Duterte was due to hold a bilateral meeting with Obama on Tuesday afternoon on the sidelines of a gathering of global leaders hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Vientiane, the Lao capital.
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The firebrand president was answering a reporter’s question about how he meant to explain the extrajudicial killings to Obama, before boarding a plane to Laos for the Association of South-east Asian Nations summit.
Duterte responded to that with his “son of a bitch” comment to reporters on Monday before leaving to join fellow leaders of Southeast Asian and East Asian leaders for the summit.
The Philippines scrambled to defuse a row with the United States on Tuesday and its new president, Rodrigo Duterte, voiced regret for calling President Barack Obama a “son of a bitch”, comments that prompted Washington to call off a bilateral meeting.
The White House said Obama would be raising the extrajudicial killings with Duterte at their planned meeting, but Duterte reacted strongly, saying: “You must be respectful”. Duterte, who became president of the Philippines in June, called Obama “son of a whore” Monday.
Duterte later said he and Obama agreed to postpone the meeting.
The president was asked about human rights concerns that Obama may raise as a result of the massive deaths in the country, which Duterte said would be “rude” of Obama.
Duterte’s office issued an apology for the Philippine president. “Son of a b–h, I will swear at you”.
“We look forward to ironing out our differences arising out of national priorities and perceptions”, a spokesperson said on behalf of Duterte.
Obama is the first sitting USA president to set foot in the impoverished, landlocked country, where for nine years the US conducted a punishing, covert bombing campaign in an effort to cut off communist forces in neighboring Vietnam.
US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton weighed in on the diplomatic flap involving Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and the man she would like to replace, US President Barack Obama.
Duterte has earlier cursed the pope and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Instead, he said, he was angry at members of the USA state department who “keep on mouthing” statements about human rights.
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Concerned by increased Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea, former Philippine President Benigno Aquino III embraced the U.S. -Philippines alliance. “So. people who live in glass houses should not” throw stones at others. In July, an arbitration court in The Hague invalidated China’s territorial claims after a case was brought by the Philippines.
