Obama CANCELS meeting with Filipino President Duterte after he called him a 'son of a bitch' and warned him not to question his war on drugs which has claimed 2,400 lives

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President Obama has canceled a meeting with Rodrigo Duterte, the hardline president of the Philippines after he called him a 'son of a bitch'.

Duterte, dubbed 'The Punisher' had earlier warned Obama not to ask about extrajudicial killings during a planned meeting in Laos or 'I will swear at you'. 

More than 2,000 suspected drug dealers and users have been killed since Duterte launched a war on drugs after taking office on June 30 this year.

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President Rodrigo Duterte (pictured today) warned Barack Obama not to ask about extrajudicial killings, or 'son of a bitch I will swear at you' when they meet in Laos during a regional summit

President Barack Obama on Monday became the first sitting U.S. president to step foot in the isolated Southeast Asian nation of Laos. He stepped off of Air Force One in a deluge 

Obama had indicated earlier that he was going to bring the issue up, saying he would address the need to approach the drug trafficking war in a 'way that is consistent with basic international norms'. 

But Duterte warned that he is a leader of a sovereign country and is answerable only to the Filipino people.

'Who is he to confront me?' he said, adding that the Philippines had not received an apology for misdeeds committed during its U.S. colonization. 

'I am a president of a sovereign state and we have long ceased to be a colony. I do not have any master except the Filipino people, nobody but nobody.

'You must be respectful. Do not just throw questions. Putang ina I will swear at you in that forum,' he said, using the Tagalog phrase for son of a bitch.

More than 2,000 suspected drug dealers and users have been killed since President Rodrigo Duterte launched a war on drugs after taking office on June 30 this year (pictured a man's dead body after police reported drugs being sold in the area)

More than 2,000 suspected drug dealers and users have been killed since President Rodrigo Duterte launched a war on drugs after taking office on June 30 this year 

The mother of a suspected drug user who was killed by police in an operation in Manila breaks down in tears

The boy's devastated father is overcome with grief as authorities remove his son's body

Now Ned Price, a National Security Council spokesman, said: President Obama will not be holding a bilateral meeting with President Duterte of the Philippines this afternoon. Instead, he will meet with President Park of the Republic of Korea this afternoon, September 6th.' 

The Philippines president pointed to the killing of Muslim Moros more than a century ago during a U.S. pacification campaign in the southern Philippines, blaming the wounds of the past as 'the reason why (the south) continues to boil' with separatist insurgencies. 

Duterte has also made it clear he will take no lecture on human rights from Obama, when in the United States he alleged 'black people are being shot even if they are already lying down'.

Last week, Duterte said he was ready to defend his bloody crackdown on illegal drugs, which has sparked concern from the U.S. and other countries.

Duterte said he would demand that Obama allow him to first explain the context of his crackdown before engaging the U.S. president in a discussion of the deaths. 

Last week, the number of people killed since July 1 reached 2,400: about 900 died in police operations, and the rest are 'deaths under investigation', a term human rights activists say is a euphemism for vigilante and extrajudicial killings.

Duterte has been unapologetic in his war on drugs, telling a news conference on Monday that 'plenty will be killed' in his campaign.

Philippine police SWAT personnel take position as they serve a search warrant to a resident in relation to drugs at an informal settler house in Pasig City, suburban Manila on September 5

President Duterte pledged a bloody war on drugs and promised to forgive cops who killed drugs suspects

'Until the (last) drug manufacturer is killed we will continue,' Duterte said before leaving for a regional summit in Laos, where he is due to meet Obama on Tuesday.

Duterte won elections in May and immediately promised a law-and-order crackdown on drugs.

'These sons of w****s are destroying our children. I warn you, don't go into that, even if you're a policeman, because I will really kill you,' the president told an audience during a speech in the country's capital, Manila.

Duterte made it clear he would pardon police if they were charged with human rights violations for carrying out his merciless orders.

Nearly 60,000 Filipino drug addicts surrendered themselves last month to the government after President Duterte urged citizens to 'go ahead and kill' drug dealers and users.

President Duterte has warned of widespread bloodshed as part of the government's war on drugs.

Around 2,400 suspected drugs pushers or users have been killed since Duterte came to power (pictured are armed police in Manila on September 5) 

Armed police have been cracking down on anyone thought to be linked to the drugs trade (pictured carrying out an arrest warrant on September 5) 

Neighbors look on during a police raid on a suspected drug dealer

He vowed on one occasion during the election campaign that 100,000 people would die, and so many bodies would be dumped in Manila Bay that the fish there would grow fat from feeding on them, according to the South China Morning Post. 

The government's top lawyer called for police to kill more suspected drug criminals, as he defended president Duterte's brutal war on crime against mounting criticism.

As the official death toll has mounted, and other bodies not confirmed killed by police have been found with placards declaring them drug traffickers, human rights lawyers have expressed deep concerns about the war on crime spiraling out of control.

In response to the criticism, Solicitor General Jose Calida held a press conference on Monday at national police headquarters to insist on the legality of the police killings and to encourage more deaths of people suspected of being involved in the drug trade.

'To me, that is not enough,' Calida said of the killings so far.

Filipino policemen march during a parade inside Camp Crame in Quezon City, east of Manila, Philippines, September 5

Reuters interviews reveal that the police's Internal Affairs Service (IAS) and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) are so overwhelmed by the killings that they can investigate only a fraction, and there is scant hope of establishing many as unlawful because witnesses are too terrified to come forward.

Meanwhile, the immense popularity of Duterte's crusade and the climate of fear it has engendered have severely restrained dissent from civil society. Hardly anyone turned up at candlelight vigils in Manila recently to protest against extrajudicial killings.

Even as the death toll rose, a July poll by Pulse Asia put Duterte's approval rating at 91 percent.

More than 2,000 suspected drug dealers and users have been killed since President Rodrigo Duterte launched a war on drugs after taking office on June 30 this year