Palace: Duterte to visit Israel in September

President Rodrigo Duterte will become the first Philippine leader to visit Israel as he is due to make a trip to the Jewish state in September, his top aide said Wednesday.

Details of the trip are still being finalized even as Israeli media reports said Duterte will arrive there on September 3 for a two-day visit.

“There will still be a joint official announcement on the dates in September,” Special Assistant to the President Christopher “Bong” Go said in a text message to GMA News Online.

Duterte was originally scheduled to visit Israel in May last year but it was put on hold due to the Marawi crisis.

Go did not say the agenda of the President’s upcoming visit.

Israeli news site Times of Israel, however, cited reports that Duterte will sign agreements about Filipinos who provide long-term care in Israel and fighting drug trafficking.

Duterte and the Israel’s government will also discuss the possibility of establishing a direct flight between Israel and the Philippines, agricultural cooperation and security deals, according to the report.

The President received condemnation from Jewish groups in September 2016 when he said he would be “happy to slaughter” some three million drug addicts, similar to what the late German dictator Adolf Hitler did to around six million Jews during World War II.

Duterte later apologized to the Jewish community saying it was not his intention to derogate the memory of Jews slaughtered by Nazi Germany.

He said he was only addressing the negative comparison that people made between him and Hitler. — Virgil Lopez/RSJ, GMA News