MANILA - President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday defended his use of profanities before foreign participants of the 7th Union Asia Pacific Regional Conference in Pasay City, saying it is not a crime.

The President said he is not schooled on statesmanship.

“The press, international, they don’t like me. So when I say p*****-i** mo, actually it’s a slang, and it means son of a b****… It’s not even a crime,” he said.

“And besides, I was not schooled in statesmanship. There is no course of that kind in the Philippines. Otherwise, I would have enrolled it and improved on my demeanor,” he added.

Duterte also shared that in his experience as a Davao City mayor, it was difficult to get people to carry out orders without dropping curses.

“Those are the languages of the mayor, especially in Mindanao. You do not get results when you do not say “P***** i** mo,”” Duterte said.

He noted that curse words are used even in movies.

“I counted one movie with the word F. In one movie… they said it 400 times in a one-hour and 45-minute movie,” he said.

The President also defended his way of wearing barong.

“But I said I’ve been mayor and they do not like my barong folded this way, because it’s a national attire. But I have been in this kind of characterization of my sartorial insanity, and I just don’t follow rules,” he said.