DANANG – 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 (Nov 9), Duterte also threatened to slap a 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. I’d have rumbles here, rumbles there,” said Duterte, who is in Danang for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit.

“At the age of 16, I already killed someone. A real person, a rumble, 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 drug-related crimes, while thousands of other deaths remain unsolved, according to government data.

Duterte, 72, remains popular with many Filipinos who believe he is making society safer. But critics at home and abroad warn that he is orchestrating a campaign of extrajudicial mass murder, carried out by corrupt police and hired vigilantes.

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 said last year he would be “happy to slaughter” three million drug addicts and branded then US president Barack Obama a “son of a w****” for criticising the drug war.

Duterte also said in December last year that he had personally shot dead criminal suspects when he was mayor of southern Davao city to set an example for the police. His then spokesman later sought to clarify the remarks, saying those killings were during a “legitimate police action”.

Killer, or killer jokes Esquire magazine quoted Duterte as saying in an interview before he became president that he “maybe” stabbed someone to death when he was 17 years old, in what may be a reference to the incident described in Danang

. In an election campaign rally Duterte also said he was expelled from college for shooting a fellow student who was insulting him. The victim reportedly lived.

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-to-death claim.

“I think it was in jest. The Pres uses colourful language when w Pinoys (Filipinos) overseas,” Roque said in a text message.

In Danang, Duterte also targeted the United Nations’ special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, Agnes Callamard, who has been a frequent critic of the drug war.

“This rapporteur,” he said, after referring to Callamard by name. “I will slap her in front of you. Why? Because you are insulting me.”

Duterte’s latest comments come ahead of him hosting US President Donald Trump and other leaders for the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit. Trump is due to fly into Manila from Vietnam along with many other leaders on Sunday evening, ahead of two days of talks.

Trump has praised Duterte’s handling of the drug war, telling the Philippine leader in a telephone call in April that he was doing a “great job”.

Human rights campaigners have said the summit will be a public relations coup for Duterte, with Trump and other leaders expected to ignore the drug war controversy.

“Duterte will enjoy the gift of tacit silence from East Asian leaders on his murderous drug war during the upcoming summit,” Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director Phelim Kine told AFP.

“The summit messaging will be of feel-good mutual economic win-wins that will ignore the fact that Duterte has inflected a campaign of mass extrajudicial killings.”

BANGKOK: A Nakhon Ratchasima man who allegedly threatened staff at a 7-Eleven store in Bangkok’s Lak Si district with a rifle early Tuesday morning and made off with Bt1,000 (S$41) in cash was found to have committed suicide by hanging at a garage in Vibhavadi-Rangsit Soi 33 on Friday morning.

The body of Natthapong Sosut, 29, was found at 8am.

Police found a four-page suicide note addressed to his family and police.

The note said Natthapong was remorseful for what he had done and had decided to commit suicide because he didn’t want to be in prison for the crime, which could carry up to a 15 years’ jail term.

Police sent the man’s body for autopsy to determine the cause of death while forensic officers inspected the scene.

MANILA – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who is facing international criticism for his bloody war on drugs, said his country was willing to host a “world summit” to tackle how nations can protect human rights.

The firebrand leader, who spoke in a news conference late on Thursday while in Vietnam for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, said the summit should focus on human rights violations not just in the Philippines but globally.

Some western countries and human rights groups have strongly criticised Duterte’s anti-narcotics campaign that has killed more than 3,900 suspected drug users and peddlers, in what the police called self-defence after armed suspects resisted arrest.

Critics dispute that and say executions are taking place with zero accountability, allegations the police reject.

“Let’s have a summit of how we can protect human rights for all human race,” Duterte said shortly after meeting with the Filipino community in Vietnam, where he also renewed his attacks against United Nations human rights expert Agnes Callamard.

“What makes the death of people in the Philippines more important than the rest of the children in the world that were massacred and killed,” he asked.

He said all victims of human rights violations are welcome to attend the summit and air their grievances.

Duterte reiterated his threat to slap Callamard if she investigates him for the rising death toll in his war on drugs and would ask her why she has made no comments on the victims of bombings and violence in the Middle East.

“What have you been doing all the time? Why are you so fascinated with drugs?” Duterte said.

Duterte also threatened to ban two American lawmakers from coming to Manila after they criticised US President Donald Trump for inviting him to visit the United States.

“If you do not like me, I do not like you. We’re even,” he said without naming the lawmakers.

Democratic Rep. James McGovern and Republican Rep. Randy Hultgren had called on Trump to highlight the human rights situation in the Philippines in his upcoming visit to Manila.

“I will tell them, you are too presumptuous. What made you think that I am even planning or thinking about visiting your country?”

The Quezon City police has identified the two policemen who were accused of wolf-whistling at a woman along Katipunan Avenue, Radyo Inquirer 990 AM reported on Thursday.

Quezon City Police District (QCPD) head Chief Supt. Guillermo Eleazar said PO2 Rick Lopez Taguilan and PO1 Domingo Nagales Cena will be charged with administrative cases, as well as their superior SPO1 Ariel Camiling. They were also relieved from their posts.

According to the report, the victim, under the alias “Zandy,” identified Taguilan and Cena as the policemen who wolf whistled at her as they passed by on board an official patrol vehicle.

The QCPD also obtained closed-circuit television (CCTV) footages from the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) that showed the patrol car reportedly boarding Taguilan and Cena.

Eleazar said the policemen were on board a QCPD mobile unit No. 235 from Project 4 police station (PS-8) on the night the incident happened last Nov. 2.

Taguilan and Cena will face administrative charges for conduct unbecoming an officer while Camiling will be slapped with a complaint for dishonesty for covering up for the two.

The victim said she was walking along a poorly-lit area on Katipunan Avenue when the police mobile car passed by and slowed down as they were alongside the girl.

The policemen reportedly rolled down the window and whistled at her.

Quezon City is the only city that has a law penalizing catcalling. It imposes a fine ranging from P1,000 (S$26.50) to P5,000 and jail term of up to one month for acts considered as sexual harassment of women in public spaces.