MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines appeared to admit in a speech this week that he had ordered an assassination attempt on a politician last year, a startling statement even for a president known for bloody, provocative rhetoric.

His spokesman said on Wednesday that Mr. Duterte had misspoken.

In a speech on Tuesday night at the presidential palace in Manila, Mr. Duterte railed against drug-related corruption in Philippine politics. He mentioned two mayors who were killed by the police after he accused them of drug crimes: Rolando Espinosa, who was gunned down in his jail cell in 2016, and Reynaldo Parojinog, who died in a raid on his home in 2017.

Then he mentioned Vicente Loot, a mayor and former general who survived an attack by gunmen in the central Philippines in May 2018.

“General Loot, you son of a bitch,” he said. “I ambushed you, you animal, and you still survived.”

A presidential spokesman, Salvador Panelo, said Wednesday that Mr. Duterte had meant to say “You were ambushed,” not “I ambushed you.” Mr. Duterte, he noted, is not a native speaker of the Filipino language but of Visayan, which is spoken mainly in the southern and central Philippines.