The Philippine government has protested the depiction of a fictional leader of its country who makes a pass at the female US Secretary of State in the CBS drama “Madam Secretary.”
A video teaser of the episode airing Sunday shows the middle-aged Filipino character with a bloodied nose after being punched by the titular character, US Secretary of State Elizabeth McCord, played by Tea Leoni.
The Philippine Embassy in Washington said it wrote to CBS on Monday to “strongly protest the highly negative depiction of a character purported to be the Philippine President” and called on the network to take necessary corrective actions.
It is the latest potential irritant between the US and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who sharply criticized then-President Barack Obama for raising concerns over his deadly anti-drug crackdown and has called his own country’s foreign policy too dependent on the US.
The episode synopsis describes the “Philippines’ unconventional new president” as exhibiting inappropriate behavior toward McCord.
Meanwhile, Philippine lower house lawmakers overwhelmingly approved the re-imposition of capital punishment for serious drug offenses on Tuesday, clearing another hurdle in Duterte’s drive to use death as a deterrent against crime.
Voting 216 to 54 with one abstention, lawmakers passed the third and final reading of the bill to bring back the death penalty, but in a watered-down draft that excludes crimes like rape, kidnap-for-ransom and plunder.
The bill, which permits death by hanging, firing squad and lethal injection, must now go to the Senate.
In another development,, Philippine police have killed eight crime suspects in separate gunbattles and arrested 21 others in a northern province a day after the police force was allowed to rejoin the president’s deadly anti-drug crackdown while also launching a drive against illegal guns.
Police Senior Superintendent Romeo M. Caramat Jr. says the suspects were killed or arrested in 19 raids in Bulacan province north of Manila, some of which turned violent when policemen were fired upon. He says most of the slain suspects had links to illegal drugs.
President Rodrigo Duterte angrily banned the national police more than a month ago from enforcing his anti-drug crackdown, which has left thousands of suspects dead, after some antinarcotics officers were implicated in an extortion bid that left a South Korean dead.

Source: Arab News