Palace: Let America decide on Trump’s fate despite Duterte’s remarks

Only the American people will decide whether Donald Trump should stay for another four years in the White House, Malacañang said Thursday, despite President Rodrigo Duterte’s favorable view of his US counterpart.

“Pabayaan na po natin ang mga Amerikano mag-desisyon n’yan dahil sila naman po ang hahalal ng kanilang presidente,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. said at a news conference in Bohol.

Trump of the conservative Republican Party is seeking another term in the November 3 election but he is trailing in the surveys behind former vice president Joe Biden of the Democratic Party.

Last February, Duterte said Trump deserved to be reelected because of his "circumspect and judicious reaction" to the Philippine government's decision to terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement, which governs the presence of American troops in the Philippines for military exercises.

The Palace later clarified that Duterte was not campaigning for Trump, whom the Philippine leader considered a friend.

The Philippines in June suspended for six months the abrogation of the VFA, a decision that was reportedly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic and developments in the disputed South China Sea. -MDM, GMA News