A spokesman for Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said that the issue of “human rights violations” did not arise during a bilateral meeting with US President Donald Trump at the ASEAN summit in Manila on November 13.

By contrast, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said that human rights “briefly came up” during the meeting, “in the context of the Philippines’ fight against illegal drugs”.

Responding to Maricel Halili, a journalist from TV5, spokesman Harry Roque said that Duterte had explained the Philippines’ war against drugs at length to Trump and said that Trump “seemed to be appreciative” of Duterte’s “efforts”.

Duterte said on November 8 that he would tell Trump to “lay off” if he raised the issue of human rights during their meeting, Reuters said. Credit: Facebook/Presidential Communications via Storyful