Duterte not keen on visiting US during or after his term

President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday said he has no plans of going to the United States during or after his term, amid a US lawmaker's statement that he should be barred from entering the White House due to his alleged human rights abuses.

"There will never be a time that I will go to America during my term or even thereafter," he said in an interview in Davao City, pointing out that it was the same answer he gave months ago when asked if he has plans to visit the US despite his criticisms to then-US President Barack Obama.

Duterte said he has been to the US and he found it "lousy."

Duterte made the statement after Massachusetts Representative Jim McGovern, during a congressional hearing on Thursday, said he would lead the protest against Duterte if he goes to the White House upon the invitation of US President Donald Trump.

McGovern, in his opening statement during the Tom Lanston Commission's hearing on Duterte's war on drugs, said the Philippine President did not seem to have a very high regard for human rights.

In response, Duterte urged the US Congress to look into the US' alleged human rights violations in the Middle East and in the Philippines, even as he criticized them for investigating the internal affairs of the Philippines.

"Otherwise, I will be forced to investigate you also. I will start with your past sins and I will produce the–from your archives–the photographs of the people you murdered here in the Philippines, the Moro people massacre, thousands of them," he said.

"So I will start the investigation also. Why? Was there no human rights before?" he added. —KBK, GMA News