Duterte invited to key US-Asean meet
Credit to Author: Divina Nova Joy Dela Cruz| Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2020 16:16:05 +0000
President Rodrigo Duterte has been invited to attend a summit between the United States and the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to be held in the US on March 14.
The invitation, dated January 9, was sent by US President Donald Trump to Duterte and nine other leaders of Asean-member countries. The invitation was initially communicated during the Asean-US meeting at the Asean Summit and related summits in Bangkok last November.
Trump has repeatedly invited Duterte to visit the US since April 2017 in a meeting that was expected to reaffirm the long-standing alliance between the two countries.
Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo, in a message to reporters on Sunday, said he had no official information regarding the invitation.
The invitation came even after a US legislation that banned Philippine officials involved in the “wrongful” imprisonment of Sen. Leila de Lima, from entry into the US.
The provision was included in the 2020 budget approved by Trump in late December. Duterte was on top of de Lima’s list of those involved in her detention.
The US spending law included a “Prohibition on Entry” provision, which states that US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo “shall apply sub-section (c) to foreign government officials about whom the secretary has credible information have been involved in the wrongful imprisonment of… Sen. Leila de Lima who was arrested in the Philippines in 2017.”
Subsection (c) refers to the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which allows Washington to impose a travel ban and a freeze of assets on those it deemed were human rights defenders.
Duterte later ordered the Bureau of Immigration to deny entry to Senators Dick Durbin (Illinois) and Patrick Leahy (Vermont), who had amended the US budget law to include the travel ban provision. The President also threatened to require American citizens to secure a visa to enter the Philippines if the US enforces the ban.