Duterte calls Obama a 'son of a w****'

President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday lashed out at U.S. President Barack Obama and told him not to question him about extrajudicial killings

President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday called the U.S. President Barack Obama a "son of a w****" and told him not to question him about extrajudicial killings when they meet at a regional summit in Laos.

"I am a president of a sovereign state and we have long ceased to be a colony. I do not have any master except the Filipino people, nobody but nobody. You must be respectful. Do not just throw questions," Duterte said when asked by journalists before his departure to Laos when asked if Obama might raise the issue on extrajudicial killings in their meeting.

In Filipino, he added: "Son of a w**** I will swear at you in that forum."

Washington has expressed concern about a surge in drug-related killings since Duterte became president two months ago promising to wipe out narcotics in the Southeast Asian nation.

Duterte had earlier said he was willing to speak with Obama on any issue, but added that the U.S. president must listen to him first before bringing up the question of human rights.

Over 2,400 people have been killed in Duterte's campaign against illegal drugs, with the police saying about 900 of those killed died in police operations, and the rest were "deaths under investigation," a term human rights activists say is a euphemism for vigilante and extrajudicial killings.

Duterte, a former crime-busting mayor of Davao City, won the presidency in May promising to suppress crime and wipe out drugs and drug dealers.

While his campaign has won popular support, the killings have alarmed rights groups and brought expressions of concern from the United States, a former colonial power and a close Philippine ally, and the United Nations.

He earlier lambasted the United Nations after it criticized the surge in killings and he turned down a meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the summit in Laos.

He also lashed out at the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, calling him a "gay son of a w****".