Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte denies throwing person off a helicopter
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President Duterte: 5 outrageous quotes
Story highlights
NEW: Rodrigo Duterte said US President-elect Donald Trump is "easy to get along with"
NEW: His anti-drug campaign will continue "until the last drug lord is killed," Duterte said
Manila, PhilippinesCNN
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Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte denied throwing a person off a helicopter in an interview with CNN Philippines Thursday, contradicting a statement he made on live television earlier this week.
“We had no helicopter. We don’t use that,” he said. He described the incident as “just the creative imagination of this Tulfo.”
Duterte did not clarify who Tulfo was, but he could have been referring to a number of journalists with the same surname.
Photos: Rodrigo Duterte has said some outrageous things.
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Speaking at a business forum in Manila in December 2016, Duterte admitted killing suspected criminals during his time as mayor of Davao City.
Photos: Rodrigo Duterte has said some outrageous things.
TED ALJIBE/Getty Images
The day after Trump won the US presidential election in November 2016, Duterte said he and Trump share some traits.
Photos: Rodrigo Duterte has said some outrageous things.
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After reports emerged of a potentially blocked arms sale, Duterte told CNN Philippines in November 2016 that he would turn to Russia for weapons.
Photos: Rodrigo Duterte has said some outrageous things.
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During a state visit to China in October 2016, Duterte announced his economic and military 'separation' from the US.
Photos: Rodrigo Duterte has said some outrageous things.
Lam Yik Fei/Stringer/Getty Images
In October 2016 Duterte expressed growing hostility with the US president.
Photos: Rodrigo Duterte has said some outrageous things.
After US president Barack Obama said he would raise extrajudicial killings in a meeting with Duterte, the Philippines President responded angrily on September 5, first in English then in Tagalog. As a result, Obama canceled the meeting.
Photos: Rodrigo Duterte has said some outrageous things.
NOEL CELIS/AFP/Getty Images
As he addressed troops at the country's Armed Forces Central Command Headquarters on August 5, Duterte recounted U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's visit to the country, saying in Tagalog that he was feuding with U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg.
Photos: Rodrigo Duterte has said some outrageous things.
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The Philippines president-elect effectively said he supported vigilantism against drug dealers and criminals in a nationally televised speech in June 2016.
Photos: Rodrigo Duterte has said some outrageous things.
NOEL CELIS/AFP/Getty Images
Foreign diplomats weighing in on Rodrigo Duterte's controversial remarks did not sit well with the then-mayor.
Photos: Rodrigo Duterte has said some outrageous things.
Bullit Marquez/AP
Duterte apologized to the Pope after cursing him for the traffic he caused during a 2015 Papal visit to the Philippines.
Photos: Rodrigo Duterte has said some outrageous things.
NOEL CELIS/AFP/Getty Images
In September 2016, Duterte likened himself to the Nazi leader and announced that he wants to kill millions of drug addicts.
Photos: Rodrigo Duterte has said some outrageous things.
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Speaking at a press conference to unveil his new cabinet on May 31 2016, Rodrigo Duterte said journalists killed on the job in the Philippines were often corrupt.
Photos: Rodrigo Duterte has said some outrageous things.
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During the third and last presidential debate, Duterte had said that he would plant a Philippine flag in disputed territories should China refuse to recognize a favorable ruling for the Philippines.
Photos: Rodrigo Duterte has said some outrageous things.
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Duterte made international headlines in April 2016 with his inflammatory comments on the 1989 rape and murder of an Australian missionary that took place in Davao City.
Photos: Rodrigo Duterte has said some outrageous things.
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He also lashed out at the womens' group that filed a complaint against him before the Commission on Human Rights (CHR).
Photos: Rodrigo Duterte has said some outrageous things.
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At a CNN Philippines Townhall event in February 2016, Duterte, admitted that he had three girlfriends and a common-law wife. His marriage to Elizabeth Zimmerman was annulled due to his womanizing, but he denied this meant he objectified women.
Photos: Rodrigo Duterte has said some outrageous things.
NOEL CELIS/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Although he later denied the accusations, the former Davao City mayor admitted his links to the alleged Davao death squad in a May 2015 broadcast of his local television talk show.
In Thursday’s interview with CNN Philippines, Duterte also:
• described US President-elect Donald Trump as “easy to get along with”
• suggested he would end an agreement allowing a US military presence in his country
• said he would continue his controversial fight against drugs “until the last drug lord is killed.”
