Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte felt 'like a saint' after speaking to Donald Trump

Manila: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte says he felt “like a saint” after his phone conversation last week with US President-elect Donald Trump, who he said praised him for “doing great” in his deadly campaign against illegal drugs. [caption id=“attachment_3144880” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. AP file image[/caption] Duterte said in a speech on Wednesday that Trump told him not to worry about Americans criticising him, saying “you are doing good, go ahead”. He said Trump invited him for coffee if he visits the US to hear how he deals with the media, his critics and the public. Duterte quoted Trump as saying, “We should fix our bad relations.” Duterte also announced that he’d told his Indonesian and Malaysian counterparts that their forces can bomb fleeing Filipino militants and their kidnap victims at sea because the hostages “are not supposed to be there”. Duterte said in a speech that he told Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo that their forces could enter Philippine waters while pursuing Muslim militants who are fleeing with hostages. If the militants were about to escape, Duterte said “Bomb them. If they cannot be captured, you bomb them. How about the hostages? Eh, bomb them also. They’re not supposed to be there, there is a warning.” The brash-talking Duterte cited a US travel advisory warning Americans not to travel in the treacherous waters bordering the three countries. The Abu Sayyaf militant group is holding more than a dozen mostly foreign hostages in their jungle lairs on the southern Philippine island of Jolo. Despite discussions among the three leaders on ways to strengthen security along their sea borders, Abu Sayyaf militants and allied gunmen from Jolo and nearby islands have continued to target and kidnap crewmen of slow-moving tugboats as well as fishing boats. The ransom-seeking militants, who are notorious for beheadings, have also attacked cargo ships and separately snatched a South Korean skipper and Vietnamese crewmen in the southern Philippines. The US and the Philippines consider the Abu Sayyaf a terrorist organisation.