Just hours after declaring he was “not a killer,” President Duterte told a group of business leaders on Monday night that he “personally” killed drug suspects when he was mayor of Davao City.

Mr. Duterte said he rode a big bike-presumably his street-eating Harley-Davidson motorcycle-to patrol the streets, spoiling for a fight and seeking to kill.

He was defending his scorched-earth policy in the fight against illegal drugs for which he had drawn criticism from the United Nations, United States, European Union and international human rights groups.

Mr. Duterte said one-third of the nearly 6,000 drug suspects slain in his war on drugs were killed in legitimate police operations.

Read Also: Trump says Duterte ‘doing great’ on war vs drugs

“I know it because-I am not trying to pull my own chair-in Davao I used to do it personally. Just to show to the [policemen] that if I can do it, why can’t you?” Mr. Duterte said during the Wallace Business Forum in Malacañang.

“I go around in Davao (on) a big bike and I would just patrol the streets and looking for trouble. I was really looking for an encounter to kill,” he said.

For that approach to fighting crime in the Philippines’ “murder capital,” Time magazine called Mr. Duterte “The Punisher” in an article in 2002.

The magazine echoed the moniker in another article after Mr. Duterte’s election as President in May.

Read Also: Duterte ‘puppet show’ to spread war on drugs message to Manila schoolchildren

In his speech to businessmen on Monday night, Mr. Duterte said allegations of human rights violations hurled at him by local and international groups would not stop him from pursuing his campaign against the illegal drug trade.

“If I am afraid [and] stop because of the human rights … sorry, I am not about to do that,” he said.

“You [want to] arrest me? Oust me? Go ahead,” he added.

“So fine. Oust me? Good. Assassinate me? Better. I have this migraine every day [anyway],” he said.

Read Also: Philippines’ Duterte says he suffers from back pains, migraine

Barely five months into his six-year term, Mr. Duterte has gained notoriety for backpedaling on controversial policy statements.

After drawing fire for his outrageous comments, Mr. Duterte would later dismiss them as a “joke.”

Or his aides would explain his comments as “hyperbole,” even though his comments were quite plain statements.

Shortly before addressing the businessmen, Mr. Duterte rebuffed insinuations that he was a “killer” for condoning extrajudicial killings in his war on drugs and encouraging police to kill suspects who would resist arrest.

“I am not a killer. I do not relish or enjoy [seeing] a Filipino sprawled there with all the blood,” Mr. Duterte said in a speech during The Outstanding Filipino Awards for 2016 in Malacañang.

“I do not want you to die, that is not my order,” he stressed. “And even if Congress would give me a carpet authority to kill everybody, I won’t have the time nor the bullets to do it.”

He added: “You know every time I decide on things to buy guns and bullets, there is always in my mind that these things would be used against the Filipinos …. I don’t enjoy it.”

He needs help

As in his previous speeches, the President took out a sheaf of documents and showed it to his audience during his talk at both events in the Palace.

“This [is] the drug industry in this country,” Mr. Duterte said. “I would like to get advice. What should I do? I really want to cry. I feel as if I can’t do it.”

He said he gave copies of the documents to House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III to seek help in dealing with the drug menace, which he described as “a threat to national security.”

But Mr. Duterte has some ideas of his own, including making the rich adopt drug addicts.

He also had a few words for the Catholic Church, one of the strident critics of his bloody war on drugs: “Check out your flock and look for the lost sheep.”

Read Also: Philippine drug pushers give up en masse after Duterte warns about severe punishment

“They say, ‘Why did Duterte have to kill them? Why not just send them to [rehabilitation centres]?’ Son of a b****. They did not know I have nowhere to go,” he said.

“If you want to help me, make available your houses. To the rich people, those who have mansions with four, five or six rooms, give up one of the rooms. Adopt an addict and see what happens,” he said, eliciting giggles from his audience.

For the nth time, he said the Aquino administration left him funds good only for maintenance and operations, and nothing for building rehabilitation centres for drug addicts.

“So to the bleeding hearts, if you really want to stop the violence, do it. You adopt an addict and share the love [with] your fellowmen,” he said.

“It’s for you to understand the perdition of a drug addict. If you want, I will start with those from Tondo. Choose what you want, boy or girl. It’s just the same [anyway]. If they go crazy, they will stab you dead. It leads to a massacre. Do you think it’s that easy?” he said.

A new ad by Absolut Vodka has tapped South Korea’s on-going political crisis as creative inspiration, but the end result could leave the Swedish spirits giant with a nasty hangover.

Back in June, Absolut released a limited-edition bottle called ‘Absolut Korea,’ a coffee, almond and chili flavored vodka that the company claimed exhibited ” the vibrant culture of Korea.”

That in itself wasn’t alarming as Absolut is known for a steady stream of new flavors based on global trends, countries and cultures.

In May, it released ‘Absolut Buenos Aires’ and one its more recent products is a dedication to nightlife called ‘Absolut Facet.’

