It’s been a rough few days for Barack Obama. He was snubbed by the Chinese upon arrival at the G20 summit and then had an apparently tense moment during a brief encounter with Vladimir Putin on the sidelines.

Now a fellow world leader has verbally attacked him, with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte labelling him a ‘putang ina’ – the Tagalog phrase for ‘son of a whore’.

Mr Duterte’s abuse came in response to comments made by Mr Obama over the Philippines’ brutal war on drugs, which has seen 2400 alleged drug traffickers killed in just two months, many of them by vigilantes.

“Who is he [Mr Obama] to confront me?” Mr Duterte told reporters. “You must be respectful. Do not just throw away questions and statements. Son of a whore, I will curse you in that forum.

“We will be wallowing in the mud like pigs if you do that to me.”

Mr Obama’s response?

“Clearly, he’s a colourful guy,” he said.

The US President said his country would always assert the need for due process and to carry out the campaign in a way that is consistent with basic international norms. He then cancelled a planned meeting between the two presidents.

An apology, sort of

Mr Duterte said he regretted that his comments “came across as a personal attack” on Mr Obama.

The Philippines government also moved to soothe tensions between the nations after the meeting was cancelled.

“President Duterte explained that the press reports that President Obama would ‘lecture’ him on extrajudicial killings led to his strong comments, which in turn elicited concern,” the government said in a statement.

“He regrets that his remarks to the press have caused much controversy.”

In a separate statement, Mr Duterte said he remained committed to Manila’s alliance with the United States.

“Our primary intention is to chart an independent foreign policy while promoting ties with all nations, especially the US with which we have had a longstanding partnership,” he said.

Barack Obama cancelled a meeting with his Philippines counterpart. Photo: AAP

The Punisher

The slur is the latest controversial incident involving Mr Duterte, who TIME magazine dubbed ‘The Punisher’ because of his hardline stance on crime.

During the Philippines’ election campaign in early 2016, Mr Duterte made damaging comments about the rape of an Australian missionary who was killed during a prison riot while he was a local mayor in 1989.

“He regrets that his remarks to the press have caused much controversy.”
Philippines government issues apology to Obama

He said inmates had lined up to rape her and it was a “waste” because, as mayor, being first was his right.

“I was mad she was raped but she was so beautiful. I thought, the mayor should have been first.”

When Australia’s newly-arrived ambassador in Manila, Amanda Gorely, criticised his comments, he told her to “shut up” and threatened to cut diplomatic ties with Canberra.

Then in June he approved the killing of journalists.

“Just because you’re a journalist, you are not exempted from assassination, if you’re a son of a bitch,” he said.

‘Go ahead and kill drug addicts’

Days after being elected as President, Mr Duterte urged the nation’s communist rebels to execute drug traffickers.

Thousands of alleged criminals have been killed. Photo: AAP

“Drugs have reached the hinterlands,” he said. “What if you use your kangaroo courts to kill them to speed up the solution to our problem?”

In the past he has both confirmed and denied running death squads to summarily execute suspected criminals while he was mayor of Davao, a south Philippines city.

More than 1000 alleged drug users were killed by police in the Philippines since July 1. Almost 1400 were killed by vigilantes in the same period.

‘I don’t care about human rights’

Mr Duterte’s measures to prevent crime have come under intense scrutiny from human rights bodies.

“I don’t care about human rights, believe me,” he said, according to speech transcripts released by the Philippines presidential palace.

These scenes have become common in the Philippines. Photo: AAP

Amnesty International and the United Nations have led the charge against Duterte.

“Now he [Mr Duterte] is in power, he needs to … break with his earlier [election campaign] rhetoric,” Amnesty International Asian director Rafendi Djamin said in a statement.

In August, however, Duterte threatened to leave the UN after two of its experts accused him of “incitement of violence and killing, a crime under international law,” BBC reported.

Mr Duterte responded: “I do not want to insult you. But maybe we’ll just have to decide to separate from the United Nations.”

He said he could persuade China and African nations to form their own UN-style body.