Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who is known for his colorful language and his short fuse, said he would stop cursing after God told him so.
Arriving in his home city of Davao after a trip to Japan, Rodrigo Duterte said God gave him an ultimatum on the plane.
He said that late at night while everyone was snoring on a flight back to the Philippines, he had heard a voice that said if he didn’t stop swearing: “I will bring this plane down now.”
“I heard a voice telling me to stop swearing or the plane will crash in mid-air, and so I promised to stop,” Rodrigo Duterte told reporters at the airport.
His blunt speaking, often directed at the West, has contributed to his popularity at home.
All were responses to criticisms of his bloody war on drugs, that has seen thousands of alleged drug dealers and users killed by police and vigilante groups.
Rodrigo Duterte said he had promised God he would not “express slang, cuss words and everything”, and said a “promise to God is a promise to the Filipino people”.
However, he suggested his promise might have its limits. Whether he will stick to not swearing when talking about the US, EU or arch political foe Senator Leila de Lima, will depend on timing, local media quoted him as saying.
Like most Filipinos, Rodrigo Duterte is Roman Catholic, although he has boasted about his womanizing and called the Pope a “son of a whore” for causing traffic jams during his visit.
Rodrigo Duterte has spoken about being abused by an American priest as a child, saying that informed his political views.
