MANILA (UPDATED) - President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday took a swipe at former Senator Francisco 'Kit' Tatad, by joking that he did go on a secret trip to China last December but it was to get a second circumcision, not to get cancer treatment.

‘Totoong nagpunta akong ospital, nagpatuli ako. Sabihin mo sa kanya [Tatad], nagpatuli ako ulit eh, bumalik [ang foreskin] eh,” Duterte said during his speech at the launch of the Bureau of Internal Revenue's (BIR) tax campaign for 2017.

(It is true that I went to the hospital for circumcision. I had to undergo circumcision again because the foreskin grew back.)

The statement was in response to Tatad's column in The Manila Times, which asked whether Duterte secretly sought cancer treatment at the Guangzhou’s Fuda Cancer Hospital in China.

"T*** I** mo...Staying with Marcos for so many years tapos ngayon parang sino ka kung magsalita," Duterte said of Tatad, who served during the Marcos dictatorship.

Tatad served as minister of Public Information under the late President Ferdinand Marcos from 1969 to 1980.

Duterte even added that he once joined a line of adolescent boys for a traditional "pok-pok" circumcision, usually done in coastal areas during summer.

“Pinaputol ko ulit nang malinis, no dangling [skin] ano,” he added.

(I had it cut again so that it's clean.)

Guangzhou's Fuda Cancer Hospital has placed a newspaper ad denying that Duterte sought cancer treatment in its facility.