Kerry says confident on Philippines ties, hopes to visit again
US Secretary of State John Kerry said on November 3 he remained confident about the future of the US-Philippines relationship despite "a difference here or there" and that he hoped to visit Manila again before leaving office.
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New Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has thrown Manila's long-standing alliance with Washington into question since taking office in June with a series of insults and threats to cut ties with the former colonial power.
Speaking at a swearing-in ceremony for the new US ambassador to the Philippines, Sung Kim, Kerry called the alliance between the two peoples "indelible."
Kerry recalled shared resistance to Japan in World War Two and noted that nearly 4 million people of Philippine descent live in the United States while almost a quarter of a million Americans live in the Philippines.
"I am confident about the future of our bilateral relations, notwithstanding a difference here or there about one thing or another," he said.