‘I did that before and I can do that again’
In a televised speech Tuesday, Duterte said he had previously thrown someone off a helicopter and threatened the same fate to anyone misusing public funds.
“Whoever will use this (public funds) for corruption, I will get him (to) ride the helicopter with me going to Manila and will push him out while we we are up in the air,” Duterte said. “Yes I will do that! I did that before and I can do that again.”
When asked if the event actually happened – and if the person killed was a kidnapper, as local media was reporting – Martin Andanar, the presidential communications secretary, told CNN: “It happened; he said it.”
Photos: Philippines drug crackdown
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Police patrol a shanty community at night during curfew on June 8, 2016 in Manila.
Photos: Philippines drug crackdown
TED ALJIBE/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Some 1,000 people whom authorities accused of being drug users and dealers take an oath before local authorities after turning themselves in in Tanauan, the Philippines, on July 18, 2016.
Photos: Philippines drug crackdown
TED ALJIBE/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
A man authorities accused of being a drug user is fingerprinted during the mass surrender of some 1,000 alleged drug users and pushers in the Philippine town of Tanauan, located about 37 miles (60 kilometers) south of Manila on July 18, 2016.
Photos: Philippines drug crackdown
TED ALJIBE/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
A social worker gives counseling to those who have turned themselves in for drug-related crimes in the Philippines on July 18, 2016.
Photos: Philippines drug crackdown
NOEL CELIS/AFP/Getty Images
A woman cradles her husband, next to a placard which reads "I'm a pusher," who was shot dead in Manila on July 23, 2016.
Photos: Philippines drug crackdown
TED ALJIBE/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
A Philippine police forensic investigator displays packets of drugs and a hand gun found inside a shanty where members of a suspected drug syndicate were killed after a shootout with police on July 3, 2016.
Photos: Philippines drug crackdown
Dondi Tawatao/Getty Images
A suspected female member of a drug syndicate is presented by police in Manila on June 22, 2016.
Photos: Philippines drug crackdown
Dondi Tawatao/Getty Images AsiaPac/Getty Images
A gun, bullets, marked money and sachets of crystal meth are laid on a table after a drug raid in Manila on June 20, 2016.
Photos: Philippines drug crackdown
NOEL CELIS/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Police officers stand in formation before the start of "Oplan Rody" on June 1, 2016, a law enforcement operation named after President Duterte, whose nickname is Rody.
Duterte: ‘I am playing you’
Questioned by CNN Philippines anchor Pinky Webb about calls by the United Nations for potential investigations into claims by Duterte about killing others, the President seemed to poke fun at the media picking up on his every word.
“I am playing you, I am really like that, your team knows I really want to say jokes. When I say for example, when I pray … like what God told me … it is the same. And you spent time writing about it, criticizing, and that is your story, and you believe that.”
Asked by CNN Philippines if he is expecting a different relationship with President-elect Donald Trump, Duterte said: “Yes … I am really waiting because that person is kind … like in a street language, he is easy to get along with. Like when I say to him, ‘You know we have the same mouth Mr. President, you know, the only problem is that yours in English, mine in my dialect but same.’”
A key concern for the incoming US President will be Duterte’s warning that he wants to repeal agreements allowing a US military presence in the country.
Duterte told CNN Philippines: “Why won’t I kick them out? They want to destroy me. Who will be a stupid person, a President that will allow that? If you are here for your own benefit, no need to do maneuvers with the Filipino soldiers, they are good, better than you.
“It is only on your own convenience, on your own pacing. You are just bullying China. If you really want to recover the whole South China Sea, go and start it now. Go and send all your ships and battle and all.”
Before Duterte’s rise to power, the Philippines was expected to be a key US ally in defending the maritime rights of a number of Southeast Asian nations embroiled in a long-running dispute with China.
Drugs crackdown
Duterte was elected to office in May on a platform of cracking down on crime, particularly illegal drugs.
Asked by CNN Philippines if this fight was over, Duterte said it would continue “until the last pusher is out of the street.
“And I should be very frank with you and the country,” he said, looking directly into the camera. “Until the last drug lord is killed,” he said, swiping his hand across his throat, “this campaign will continue to the very last day of my term.”
Washington has been critical of the handling of drug dealers, including extrajudical killings – what appear to be government executions without judicial proceedings. But on December 3, Trump told the Philippines President that he was going about his controversial fight against drugs “the right way,” according to Duterte.
CNN’s Pamela Boykoff and journalist Jinky Jorgio reported from Manila and Laura Smith-Spark wrote from London.
