Duterte to Agot Isidro: 'She should enjoy her right to expression'

MANILA, Philippines (Philippines News Agency) — Actress Agot Isidro continued to draw flak from netizens but not from President Rodrigo Duterte for calling the Philippine leader a "psychopath" for his latest tirades against the United States and international bodies.

 

"An actress is angry with me that I am a psychopath. I leave her to her constitutional rights to free expression. She should enjoy that," Duterte said in his speech after the mass oath-taking of his newly appointed officials and League of Municipalities of the Philippines leaders in Malacañan on Tuesday.

 

Duterte explained that he was not cursing US President Barack Obama when he used profanity words while answering questions from the foreign media about Obama’s interfering on his war on drugs before he left for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Laos last September 5.

 

”I was referring to the press and everybody who would ask me publicly. Do not crude towards me because this is a gathering,” the president said.

 

”When I am president of the Republic of the (Philippines), little as I am if they have no respect towards me, they must remember that I carry the identity of a sovereign country. You do not have any right to chastise me publicly,” he added.

 

During his brief meeting with Obama in Laos, Duterte informed the US leader that he never made the hurtful words.