President Rodrigo Duterte’s remark linking women’s beauty to the streak of rape cases in the country, especially in Davao City, must not be taken seriously, Malacañang said Friday.
“I don’t think we should give too much weight to what the President says by way of a joke,” Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque told reporters.
In other developments:
• Duterte’s statement that the Philippines is better off with leaders like the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos than Vice President Leni Robredo was just the President’s personal belief, Roque said Friday.
“That’s just the personal belief of the President that almost everyone is better than the vice president,” Roque said.
He said Duterte’s remark was just his personal assessment.
• Duterte on Thursday rejected Communist Party of the Philippines founding chairman Jose Maria Sison’s claim that he is suffering from a chronic kidney disease.
“Dying? Kidney? My arm looks really good. Here, see! Do you see any injection marks?” Duterte said.
“Sison even pointed out my dark skin, which was caused by going around so many places. But I’m not the one who’s dying.”
• Duterte on Thursday vowed to help uncover the sexual abuses by priests in the Philippines amid allegations of a Catholic Church coverup on such crimes in the United States.
Speaking during the 49th charter day celebration of Mandaue City, Duterte said there was a “worldwide condemnation” of child sexual abuse by priests with Pope Francis now at the “center of the turmoil.”
“Everybody is trying to seek an opening for everyone to see. And I will be glad to do it here in the Philippines,” Duterte said.
Roque said Duterte does not justify the raping of women just because of their beauty. He said the President, in fact, had appointed several women to the highest seats in the government.
“From what I have seen myself, although I’m from Luzon, people in the South particularly in Cebu and the Visayas, they don’t really take things as seriously as people in Luzon,” he said.
“Let’s just say that perhaps the standard of what is offensive and what is not offensive is more liberal in the South.
In his speech in Mandaue City on Thursday, Duterte said in jest that his hometown, Davao City, had a high number of reported rape cases due to its beautiful women.