Manila, Philippines(CNN) Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte denied reports that he threw a person off a helicopter in an interview with CNN Philippines Thursday, contradicting a statement he made on live television earlier this week.
"We had no helicopter. We don't use that," he said. He described the incident as "just the creative imagination of this Tulfo."
Duterte did not clarify who Tulfo was, but he could have been referring to a number of journalists with the same surname.
Rodrigo Duterte has said some outrageous things.
Speaking at a business forum in Manila in December 2016, Duterte admitted killing suspected criminals during his time as mayor of Davao City.
The day after Trump won the US presidential election in November 2016, Duterte said he and Trump share some traits.
After reports emerged of a potentially blocked arms sale, Duterte told CNN Philippines in November 2016 that he would turn to Russia for weapons.
During a state visit to China in October 2016, Duterte announced his economic and military 'separation' from the US.
In October 2016 Duterte expressed growing hostility with the US president.
After US president Barack Obama said he would raise extrajudicial killings in a meeting with Duterte, the Philippines President responded angrily on September 5, first in English then in Tagalog. As a result, Obama canceled the meeting.
As he addressed troops at the country's Armed Forces Central Command Headquarters on August 5, Duterte recounted U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's visit to the country, saying in Tagalog that he was feuding with U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg.
The Philippines president-elect effectively said he supported vigilantism against drug dealers and criminals in a nationally televised speech in June 2016.
Foreign diplomats weighing in on Rodrigo Duterte's controversial remarks did not sit well with the then-mayor.
Duterte apologized to the Pope after cursing him for the traffic he caused during a 2015 Papal visit to the Philippines.
In September 2016, Duterte likened himself to the Nazi leader and announced that he wants to kill millions of drug addicts.
Speaking at a press conference to unveil his new cabinet on May 31 2016, Rodrigo Duterte said journalists killed on the job in the Philippines were often corrupt.
During the third and last presidential debate, Duterte had said that he would plant a Philippine flag in disputed territories should China refuse to recognize a favorable ruling for the Philippines.
Duterte made international headlines in April 2016 with his inflammatory comments on the 1989 rape and murder of an Australian missionary that took place in Davao City.
He also lashed out at the womens' group that filed a complaint against him before the Commission on Human Rights (CHR).
At a CNN Philippines Townhall event in February 2016, Duterte, admitted that he had three girlfriends and a common-law wife. His marriage to Elizabeth Zimmerman was annulled due to his womanizing, but he denied this meant he objectified women.
Although he later denied the accusations, the former Davao City mayor admitted his links to the alleged Davao death squad in a May 2015 broadcast of his local television talk show.
Asked about calls by the United Nations to investigate claims by Duterte about killing others, the President seemed to poke fun at the media picking up on his every word.
"I am playing you, I am really like that, your team knows I really want to say jokes. When I say for example, when I pray ... like what God told me ... it is the same. And you spent time writing about it, criticizing, and that is your story, and you believe that."
Philippines drug crackdown
Police patrol a shanty community at night during curfew on June 8, 2016 in Manila.
Some 1,000 people whom authorities accused of being drug users and dealers take an oath before local authorities after turning themselves in in Tanauan, the Philippines, on July 18, 2016.
A man authorities accused of being a drug user is fingerprinted during the mass surrender of some 1,000 alleged drug users and pushers in the Philippine town of Tanauan, located about 37 miles (60 kilometers) south of Manila on July 18, 2016.
A social worker gives counseling to those who have turned themselves in for drug-related crimes in the Philippines on July 18, 2016.
A woman cradles her husband, next to a placard which reads "I'm a pusher," who was shot dead in Manila on July 23, 2016.
A Philippine police forensic investigator displays packets of drugs and a hand gun found inside a shanty where members of a suspected drug syndicate were killed after a shootout with police on July 3, 2016.
A suspected female member of a drug syndicate is presented by police in Manila on June 22, 2016.
A gun, bullets, marked money and sachets of crystal meth are laid on a table after a drug raid in Manila on June 20, 2016.
Police officers stand in formation before the start of "Oplan Rody" on June 1, 2016, a law enforcement operation named after President Duterte, whose nickname is Rody.
In a televised speech Tuesday, Duterte said he had previously thrown someone off a helicopter and threatened the same fate to anyone misusing public funds.
"Whoever will use this (public funds) for corruption, I will get him (to) ride the helicopter with me going to Manila and will push him out while we we are up in the air," Duterte said. "Yes I will do that! I did that before and I can do that again."
When asked if the event actually happened -- and if the person killed was a kidnapper, as local media was reporting -- Martin Andanar, the presidential communications secretary, told CNN: "It happened; he said it."
Earlier this month, Duterte told a business forum that he personally had killed suspected criminals. Sen. Leila de Lima, one of Duterte's top critics, said the comments were tantamount to admitting he participated in a mass murder and were grounds for impeachment.
Duterte had previously been accused of killing a government official with an Uzi submachine gun.
The drug war
Though his admissions of killing, off-color comments and abrasive approach to international politics have drawn international interest and scrutiny in Duterte's nascent presidency, it's his drug war that affects the daily lives of Filipinos.
Tackling rising drug consumption and production was one of his key campaign planks during the country's elections earlier this year.
Duterte promised to vigorously combat the problem and has waged a bloody campaign against the drug trade since taking office.
Nearly 6,000 people have been killed in the drug war since July, according to the Philippines National Police.
Despite the killing admissions and rising body count, Duterte remains extremely popular in the Philippines, with polls showing a high percentage of the country remains supportive and trusting of the President.
Will Ripley reported from Manila, while Joshua Berlinger reported and wrote from Hong Kong. CNN's Chieu Luu and journalist Jinky Jorgio contributed to this report.