There are really days when we question why people still laugh at Pres. Rodrigo Duterte’s misogynistic jokes. Today is one of them.
In a campaign rally in Bohol yesterday, Duterte tried to flirt with Mayor Tita Baja-Gallantes who was recently separated from her husband. “You are truly beautiful. If it were me, why would I ever break up with you? I will really grab and hold on to your panty if you try to leave, even until the garter snaps. You’re just too beautiful,” he said in Cebuano. The crowd laughed at the “joke.”
READ MORE: Duterte’s rape jokes speaks volumes of who we are as a nation
Unfortunately, it didn’t stop there. Duterte was so insistent about it that he said he was willing to leave his partner, Honeylet Avanceña, and four kids to run away with Mayor Gallantes. “Can you run away with me? You have children, don’t you, mayor? How many children do you have? I have three—four. I have four but they’re all grown up already so I don’t have a problem there anymore,” he said. He also added that he’ll ask his aide, Bong Go, to “take care” of Honeylet so he can freely “play the game of love” in Bohol.
Ugh, barf. No wonder a cockroach crawled up his sleeve on the same day.
Gabriela party-list condemned Duterte’s behavior, calling it a “sick and disgusting display of machismo, infidelity, and ethical bankruptcy.” The representatives also called out the president’s allies for keeping mum every time he “degrades, humiliates, and sexualizes women,” and that they don’t deserve government positions.
This isn’t the first time Duterte has talked about women like they’re objects of sexual desires. Who could forget his rape joke while talking about Jacqueline Hamill, the Australian missionary who was believed to be gang-raped before being killed? Also, that time he told soldiers they can shoot women in the vagina, and he will take the blame for it. He also blamed beautiful women for the existence of rape.
READ MORE: Dear, Harry Roque: We are not “OA” for calling out Duterte’s rape jokes
Now, he said he wants to grab Mayor Gallantes by her panties. Just because she’s a now-single woman doesn’t give anyone a free pass to disrespect her like this. Nor should Duterte treat his partner, who he has a daughter with, like something disposable.
With the senatorial elections coming up, we hope none of the people who support Duterte and his antics win a seat. We don’t need more misogynists in power. Actually, in an ideal world, our president should be sanctioned and impeached for this kind of behavior.
Photo courtesy of Inquirer.net
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