Duterte ‘might’ attend US summit

While President Rodrigo Duterte has already declined US President Donald Trump’s personal invitation for him to visit the United States, Mr. Duterte “might be persuaded” to attend the upcoming US summit with Southeast Asian heads of state, presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said on Tuesday.

“I haven’t talked to [the President] … but given that this is an Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) meeting of leaders, the President might be persuaded to attend,” Panelo said in a phone interview.

The Palace official made the remarks two days after Malacañang announced that Trump had invited Mr. Duterte and other regional leaders to the US summit with members of the Asean in March.

The invitation, initially made during the Asean summit in Bangkok, Thailand in November, was renewed in a letter dated Jan. 9, despite a recent US Senate resolution that bans the entry to the United States of officials involved in the detention of Sen. Leila de Lima, a staunch Duterte critic facing alleged drug charges.

Trump’s invitation to President Duterte contradicts that resolution, Panelo said.