Nakahanda ang Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) na ipaliwanag kay United States (US) Secretary of State John Kerry ang naging pahayag ni Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte kaugnay na pagpapaalis sa mga US personnel sa Mindanao.
“I’m not sugarcoating it at all… You cannot dissociate, for instance, the fact that when he (Duterte) said that he wants the Americans out, you dissociate it from the fact that he said that he does not want these Americans to be harmed or be killed. This was the context of President Duterte’s statement,” ayon kay DFA Secretary Perfecto Yasay.
“If Secretary of State John Kerry will ask me these questions, I will say the very things to him, and he will understand that. Alam niya naman na walang pagbabago ang policy,” dagdag pa ng kalihim.
Si Yasay ay umalis ng bansa patungong California sakay ng Philippine Air Line (PAL) flight PR 104 kung saan matapos nito ay lilipad naman patungo sa New York City upang dumalo sa 71st United Nations (UN) General Assembly.
Magiging panauhin din ito sa Center for Strategic and International Studies sa Washington D.C.