Duterte Says He Killed Someone as a Teen Over a Look

Will President Trump meet face-to-face with a killer while in Asia? Depends on how literally you take the word of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, who on Thursday said, "At the age of 16, I already killed someone. A real person, a rumble, a stabbing. I was just 16 years old. It was just over a look." A rep for the president, however, tells the AFP the remark was made "in jest," and says Duterte regularly uses "colorful language" when addressing Filipinos overseas, as he was doing while in Da Nang, Vietnam.

CNN reports the comments were made in the context of discussing human right advocates who are no fans of his. He expressed that jail didn't frighten him, and "apparently used the anecdote to illustrate that." He also said in part, "Jail? Jeez. When I was a teenager, I was in and out of jail." The BBC reports it's not the first time Duterte has referenced a teenage killing, and quotes him as saying in 2015 that during "a tumultuous fight in the beach" around the age of 17, "maybe I stabbed somebody to death." (More Rodrigo Duterte stories.)