Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte claimed that he stabbed somebody to death when he was 16 during a November 9 speech to expatriate Filipinos in Da Nang City, Vietnam.

Duterte claimed to have killed someone during a gang fight just hours after giving the opening speech at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit.

“When I was a teenager, I was in and out of jail. One fight there, another here…at the age of 16, I killed someone," Duterte said in Filipino which was translated into English by Rappler. “During a fight. Stabbing. I was 16. Just because we looked at each other.”

Duterte made the comment after defending his drug crackdown that the opposition groups in the Philippines claim has resulted in the death of 13,000 people in police-involved shootings and vigilante violence targeting drug dealers and users.

Philippines media reported they had contacted the president’s spokesman to confirm whether his comments were intended as a joke.

Duterte has previously boasted of a violent past. In 2015, he said he “maybe” killed a man when he was 17 years old. He also told a crowd at a rally last year that at university he had shot a law student he accused of bullying, Rappler reported. Credit: RTVMalacanang via Storyful