Duterte admits to killing someone

His aides have told media not to believe everything the president says

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has said he stabbed a person to death as a teenager, in a defiant speech to promote his drug war ahead of a summit of world leaders in Manila.

Speaking to the local Filipino community in the Vietnamese city of Danang on Thursday, Duterte also threatened to slap a United Nations (UN) rights rapporteur if he met her, and used obscene language to hit back at critics of his deadly drugs crackdown.

“When I was a teenager, I would go in and out of jail,” said Duterte, who is in Danang for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

“At the age of 16, I already killed someone...a stabbing. I was just 16 years old. It was just over a look. How much more now that I am President?”

Duterte won last year’s presidential elections after promising to eradicate illegal drugs with an unprecedented crackdown that would see up to 100,000 people killed.

Since he took office 16 months ago, police say they have killed 3,967 people in the crackdown. Another 2,290 people were murdered in drugrelated crimes, while thousands of other deaths remain unsolved, as per government data.

Duterte, 72, remains popular with many Filipinos who believe he is making society safer.

But critics warn that he is orchestrating a campaign of extrajudicial mass murder.

Abusive language

He at times denies inciting police or others to kill but also consistently generates headlines for his abusive language and incendiary comments defending the drug war.

Duterte’s aides have repeatedly told journalists not to believe everything the president says, cautioning that he often jokes or indulges in “hyperbole”.

His new spokesman, Harry Roque, indicated that may be the case with his stabbing-todeath claim.