Controversial Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has now labelled US ambassadors as spies who work for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). This is Duterte's latest diatribe against the United States government, especially that of the Obama administration.
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The remark seems to be aimed towards Philip Goldberg, the former US ambassador to Philippines, UPI reported. He was responding to a Manila Times report, which cited a document received from a "highly placed source" that claims a former US ambassador to the Philippines made a "blueprint to undermine Duterte.
Manila Times alleged that Goldberg had "strategies" that would have Duterte removed in a time frame of one and half years. The US State Department has termed the allegations in the report as "false."
Following his initial response to Manila Times, Duterte later expanded his accusations to include all the US "professional ambassadors."
"In the matter of the credible news, maybe you may have an inkling on how this guy operates. Because most ambassadors of the United States, but not all, are not really professional ambassadors... at the same time they are spying. They are really connected to the CIA," said Duterte.
"The ambassador of a country is the No. 1 spy, but there are ambassadors of the United States to undermine governments. That's what happened to Bolivia," he added.
Goldberg was the US ambassador to Philippines from December 2013 to November 2016. True to what Duterte said, Goldberg worked with the US Department of State as an assistant secretary for intelligence and research, before he was appointed to Manila as US' top envoy.
Before his Manila stint, he was appointed as the US ambassador to Bolivia in 2006. Goldberg was declared persona non grata in September 2008 after he was accused by the Bolivian government headed by President Evo Morales of shelling out money to leaders of the opposition and think tanks who opposed Morales.
Those allegations against Goldberg were also termed baseless by the US State Department.
Previously, Duterte has shown his hatred towards US President Obama, who has been highly critical of the Philippine President's war on drugs. Previously, Duterte had told Obama to "go to hell" and called him a "son of a whore."
