Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte moves raise fears for U.S. ties

A day after calling for the withdrawal of American troops from his nation, firebrand Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte said Tuesday he does not want the Philippine Navy to engage in joint patrols of disputed waters in the South China Sea with the U.S. — despite an agreement struck by his predecessor just months ago.

While other Filipino officials tried to play down the notion that an anti-U.S. shift is underway, Mr. Duterte’s moves come a week after he made global headlines by calling President Obama a “son of a whore” — and have raised red flags in Washington over the reliability of a longstanding ally at a time of growing economic, military and diplomatic pressure from China.

Mr. Duterte, a 71-year-old maverick and longtime provincial mayor, has been called the “Filipino Donald Trump” since winning the presidency in May. He also said Tuesday that he’s now seriously considering buying weapons from Russia and China, despite Manila’s longtime reliance on Washington for defense purchases and other security needs.

But it was his comments on South China Sea security patrols with the U.S., a longtime treaty ally, that drew the most attention. Mr. Duterte seemed to be scrapping a deal that U.S. officials inked early this year with former Filipino President Benign Aquino III designed to counter China’s increasingly aggressive sovereignty claims in the heavily trafficked and strategic waterway.

Mr. Aquino had spent years pursuing closer defense ties with Washington, and in 2014 Manila agreed to give U.S. forces access to several Filipino military bases. One of the bases is located in the southern region of Mindanao, where the Filipino troops have for years battled Islamic militants.

In April, meanwhile, the Philippine navy began joint South China Sea patrols with the U.S. Navy. By June the Pentagon had also deployed warplanes and about 120 personnel to the northern Philippines for short-term training missions aimed at ensuring Filipino and U.S. access to the South China Sea.

But since coming to power on June 30, Mr. Duterte has upended the relationship — engaging in repeated rhetorical disputes with the Obama administration while simultaneously trying to mend relations with China. On Tuesday he told military officers in an address that he wants to avoid entangling the nation in regional hostilities.

“We do not go into a patrol or join any other army from now because I do not want trouble,” Mr. Duterte said, according to The Associated Press. “I do not want to ride gung-ho style there with China or with America. I just want to patrol our territorial waters.”

He said he wants the country’s territorial waters, up to 12 nautical miles offshore, to be patrolled by Filipino forces, but not other offshore areas that are contested with any other nation, including China.

There was no immediate reaction from the Obama administration on Tuesday, but U.S. officials have been on edge toward Mr. Duterte since last week, when he appeared during news briefing to make disparaging remarks toward President Obama during a summit of regional leaders the two were attending in Laos.

Mr. Duterte was quoted as saying he’s “not a fan” of Washington, and that the row had been triggered by State Department criticism of his controversial war on drug crime. The war has left about 3,000 people dead since the Filipino president began his six-year term, and Mr. Obama has called for it to be conducted in “the right way,” with care taken to avoid human rights abuses.

On Monday Mr. Duterte called for the small number of U.S. special forces to withdraw from a southern Philippines base where they’re acting as military advisers to Filipino troops battling the Islamist insurgency.

State Department spokesman John Kirby sidestepped the president’s remarks, saying that U.S. officials received no “official communication” from Manila seeking withdrawal of the U.S. forces.

The Philippine government’s own foreign ministry also appeared eager to contain any diplomatic fallout Tuesday, openly claiming the relationship will proceed as usual despite Mr. Duterte’s remarks.

“There is no shift insofar as our policy is concerned with respect to our close friendship with the Americans,” said Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay, who was reportedly flying to Washington Tuesday night for talks. The minister insisted that the Duterte administration intends to honor existing defense agreements with Washington, including the 2014 basing pact.

For his own part, Mr. Duterte’s spokesman, Ernesto Abella, has also insisted the president’s comments did not signal a reversal in policy.