MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte faced contempt from women’s rights groups after he once again made a rape joke – this time about the number of rape cases in his hometown Davao City.
Duterte said the high number of rape cases in Davao is due to “many beautiful women” there.
“They say there are many rape cases in Davao. Well, for as long as there are many beautiful women, there will be many rape cases, too,” the President said at a public event in Cebu on Thursday.
These remarks would “help normalize rape” and threaten the status of women in the country, according to a Filipino women’s rights activist Elizabeth Angsioco.
“Duterte seems to hate women so much that he comes up with statements that help normalize rape,” Angiosco said on Friday.
“This is unacceptable. Not from anyone, especially not from the highest official of the land. Not only does he advance the idea that rape normally happens to beautiful women, he makes men believe that it is ok to rape,” she added.
Angiosco also stressed that Filipino feminists “have worked for women’s rights to be respected, recognized and enshrined in our laws for decades.”
“We’ve had some success with the progressive pro-women laws. Duterte is destroying all our gains and that pushes us back to the dark ages,” she added.
In July 2017, Duterte said he thought it would be acceptable for someone to rape the winner of Miss Universe, an international beauty pageant.
Earlier that year, while addressing a group of soldiers, he joked that men would be allowed to rape three women without punishment.
In a statement issued on Friday, women’s rights network Gabriela stressed that rape was a crime punishable under Filipino law.
“Yet again, President Duterte sends a very dangerous and distorted message in his latest rape remark – that a woman’s beauty is a cause of rape,” Gabriela said. “He toys with Davao pride and misogyny to gloss over a very important detail that women in his hometown of Davao City suffered the most number of rape cases in the country.”
Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque defended the President saying, “I don’t think we should give too much weight on what the president says by way of a joke.”
He added that people from southern Philippines, where Duterte hails, have “more liberal” standard of what is offensive and not offensive. (With Aljazeera/PN)
