VIENTIANE, Laos—Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte expressed regret Tuesday over his “son of a b----” remark while referring to President Barack Obama, in a rare display of contrition by a politician whose wide arc of profanities has unabashedly targeted world figures including the pope and the U.N. chief.
In a statement read out by his spokesman, Duterte said that while his “strong comments” in response to questions by a reporter “elicited concern and distress, we also regret it came across as a personal attack on the U.S. president.”
Duterte had made the intemperate remarks Monday before flying to Laos, where he is attending a regional summit. He had been scheduled to meet Obama separately in Laos, but Obama indicated he had second thoughts, and the White House announced that the meeting had been canceled.
The Philippines did not comment publicly on the cancellation until about nine hours later, when Duterte’sstatement said that both sides had “mutually agreed to postpone” the meeting.
Even though Duterte’s latest comment does not amount to an apology, the expression of regret is unusual for the tough-talking former mayor, who is unapologetic about his manner of speech and liberally peppers casual statements with profanities such as “son of a [expletive]” and “son of a [expletive].”
