Terrorism trumps human rights in Tillerson, Duterte meeting

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday but did not confront him about his country’s sordid human rights record. Duterte and officials from 10 other allied Southeast Asian nations joined Tillerson to talk about the ongoing tensions with North Korea. Duterte and Tillerson met privately and discussed counter-terrorism efforts, a high priority after Islamic militants killed nearly 700 Filipinos in recent months. The top U.S. diplomat told reporters that just because his meeting with Duterte focused on Islamic State, the Philippines won’t get a pass on how it treats its citizens. “I see no conflict—no conflict at all in our helping them with that situation and our views of the human rights concerns we have with respect to how they carry out their counter narcotics activities,” Tillerson said. Duterte came to power in June 2016. He was a strong critic of U.S. President Barack Obama and so far has been friendly with the Trump administration. Since taking office, Duterte has touted a violent war on drugs that has left thousands of Filipinos dead—even bragging about personally killing drug dealers himself. Tillerson took discussions about North Korea to Thailand and Malaysia on Tuesday, requesting increased pressure on the totalitarian regime.