PHL Foreign Affairs chief on whether Duterte will finally make US visit: Specific dates will have to wait until the end of May polls

(Eagle News)–President Rodrigo Duterte still has no specific plans to visit the United States so far.

When asked on Friday, March 1, about whether Duterte would finally make the visit, the Philippines’ Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said “specific dates will have to wait for the end of the elections.”

Locsin noted the President, after all, was busy endorsing his candidates for the midterm polls slated in May.

In any case, he said he has already conveyed the “repeated invitations” to Duterte.

“He has a very strong affection for (US President Donald) Trump,” Locsin said.

Duterte has said he would not visit the United States, which he described as “lousy” in a speech in 2017.

Duterte’s remark was at that time prompted by US Rep. Jim McGovern’s comment he would stage a protest if the Philippine president accepted Trump’s invitation to visit the country months before.

“What makes that guy think I’m going to America?…There will never be a time during my administration that I’ll be going to America or thereafter. … I’ve seen America and it’s lousy,” Duterte had said.