The Philippine government's official spokesman again tried his best to explain President Rodrigo Duterte didn't mean what he meant to say when he said he wanted U.S. Special Forces advising the Philippine Army fight terrorism in Mindanao to leave the Philippines.

Revealing once again his long-held anti-U.S. bias nurtured as a sympathizer of the communist movement in the Philippines, Durtete said in another rambling rant the U.S. is to blame for the violence in Mindanao and its military advisers on the island are worsening that violence.

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He also claimed the presence of U.S. Special Forces in heavily guarded Philippine Army camps on the island is inflaming Muslim insurgencies.

A look at the situation on the ground belies Duterte's claim, however. The major armed Muslim independence movements in Mindanao are the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Moro National Liberation Front. Both signed peace treaties with the Philippine government, however, and are no longer attacking government troops.

The Muslims Duterte said were being inflamed by U.S. soldiers are likely the bandit Abu Sayyaf Group responsible for a spate of kidnappings and beheadings of their foreign and Filipino victims. Duterte was particularly galled when the Abu Sayyaf detonated a bomb in a Davao City market last Sept. 2 killing 14 persons to send him a message they aren't scared of him.

Duterte was mayor of Davao City before becoming Philippine president. He boasted that under his watch, Davao City was the most peaceful city in the Philippines.

A few weeks ago, the bandits slaughtered 15 Philippine Army troopers chasing them. The army estimates there are only 300 Abu Sayyaf bandits.

"For as long as we stay with America, we will never have peace in that land," said Duterte in a remark blaming the U.S. for the violence in Mindanao.

"The special forces, they have to go. They have to go in Mindanao. There are many whites there, they have to go," said Duterte.

"I do not want a rift with America, but they have to go."

"The situation there (in Mindanao) will worsen. If they (Americans) are seen there, they will be killed," claimed Duterte.

Before launching into his rant, Duterte showed photos of what he said were Muslims slain by U.S. troops in Bud Dajo, a "kota" or Muslim fort in a volcanic crater on the Sulu archipelago off the western coast of Mindanao.

The Americans overran this Muslim stronghold in March 1906, massacring some 1,000 of the Muslim defenders, including women and children.

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella claims Duterte merely issued an "injunction" and a "warning" about the risks being faced by U.S. troops in Mindanao.

"Those statements are not policies set in stone," said Abella. "It's not a policy yet ... Nobody acted on it yet. It serves as a notice," he added.

Admitting Duterte doesn't seem to mean what he says, Abella said Duterte's remarks are "layered" and can be interpreted in several ways.

Reminded that statements made by Duterte are perceived as a policy, Abella argued "It's not automatically policy but it is a basis of policy."

"We're not turning back on anybody. We are just charting an independent course," according to Abella.

U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. is aware of Duterte's comments, but was "not aware of any official communication by the Philippine government to that that effect and to seek that result."

There are fewer than 200 U.S. advisers in Mindanao, said military sources in the Philippines.

These U.S. troops are barred from entering combat. Their role is limited to training Filipino troops and sharing information with them because the Philippines' 1987 Constitution forbids foreign troops from joining combat operations.

TagsRodrigo Duterte, U.S. Special Forces, Philippine Army, Mindanao, Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Moro National Liberation Front, Abu Sayyaf, Bud Dajo, Ernesto Abella