MANILA, Philippines – For what it’s worth, President Duterte is apologizing for his penchant for swearing, which many Filipinos find unpleasant, based on a recent survey of pollster Social Weather Stations (SWS).

“Sorry for my bad words,” Duterte said as he winded up a speech before some of the country’s top businessmen at Malacañang last Monday night. “I was not disciplined enough by my father and mother.”

Last week, the SWS survey showed 51 percent of Filipinos think Duterte’s habit of publicly cursing foreign officials is harmful to Philippine relations with other countries, while 33 percent thought otherwise. This was despite his “very good” satisfaction rating in the survey, taken Dec. 3 to 6 among 1,500 Filipinos nationwide.

The President said he was sorry for his bad words in the presence of the country’s top businessmen, led by Manny V. Pangilinan, chief executive of the Hong Kong-listed holding firm First Pacific Co. Ltd. and chairman of giant telco Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), during a Christmas townhall meeting at Malacañang.

The audience also included Philippine Airlines’ top honcho Lucio Tan; Raul Concepcion, chairman and CEO of appliance maker Concepcion Industries; Teresita Sy-Coson, vice chair of department-store-based SM Investments Corp.; and Universal Robina Corp.’s Robina Gokongwei, who all pledged support for the development of war-stricken Sulu province in Mindanao.

The President, though, also defended his abrasive language, which has caught international attention, after he described United States President Barack Obama as a “son of the bitch” and said “f*** you!” to the European Union for raising human rights concerns over his administration’s bloody war against illegal drugs.

Duterte had also interjected words such as “fool,” “stupid” and “crazy” every time he expressed displeasure over certain events and personalities critical of his leadership and his all-out war against illegal drugs.

“As elected President, I have to do this because I have to protect the Filipino,” Duterte said.

“I have to preserve the country. It’s actually a self-preservation thing. It does not need any Constitution to say to protect your people,” he added.

While he has cursed to stress his point or express his displeasure against drugs and actions of his critics, Duterte has rarely apologized for uttering bad words.