But over the weekend, the quintessential brand may have taken its reference of popular culture too far by releasing a new ad for ‘Absolut Korea’ that features a time-lapse photograph of a candlelight anti-government protest in Seoul, with the crowd’s shape taking on the appearance of an Absolut bottle.

It has sparked outrage among some South Koreans, who are still dealing with the consequences of a political scandal that could see President Park Geun-hye become the nation’s first female leader to get impeached.

Read Also: Fresh protest pushes defiant S Korea president to resign

Since late October, protests against Park have been a normal occurrence and the country is now mired in uncertainty amid the prospect of earlier-than-expected elections and fears of potential damage to the economy.

“This is shameless, selfish industrial advertising,” commented one South Korean on Facebook in response to the brand’s Dec. 10 post. “Do not commercialize our democracy,” another wrote.

Some netizens however praised Absolut for its innovative approach, noting that the ad was a celebration of South Korean democracy.

“I actually like their clever use of the image, I love the statement (and encouragement to Korean people) that the future is yours to create,” said one Facebook user.

Read Also: Hundred of thousands gather in South Korea for fifth week of protests against President Park

Absolut’s ad campaigns, which typically feature the vodka bottle against creative backgrounds, rank among the world’s most iconic and are frequently saved, alongside the bottles, by customers as collector items. But ‘Absolut Korea’ isn’t the first time the risk-taking brand has landed in hot water.

For a 2008 ad designed to run only in Mexico, Absolut showed a map that depicted the southwestern US as a part of the Latin American nation, which resulted in a heated debate about illegal immigration from Mexico to the US

Donald Trump’s push to reset America’s relationship with China has led him to question a fundamental principle that allows him to hold talks with Beijing in the first place.

Trump recently suggested he could scrap America’s longstanding “one China” principle, a core tenet of Chinese belief that holds that Taiwan is part of the mainland.

The principle goes far beyond politics or economics in China, into the very heart of how both Beijing and regular Chinese citizens define their nation.

Trump told “Fox News Sunday” that he did not know “why we have to bound by a ‘one China’ policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade.”

Read Also: Chinese media hit out at Trump over ‘One China’ comments

His comments prompted a strong rebuke from Beijing, as a foreign ministry spokesman said the government had “serious concern” about Trump’s remarks.

Leaders in both Beijing and Taipei say they are the legal government of China, but the US chose in the 1970s only to recognise only Beijing in order to have a diplomatic relationship with the country.

Trump’s tactics risk upsetting a fundamental understanding with China that allows him to have talks with its government at all, experts said.

Beijing’s view of one China is a “sacred, foundational” principle, and using the policy to bargain likely will not help Trump reach his policy goals, said Robert Daly, director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Wilson Center.

“This is not a bargaining chip that you use to come closer to getting your ideal set of circumstances regarding trade matters, human rights or anything else,” Daly said.

“To withdraw from the one China policy is to renounce formal relations with China. Then there’s no basis to discuss any of these issues.”

Beijing made that clear in its response to Trump’s Sunday comments.

“If the [one China policy] is compromised or interfered with, any sound and steady development in China-US relations and co-operation in various fields is out of the question,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters.

Trump has insisted he wants to tip the economic balance between the world’s two largest economies, which are critical trading partners for one another.

Read Also: Trump questions “one China policy” without Beijing concessions

In 2015, the flow of goods from China to the United States exceeded the flow in the opposite direction by $366 billion.

Trump targeted China during his campaign, frequently saying the Asian giant unfairly devalued its currency and taxed US exports.

Those moves make Chinese products more competitive relative to American products.

Trump promised to give the US the upper hand again, even though China since mid-2014 has struggled to keep its currency higher against the dollar, not lower.

The president-elect’s populist economic rhetoric blamed China, Mexico and other countries for manufacturing job losses in the United States.

Despite what are in some cases valid complaints about Chinese policy, a re-evaluation of one China may not give Trump any leverage to achieve his goals, wrote Richard Bush, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and Taiwan expert. He added that Taiwan could end up suffering “collateral damage” in the process, as Beijing could be less inclined to seek reunification with the island nation peacefully.

“Whatever the current problems in the US-China relationship today, our reneging on the Taiwan part of the packaged deal would not provide leverage on trade, North Korea, the South China Sea, or any of the other issues that roil the relationship. More likely, it would rattle the entire framework of the relationship, and cause Beijing to rethink its policy of seeking reunification by peaceful means,” he wrote in an open letter to Trump.

Still, it may be reckless to read too much into Trump’s intentions before he takes office, said Anthony Cordesman, the Burke chair in strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Read Also: Taiwan urges calm from China after Trump call

Campaign rhetoric often differs from White House policy, and Trump may not plan to act on the comments he makes now, he said.

It is not yet clear if Trump actually supports a strong, independent Taiwan or if his comments are just one potential tool he is probing before he takes office.

Trump on Tuesday announced that he picked Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson as secretary of state, so the administration may not have developed detailed foreign policy yet.