Filipina in South Korea: Duterte kiss on lips means nothing

MANILA – It was just meant to excite the audience, that’s all.

Bea Kim played down the kiss on the lips President Rodrigo Duterte gave her onstage at a gathering of Filipinos in Seoul during the latter’s official visit to South Korea.

There was no malice, said Kim, who had been staying in Seoul for seven years with her Korean husband and two daughters.

“Iyong kiss, walang ibang sabihin. Pampakilig lang sa audience,” Kim said in an interview with Television Malacañang. “Promise, para sa akin at sa kanya (Duterte), walang ibig sabihin.”

While she was “nervous and excited” when Duterte called her up the stage, she was thankful for the “once in a lifetime experience” to get near the President, she said.

“Nasa may unahan siya, iyong husband ko, at nandito ako sa gitna. Pumunta lang ako sa stage noong nagsabi ang President na ‘iyong naka-white.’ Tapos lumingon muna ako sa mga katabi ko at wala namang ibang naka-white,” said Kim.

“Kahit nasa ’Pinas ka, parang suntok sa buwan na makita mo nang malapitan ang Presidente,” she added. “Twist lang iyon, walang malisya. Si President nagtanong kung single ako, sabi ko married ako sa Koreano.”

Duterte was distributing books during the meet-and-greet with Filipinos when he called Kim and another woman to get a copy of the book in exchange for a kiss on the lips. The incident drew criticism on social media.

‘DISGUSTING THEATRICS OF A MISOGYNIST’

Women’s group Gabriela criticized the incident as a “disgusting theatrics of a misogynist President who feels entitled to demean, humiliate or disrespect women according to his whim.”

“It is the President who is duty-bound to explain not only because it was upon his prodding but he is bound, as a public official, by rules of ethics to explain his unruly conduct,” Gabriela said in a statement on Monday.

That Kim defended the act as something done with “no malice” was “unfortunate,” said the group.

“Such act from the President was meant as entertainment to divert the attention from Duterte’s rapidly slipping popularity,” the group added.

“It is also his own perverted way of getting back at his women critics, his way of proving he can dominate women at any time, and any place he chooses. It is his way of publicly exhibiting his contempt for women.”

Duterte has publicly kissed women from audiences during the campaign trail when he was still running for president./PN