Outrage as Philippines president claims he abused maid as teenager

There has been a wave of criticism after Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte said he sexually assaulted a maid when he was a teenager.

In a speech, he recalled confessing to a priest how he reached into the maid's underwear as she slept.

The Philippines president has sparked outrage with a number of provocative comments but remains popular.

In his latest remarks, he described entering the room of his maid while she was sleeping.

"I lifted the blanket... I tried to touch what was inside the panty," he said. "I was touching. She woke up so I left the room."

He said he told the priest that he later returned to the woman's room and tried to molest her again.

Duterte said the priest told him to say "five Our Fathers, five Hail Mary's, because you will go to hell", according to news website Rappler.

Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said Duterte was using a "laughable anecdote" to "dramatize the fact of sexual abuse that was inflicted on him and his fellow students when they were in high school."

"He purposely added and spliced the story with vulgarity to characterize the behavior of the priest who insisted to hear more sins during their confessions when there were none," Panelo said.

Duterte, himself a Catholic, has been deeply critical of the church, especially when it comes to the sexual abuse scandal that has roiled the Vatican.

It is common for well-off families in the Philippines to employ maids and many women also work as domestic helpers across Asia and the Middle East.

The Philippines president has drawn fire for previous actions and comments about women.

Earlier this year, he sparked criticism for kissing an overseas Filipina worker on the lips during a live event.

He also told Filipino soldiers they should shoot female communist rebels in the vagina.

In April 2016, he spoke to an election campaign rally about the 1989 murder and rape of a female Australian missionary in Davao, where he was mayor at the time.

"I was angry because she was raped," he said. "That's one thing. But she was so beautiful, the mayor should have been first, what a waste." His office later apologized.