactical proficiency, compatible weaponry, predictable logistics and soldier-to-soldier camaraderie just like that?" asked Ramos.
Though opinion polls suggest that Duterte still enjoys strong public support, Ramos' comments will no doubt resonate, particularly among those with ties to the military and foreign policy elite.
It will be tough for Duterte's team to spin his departure as anything other than a massive loss. Responding to questions of Ramos' critique, a presidential spokesman call the former president "invaluable" to the administration. Another aide told the press he was "really surprised" by the resignation news.
A second sour surprise: news that the U.S. may halt the sale of 26,000 M4 assault rifles to the Philippine National police.
Reuters news agency on Tuesday reported that the State Department will stop the weapons sale due to opposition from Sen. Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a vocal critic of Duterte's so-called drug war.
Though the State Department did not not weigh in to confirm or deny the report, the head of the Philippine National Police said in a statement he was "saddened" by the news. President Duterte, meanwhile, tried to shrug it off, dismissing the report as an American "scare tactic" and the necessary weapons can be purchased elsewhere.
Duterte, of course, is partly right. Considering that the State Department will give $9 million in aid to counternarcotics and law enforcement programs in the Philippines in 2017, and Secretary of State John F. Kerry this summer pledged $32 million for Duterte's law enforcement programs, stopping the sale of 26,000 guns is a small gesture.
But it's a gesture that's intended to show that some U.S. funding for the Philippines can and will be cut should the president's human rights abuses and anti-U.S. rhetoric continue. Phelim Kine, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division, called it "the first real U.S. move to put teeth in its criticism of the spiralling death toll Duterte's 'drug war.'"
© 2016 The Washington Post
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