Why US Ambassador Sung Kim took his headset off during Duterte's SONA

United States Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim on Wednesday put to rest all theories as to why he took off his headphones in the middle of President Rodrigo Duterte's second State of the Nation Address.

"I removed the headphones only because the interpretation had stopped," he told Jessica Soho in an interview aired on "24 Oras."

"As you know, the president was going back and forth between English and Tagalog, and I obviously didn't need the headphones when he was speaking in English," he added.

"So that's why I removed the headphones. It had nothing to do with what he was saying at that particular moment."

During his televised speech, Duterte went on another tirade against the US, demanding its government to return the historic Balangiga bells to the Philippines.

Kim said the US Embassy has been working on the resolving the issue for some time.

"I know it was deeply emotional, important issue for the Filipino people, so we do wanna reacha  resolution as quickly as possible," he said.

In maintaining diplomatic relations, Kim preferred to set aside the President's public statements and focus on actual engagements between the two nations.

"I think it's much more productive for us to focus on what's actually happening on the ground, with initiatives and with programs, and with cooperation and less on some public statements, because I think what's more important is what we actually do together," he said. —Margaret Claire Layug/JST, GMA News