Rodrigo Duterte threatens to leave UN

President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday threatened to withdraw the Philippines from the United Nations, as he launched another profanity-laced tirade against the organisation for criticising his bloody war on crime.

More than 1,500 people have been killed since Duterte took office and immediately began his law-and-order crackdown, according to police statistics, triggering fierce criticism from the UN and rights groups.

Duterte, a lawyer famous for an acid tongue who has repeatedly told the UN not to interfere, stepped up his rhetoric against the organization yesterday.

"Maybe we'll just have to decide to separate from the United Nations. If you are that disrespectful, son of a whore, then I will just leave you," Duterte said in a press conference in his home city of Davao.

Duterte said he may even try to set up a rival international organisation. "

The UN's special rapporteur on summary executions, Agnes Callamard, last week said Duterte's promise of immunity and bounties to security forces who killed drug suspects violated international law.

Duterte lashed out yesterday, accusing the "stupid" UN of not doing anything in Middle East hotspots Syria and Iraq. And Duterte asked why police killings in the United States were not attracting the same kind of criticism as the Philippines.