Earnest dubs Philippine spokesman the 'Filipino Mike Pence'

White House press secretary Josh Earnest on Friday said the frequent walk-backs of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte's words reminds him of a certain presidential running mate.

"I've dubbed that person the Filipino Mike Pence," Earnest said of Duterte's spokesman, Ernesto Arbella, during Friday's press briefing.


Later in the briefing, Earnest said he was referring to "spokespeople" and not anyone in particular.

Arbella has sought to explain why Duterte, who has been called the "Trump of the East," announced earlier this week that despite long ties between the U.S. and the Philippines, the two nations would be separating.

"America has lost now. I've realigned myself in your ideological flow," Duterte told business leaders in Beijing on Thursday. "And maybe I will also go to Russia to talk to Putin and tell him that there are three of us against the world: China, Philippines and Russia. It's the only way."

Before the president himself clarified his words later on Friday, Arbella said, according to the BBC, the declaration was "not an intent to renege on our treaties, but an assertion that we are an independent and sovereign nation."

Upon returning from China, Duterte said he cannot sever diplomatic ties with the U.S. Such a move he said, would make no sense for his country.

"It's not severance of ties. Severance is to cut diplomatic relations. I cannot do that. Why? It's in the best interests of my country that I don't do that," Duterte told reporters in his hometown of Davao, according to a Philippine news site.

Earnest said Duterte's tendency to say inflammatory things has introduced uncertainty into the relationship.

Duterte previously called President Barack Obama a "son of a bitch," a remark he later apologized for. Despite the apology, in October he said Obama could "go to hell." The White House has condemned Duterte's crackdown on his nation's drug trade through extra-judicial killings.