Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced Friday through his spokesperson, Salvador Panelo, that he will decline United States President Donald Trump's invitation to the White House. Trump had previously made a verbal invitation for the Philippine President to visit Washington in a phone call made in 2016.

Panelo said of this latest invitation, "He (Duterte) said he would respond to the letter-invitation and would decline it.” As to the 2016 invite Panelo added, “He said he never intended to visit the US ever since.”

Duterte’s snub seems to center around Philippine Senator Leila de Lima, who is a staunch critic of the president and who has been in detention at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center since Feb. 24, 2017, on charges that she was involved in the illegal drug trade.

One of the main “planks” of the platform that Duterte was elected on was his war on drugs, which his critics claim has resulted in human rights abuses including thousands of extrajudicial killings by police and corruption by authorities (like de Lima) waging the battle against illegal drugs. According to a report by Rappler in October 2016 before her arrest, the charges against her are based on the testimony of prison inmates, police officers and former prison officials.

In the Philippines, Duterte’s presidency seems to parallel that of Trump. He is a populist president and gets high marks on surveys about his performance while enduring harsh criticism from his opponents and the media, mostly over his alleged abuses from the drug war.

Duterte is also like Trump in that he is feeling the heat from US Democratic Senators Dick Durbin and Patrick Leahy. They were authors of the bill that Trump signed on December 20, the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Bill 2020, part of the US government’s $1.4-trillion spending package.

A subsection of that bill allows the U.S. to put sanctions on who is deemed human rights offenders by freezing their assets and preventing them from entering the country. It “expressly classifies unjust or wrongful detention as part of gross violation of human rights.” De Lima has listed Duterte, Panelo and a slew of other online personalities and politicians as being responsible for her arrest and detention.

Duterte’s response so far has been to deny the two Democratic Senators entry into the Philippines. This could lead to a requirement that all American visitors will need to secure a visa prior to entry. Currently, the visitor is allowed a 30-day stay with no visa.

Panelo expressed that Duterte held no hard feelings toward Trump, perhaps because they now have common adversaries with Durbin and Leahy.

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