14 December 2016•Update: 14 December 2016
By Lauren Crothers
PHNOM PENH
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte wrapped his first visit to Cambodia on Wednesday night after signing MOUs on sports cooperation and combating transnational crime, a day after ensuring Filipinos that he will crush corruption and his country’s rampant drug problem.
Hun Sen’s Cabinet spokesman Eang Sophalleth told Anadolu Agency the premiers discussed agriculture, tourism, business and trade as well as fighting cross-border crime, terrorism and drugs in talks held before the signing ceremony.
Asked if Duterte had spoken about his “war on drugs,” during which hundreds of thousands of people have been imprisoned and thousands shot dead, Sophalleth said the discussion was more general than specific.
“[T]here was no detail about tackling drugs in the Philippines or how the response is; no such thing was discussed in the meeting,” he said, adding that he did not know what the main transnational crime issues were.
Duterte spent the better part of an hour-long speech to members of the Filipino community on Tuesday night talking about the drug addiction, which “destroys the core of a spirit of a human being in this world” and creates “misery, agony, suffering and everything.”
His promise to crack down on addicts and dealers was one of the key platforms he ran on before being elected in May. Of the other, corruption, he said on Tuesday night that he would “stop it”.
Earlier Wednesday, Duterte met with Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni and laid a wreath at Phnom Penh’s Independence Monument.
