The frontrunner to be elected president of the Philippines next month has lashed out at Australia amid uproar over him joking that he should have been first in line to rape an Australian missionary before she was murdered. 
"This is politics. Stay out. Stay out Australian government. Stay out," tough-talking Rodrigo Duterte said after Australia's ambassador in Manila Amanda Gorely tweeted that rape and murder should never be joked about or trivialised and that "violence against women and girls is unacceptable, anywhere, anytime".
Mr Duterte's supporters swamped the Facebook page of the Australian embassy in Manila with angry remarks and abuse, forcing officials to exclude comments and post a statement saying they have the right to moderate posts which are discriminatory, hateful or threatening.
Nicknamed "Duterte Harry" after the Clint Eastwood character, Mr Duterte has refused to apologise for his remarks during a campaign rally last week about 36-year-old Jacqueline Hamill, who was gang-raped and killed by inmates during a jail siege in Davao City, 1000 kilometres from Manila, in 1989.
Mr Duterte told journalists that he was being castigated because of his "bad mouth" but could still provide "clean government".
"I do not want anybody controlling my mouth," he said. "I say what I say and I've said it and if it does not sit well with you that's your problem."
The remarks about Ms Hamill prompted widespread condemnation in the majority-Catholic nation of 100 million, including from the Philippine government, rival candidates and four Catholic bishops, who asked voters to judge if Mr Duterte was fit for office.