(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte said leaders who attended the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit and Related Meetings “vowed to work closely” to fight terrorism.
“We have agreed on so many things to enhance the defense of our country. But, unfortunately, these are the things which I cannot really talk about in public,” Duterte told reporters in a press conference after he officially handed over chairmanship of the regional bloc to Singapore.
The President noted that discussions during the summit heavily centered on terrorism in the first place.
He said the topic was discussed “half of the time during the interventions.”
“Everybody’s scared with the new vogue of dying just suddenly in the explosion of any, whatever,” he said.
Marawi
He said the leaders also praised the policemen and soldiers of the Philippines who fought bravely in Marawi, the southern city in Mindanao overran in May by local terrorists who pledged allegiance to the international terrorist group Islamic State.
Months later, Duterte declared the city liberated from the clutches of members of the Maute group and the Abu Sayyaf.
He did this following the deaths of terrorist leaders Omar Maute and Isnilon Hapilon.