Philippines President prompts summons with homophobic slur

The Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte sparked controversy by calling the US ambassador “gay” in comments that prompted Washington to summon Manila’s envoy to complain.

Duterte reportedly used a local Tagalog language homophobic slur to express his displeasure with US Ambassador Philip Goldberg in televised comments on Friday.

 “As you know, I’m fighting with (US Secretary of State John Kerry’s) ambassador. His gay ambassador, the son of a whore. He pissed me off,” Duterte said.

Philippine foreign affairs spokesman Charles Jose confirmed the meeting but said Manila’s envoy had been “invited to the State Department to discuss the entire breadth of Philippines-US relations.”

Duterte first came into conflict with US envoy Goldberg on the campaign trail, after he said he wanted to rape a “beautiful” Australian missionary who was sexually assaulted and murdered in a 1989 prison riot in Davao, the city he ran for two decades.

Duterte, 71, surged to power with a landslide in May following a campaign in which he reportedly used foul language to disrespect authority figures.