Philippines presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte has faced a storm of criticism since a video showed him making crude remarks about a female Australian missionary who was raped and killed during a prison riot in 1989. “She looks like a handsome American actress… what a waste”, the presidential candidate said, before making the aforementioned remarks about how he should have been first. “What a pity… they raped her, they all lined up”, Mr Duterte was shown telling a crowd of laughing supporters at a campaign rally.
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In the video, Duterte gave details of the brutal attack on innocent civilians, in a bid to underscore why he is angry and relentless in fighting crime and criminals.
“We note there has been widespread condemnation of the comments in the Philippines, including from President Benigno Aquino”, the department’s statement said.
The story of the 1989 hostage-taking by inmates of the Davao City detention center, which led to the deaths of some of them and their hostages, including Australian lay missionary Jacqueline Hamill, is apparently part of the standard stump speech of Rodrigo Duterte.
Hamill had told Rev. Fred Castillo, another hostage who would later escape, that she had been raped by her captors. I have been following Lito as well as those who have been sparring with him because they believe so much in Duterte that friendships have been strained. The Associated Press reports that he did apologize for the bloody end to the hostage crisis – all the prisoners and five of the hostages, including Hamill, died.
Australian ambassador to the Philippines Amanda Gorely said on Twitter that rape and murder should not be joked about.
“No one, whoever she is and whatever her looks may be, deserves to be raped and abused”, she added. “A woman has rights; she is not a toy to be played with”.
She said there was no justification for Duterte’s rape remark.
Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan, president of the Catholic bishops’ conference, said it is up to the Filipino people to judge if they will elect Duterte in the election.
Senator Grace Poe, a close contender in the presidential elections set for May 9, said Duterte’s comments were “distasteful and unacceptable, and reflects his disrespect for women”. Mister Duterte, don’t you have a mother? The Philippines is in distress now, and a lot of people want a strong-arm leader to go in, Dirty Harry style, and wipe people out. He has promised to do the same nationwide in three to six months if he becomes president.
Duterte has said it was a comment made in anger, not in jest.
Duterte was the city’s mayor at the time.
“In my utter anger, gutter language yan eh, salitang kanto”.
“I was not smiling – I was just talking plain sense narrative because I know when I talk about that particular episode in my life, people might say I changed something”. DON’T VOTE FOR PEOPLE who speak vile things against WOMEN!!
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Today, Duterte is expected to rally thousands of Negrenses at our Bacolod Public Plaza and these supporters have mothers, are mothers, have wives, are wives, have children, have gay relatives, and are gay whom their candidate has insulted and my only question is WHY?
