The Ambassadorship to the United States is still up for grabs after Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana expressed reluctance to accept the assignment, and Gilbert Teodoro declined the defense portfolio once more.
Speaking in a late night press conference in Davao City on Wednesday, President Duterte said Lorenzana had told him he preferred to remain in the Philippines.
But Lorenzana said he would obey if the President ordered him to go to Washington, although living outside the country would be difficult for him as he was getting on in years. He will be 68 in October.
As for Teodoro, Mr. Duterte said the former defense secretary was “disenchanted,” noting Teodoro’s unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 2010—coming in fourth in a field of five—that was won by President Benigno S. Aquino III.
Mr. Duterte said he would just have to look for a new ambassador to Washington.
The search comes as the President has taken potshots at some members of the US Congress and other American government officials for commenting on the local war against illegal drugs and expressing concern about the human rights situation here.
The United States had also sought an explanation for Mr. Duterte’s tirades against its ambassador to the Philippines, Philip Goldberg, whom he has ridiculed in public and accused of meddling in domestic politics.