Flap with Philippine leader threatens to overshadow Obama's Laos visit

VIENTIANE, Laos — A brewing controversy awaited President Obama as he arrived here Monday, because of "colorful" comments from outspoken Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.

The firebrand Duterte, who has been compared to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, warned Obama not to question him about his country's extrajudicial killings in a war on drugs. More than 2,000 suspected drug users and dealers have died since Duterte took office June 30.

Duterte said Obama must not throw questions at him, or “son of a bitch, I will swear at you in that forum,” the Associated Press reported.

“Clearly he’s a colorful guy,” Obama said Monday when asked about the comment at a news conference after the Group of 20 summit in Hangzhou, China.

Before he left China, Obama said he would ask his staff to determine if a planned meeting with Duterte would still be productive. The White House later announced that Obama will not meet with Duterte and instead will have a one-on-one session with South Korean President Park Geun Hye on Monday afternoon.

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The flap threatened to overshadow the historic nature of Obama’s visit to this country of 6.8 million — he is the first sitting U.S. president to visit Laos.

Duterte said in a statement on Tuesday morning that he and Obama mutually agreed to postpone the meeting, according to the Philippines TV station ANC-CBN.

While the immediate cause was my strong comments to certain press questions that elicited concern and distress, we also regret it came across as a personal attack on the US president 

Our primary intention is to chart an independent foreign policy while promoting closer ties with all nations, especially the US with which we have had a long standing partnership.

We look forward to ironing out differences arising out of national priorities and perceptions, and working in mutually responsible ways for both countries."

Obama plans to push for closer economic ties with Laos and Southeast Asia and raise human rights abuses in the one-party communist state, which suppresses freedom of expression and the media.

The main topic for discussion with Laos' leaders is sure to be unexploded ordnance, the legacy of a massive U.S. aerial campaign during the Vietnam War that dropped 270 million cluster bombs on the officially neutral country to support the governing royal family against a Communist insurgency.