THE United States has neither confirmed nor denied President Rodrigo Duterte’s recent accusations that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is devising a plot to kill him.

U.S. Embassy in Manila Press Attaché Molly Koscina said on Wednesday night, August 22 as reported by the Manila Bulletin that, “We would refer you to President Duterte’s office for any questions regarding his remarks.”

This comes after Duterte on Tuesday, August 22, accused the CIA of monitoring his conversations and has plans of assassinating him.

“I know that they, ang nakikinig sa akin is the United States, sigurado ‘yan ang CIA. ‘Yan ang papatay sa akin ‘yang mga ul** na ‘yan eh (They are listening, the United States, I am certain of CIA, they will be the ones to kill me, those insane ones),” Duterte said in a speech at the League of Municipalities (LMP) Visayas Island Cluster conference in Cebu City.

The president said that his security personnel advised him to use a basic keypad mobile phone instead of a smartphone as it more difficult to intercept.

“Yun na nga ang sabi ng mga sundalo sa akin noon, ‘Sir, huwag ka mag-gamit niyan. Ito na lang pindot-pindot kasi ito mahirap i-intercept.’ Lalo na ‘yang pinaka old model. Kung gamitan lang ng isa old model then mahirapan ang (This is what the soldiers told me before. ‘Sir, do not use that (smartphone). Use this keypad phone instead because it is harder to intercept),” he said.

Duterte’s tirades against the U.S. are nothing new since taking office two years ago. Also this week he lashed out against the U.S. for sending defective military gear and disapproving of the Philippines’ plan to acquire Russian submarines.