Duterte hits int'l media for misquoting him, offending Obama

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday clarified that he did not call United States President Barack Obama a "son of a whore" as reported by international media.

In his speech before the Filipino community in Indonesia, Duterte said that his expression "putang ina" was inaccurately translated, which might have offended Obama.

"Yung 'putang ina' sa atin... We would have said 'son of a bitch,' 'son of a gun' or 'fuck you' pero it is not translated in any ordinary day... as son of a whore. Pero ginamit nila yan siguro, si (Obama) took offense," Duterte said.

The profanity was said in a middle of a tirade on supposed US interference in the Philippines, where Duterte warned Obama not to "lecture" him on human rights since the US has human rights violations in its own backyard.

The US has said it is concerned with the rising number of drug-related deaths in the Philippines. Obama was expected to bring up the issue of human rights in a meeting with Duterte, which was eventually moved to a later date.  He has since expressed "regret" that his remarks came across as a personal attack on the US president.

Duterte stressed that the phrase "son of a whore" was a very terrible thing to hear.

"A 'whore' is a very terrible thing to hear. I was talking all along in the dialect," Duterte explained. "It is not son of a whore. There's never a translation for that."

The president said that some members of the press would try to spin the news to make him look bad.

However, Duterte stressed that he does not care about his "bad reputation" among the international community,

"Sabi na my reputation is bad, I said I don't give a shit. I am the president of the Republic of the Philippines, not the republic of the international community. You can all go to hell. I will do what I think is best for my country to the best interest of the Filipino," Duterte said.

Obama earlier said that he did not take Duterte's comments personally.

"I don’t take these comments personally, because it seems as if this is a phrase he's used repeatedly, including directed at the Pope and others, and so I think it seems to be just a habit, a way of speaking for him," Obama said in a press briefing after the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Laos on Thursday night.

READ: Obama on Duterte: I don't take his comments personally