Duterte: I hope I haven’t offended anybody with my strong words

President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday defended his harsh rhetoric against his critics and expressed hope his colorful language has not offended anyone.

In a speech in Dimasalang, Masbate, Duterte said he was “pursuing the limits of civility” by attacking those who unfairly treated him.

“So I hope I have not offended anybody by my strong word or my joke. I cannot really...,” Duterte said.

“Parang sinadya ko ‘yan para pang-bastos. I am really pursuing the limit of civility kasi kampanya pa lang, binabastos na nila ako, eh.”

Several individuals and groups have been on the receiving end of Duterte's insults including the political opposition, the United States, the European Union, the International Criminal Court, some members of the Catholic Church and human rights organizations that protested the killings as a result of his war on drugs.

He also recently lashed out at the Commission on Audit and quipped that state auditors ought to be kidnapped and tortured for getting in the way of governance because of their stringent protocols.

Various quarters had also criticized Duterte for his other controversial remarks, including linking women’s beauty to rape, ordering troops to shoot female rebels in the vagina and claiming he “touched” his maid when he was a teenager.

Malacañang has repeatedly downplayed the President’s words as part of freedom of expression. The Palace also said Duterte is unmindful of “any consequential erosion of his public support” because of his controversial remarks.

“In fulfilling his constitutional duty to serve and to protect the people, the President endeavors to be creative, using means that may be unnerving to the conservatives unused to his ways of governance but effective in putting across message he wants to convey to the majority of the people who, surveys show, approves of his maverick methods,” presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said last week. —LBG, GMA News