The Philippines President’s controversial “son of a whore” remark that caused President Barack Obama to cancel a planned meeting was actually directed at a reporter, according to President Rodrigo Duterte and Tagolog-speaking commentators.

Mr Obama had planned to meet with Mr Duterte on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit that wrapped up on Thursday in Laos, but the meeting was cancelled after the widely-reported insult.

Most media reported that Mr Duterte said “son of a whore, I will curse you in that forum” in reference to Mr Obama.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObsqiO2pHKs

However several sources, including Mr Duterte himself, said the curse was directed at the reporter who asked the notoriously foul-mouthed leader how he would respond to criticism at ASEAN over his policy encouraging police and vigilantes to shoot dead suspected drug dealers.

“While the immediate cause was my strong comments to certain press questions that elicited concern and distress, we also regret it came across as a personal attack on the US President,” Mr Duterte said in a statement read on Wednesday by spokesman Ernesto Abella.

The presidential chief legal counsel Salvador Panelo accused the US Government of “misreading” Mr Duterte’s comments.

“It’s just an expression, I don’t think it was directed to President Obama,” said Mr Panelo, according to the Philippines newspaper The Inquirer.

In response, Mr Obama called Mr Duterte a “colourful guy” and asked US officials to find a way to have a productive meeting at another time.

Speakers of the Philippines language have also pointed out the phrase is much less offensive in Tagolog, but sounds very harsh when translated directly to English.

Sub–title expert chips in

“Putang ina literally means ‘whore mother’ and when used in Filipino, is more of an expletive expression of annoyance, dissatisfaction or anger … like ‘shit’ or ‘damn it’,” said Jason Paul Laxamana, a filmmaker who does Tagalog-English subtitles for Filipino movies.

“Adding ‘mo’ to putang ina (‘mo’ in Tagalog is you/your/yours) is another thing … the translation becomes ‘your mother is a whore’ or ‘you son of a whore’ which is a verbal insult specifically to another person,” he said.

Several transcripts of the speech confirm Mr Duterte said the less offensive ‘putang ina’.

“If I would subtitle Duterte’s sentence, it would be “damn it, I’ll curse you in that forum,” Mr Laxamana told the ABC.

“I watched the whole speech and it doesn’t sound like he was directing it to anyone,” he said.

A similar interpretation has been detailed by Nizza Gueco, a writer for the Liberal America website.

“As a clarification, Duterte is referring to reporters who are not respectful and are throwing questions at him that are not on topic,” Ms Gueco said.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (left) arrives at the ASEAN summit in Laos. Photo: Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull met briefly with Mr Duterte at an ASEAN gala dinner last night in Vientiane.

Context is everything

Mr Duterte made the comment during a speech on September 5 about his trip to Laos for the ASEAN meeting.

A Filipino reporter asked how Mr Duterte would respond to criticisms of the killings of alleged drug dealers by police and vigilantes.

Since he took office on June 30, over 2,400 accused people have been killed, some left with handwritten notes saying “drug pusher” by their corpses.

When Mr Duterte asked who would be criticising the policy, an audience member reporter suggested “like Obama, Sir”, according to analysis on the Liberal America website.

“You know, the Philippines is not a vassal state. We have long ceased to be a colony of the United States,” Mr Duterte replied.

He reportedly went on to chastise the reporter.

“You must be respectful. Do not just throw away questions and statements. Damn it [putang ina] I will curse you in that forum.”

A notoriously foul-mouthed President

Mr Duterte has a long history of causing offence with his crude words and abrasive style.

The leader of the devoutly Catholic nation has reportedly called the Pope a “son of a whore” and called the US ambassador to the Philippines a “gay ambassador, the son of a whore”.

The lethal results of Duterte’s war

The former mayor of Davao offended many Australians when he joked about seeing the body of murdered Australian nun, Jacqueline Hamill, who was sexually assaulted and had her throat cut during a prison siege in 1989.

“I looked at her face — son of a bitch — what a waste. What came to mind was, they raped her, they lined up,” he said.

“I was angry because she was raped, that’s one thing … but she was so beautiful, the mayor should have been first. What a waste.”

Despite the gaffes, Manila pollster Pulse Asia said 91 per cent of Filipinos supported Mr Duterte in their last popularity survey in July.