“No slight taken.”

This is how Malacañang reacted to United States President Donald Trump’s mispronunciation of President Rodrigo Duterte’s name as “Duarte” during a White House press conference on Wednesday, November 15 (Thursday, November 16 in Manila).

“I think that’s another commonality between the two presidents. They make mistakes,” continued Roque during a Thursday Malacañang briefing.

In his White House press briefing, Trump said, “During our visit, President Duarte of the Philippines thanked the American people and our armed forces for supporting the recent liberation of Marawi from ISIS.”

.@POTUS comments on his participation in the US-#ASEAN and East Asia Summits in Manila, Philippines. #USASEAN40 pic.twitter.com/S945nPFupB

— Department of State (@StateDept) November 15, 2017

Roque is right on that point as Duterte has been known to make some errors in his speeches.

Only last month, Duterte told a roomful of diplomats about his “war in Malaysia” when he meant “war in Marawi.”

He has also mispronounced Isnilon Hapilon’s last name as “Hapsilon” and used the acronym “EKJ” instead of “EJK” for extrajudicial killings.

This was also not Trump’s first speech booboo.

During a speech at the United Nations General Assembly, Trump pronounced the name of the country Namibia as “Nambia.”

Whatever the true feelings are about Trump’s erroneous pronunciation, he and Duterte appeared to hit it off at the recently concluded Assocation of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Manila. – Rappler.com