FURTHER escalating the Duterte administration’s increasingly anti-American rhetoric, Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. claimed America has “failed” the Philippines, rejecting what he called the United States’ “carrot and stick” policy.

Yasay’s statement, titled “America has failed us,” was posted on the website of the Department of Foreign Affairs as President Rodrigo Duterte said he might soon “break up” with the US over its criticism of his bloody anti-drug war and instead turn to China and Russia.