MANILA, Philippines – President Rodrigo Duterte said Wednesday that he was intentionally using harsh and vulgar words to attack those who had been unfairly criticizing him even before he became president.

“Sinadya ko ‘yan para pang-bastos … kasi kampanya pa lang binabastos na nila ako,” (I am deliberately being rude because they have been rude to me even during the campaign period) Duterte said in a speech in Dimasalang town in Masbate.

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However, after saying he was trying to push the “limits of civility,” he added, “I hope I have not offended anybody by my strong words or my jokes,”

The Presidents’ crass language has landed him in trouble but he has remained unfazed and continued to attack and threaten his critics.

In a speech early last year, he ordered the military to shoot female communist rebels in the vagina.

The Chief Executive also dropped bombshells on his political rivals, often asking the public if they have seen Sen. Leila de Lima’s alleged steamy sex video.

He recently accused former Interior secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II, who lost to him in the 2016 presidential elections, of ordering the ambush of former police general and now Daanbantayan, Cebu, Mayor Vicente Loot.

In a speech in Malacañang, he asked the audience to kill their bishops. He also mocked the Catholic celebration of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day.

Two days ago, the President suggested to “kidnap” and “torture” officials of the Commission on Audit (COA) as he slammed the agency’s accountability measures that were supposedly hampering government work.

READ: 2018: A nation fed with jokes

All of these, his spokesman said, were merely jokes or the President’s expressions of free speech. /cbb

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