It seems the Philippines' unbalanced president has finally lost it.

Rodrigo Duterte claims God, or whatever being it is he calls "God," appeared to him in a vision when he was on an airliner packed with his entourage and other passengers returning to his home city of Davao on Mindanao island after his visit to Japan.

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Duterte said "God" threatened to destroy this plane if the coarse and crude ex-mayor didn't stop swearing at other people.

As Duterte narrated later, he was looking at the sky when heard a voice in his head saying, "'If you don't stop swearing, I will destroy this plane right now!"

"And I said, 'Who is this?'

"So, of course, 'It's God,'" said Duterte.

"So, I promised God to ... I wouldn't swear, curse and everything. So you guys hear me right always because (a) promise to God is a promise to the Filipino people."

His audience applauded, as they usually do, since it hard not to clap at a president who loves to make a fool of himself. Then swear at his imagined enemies.

But, Duterte being Duterte, he had to add a caveat.

"Don't clap too much or else this may get derailed."

Whether he "talked" to "God" or not doesn't deflect from the revelation that people who hear voices (unless they're canonized Catholic saints) belong in a padded room with others who have shared this "holy" experience.

What's surprising about Duterte claiming God talked to him in a vision is because Duterte -- a Roman Catholic in name only -- is an atheist or an agnostic, depending on his mood.

Duterte has publicly admitted he believes in God but not in religion. That should make him a theist, but again, he's never admitted his God is the Christian God or a god like the "anitos" or deities worshipped by tribal, non-Christian Filipinos.

He's said he rarely goes to Mass and most certainly doesn't go to confession, where he'd have to tell a Catholic priest how many people he's murdered to receive an absolution, if this is at all possible given the gravity of his multiple sins of murder.

A priest would probably tell him to voluntarily surrender to the police as part of his penance. Now that's impossible given the police are murdering people because Duterte promised cops immunity from prosecution if they killed people, allegedly in the line of duty.

And to those who think the barbarian in Duterte has been banished by this epiphany, think again.

"There is always a time. A time to be foul-mouthed. I don't like anybody reading my mind. It's all calibrated, it's always timing. Watch out for one thing, that's what I've learned, miscalculation," he said.

TagsRodrigo Duterte, god, Philippines, Murder