Philippine presidential candidate Duterte slammed over rape joke

Rodrigo Duterte, the leading Philippine presidential candidate whose campaign promises a ruthless war on crime, was angrily condemned on Sunday after a video surfaced of him joking about a murdered Australian rape victim.

Rodrigo Duterte is the leading opinion polls in the run-up to the May 9 Philippine presidential election. Romeo Ranoco / Reuters

MANILA // Rodrigo Duterte, the leading Philippine presidential candidate whose campaign promises a ruthless war on crime, was condemned on Sunday after a video surfaced of him joking about a murdered Australian rape victim.

Mr Duterte, who promised mass killings of suspected criminals if elected next month, appeared in a video on YouTube making the joke about the female Australian missionary.

The woman, who was ministering in a prison in Davao in the southern Philippines, was raped and killed during a riot by inmates in 1989.

Mr Duterte was the city mayor at the time.

“They raped all of the women ... There was this Australian lay minister ... when they took them out ... I saw her face and I thought, ‘Son of a b****, what a pity ... they raped her, they all lined up. I was mad she was raped but she was so beautiful. I thought, the mayor should have been first,” Mr Duterte is shown telling a crowd of laughing supporters at a campaign rally.

Mr Duterte, who boasted of the extrajudicial killings of suspects by vigilantes during his time as Davao’s mayor, is the leading opinion polls in the run-up to the May 9 election.

His election rivals, women’s groups and commentators on social media denounced his remarks.

President Benigno Aquino’s spokesman Herminio Coloma said the comments showed “his lack of fitness for the presidency” and his “utter lack of respect for women”.

Mr Aquino, who under the Philippine constitution cannot seek a second term, is supporting another candidate, his former interior secretary Mar Roxas who trailed Mr Duterte.

Rival presidential candidate and current vice president Jejomar Binay called the remarks “simply revolting”.

“You are a crazy maniac who doesn’t respect women and doesn’t deserve to be president,” Mr Binay said in a statement.

Another candidate, senator Grace Poe, who is behind Mr Duterte in the opinion polls, called his comment “distasteful and unacceptable, and reflects his disrespect for women”.

Women’s group Gabriela attacked Duterte’s remarks and said rape or other forms of sexual abuse were not a joke “nor something to be trivialised in a joke”, especially by someone seeking the presidency.

One Filipino remarked on Twitter: “I broke down after watching Duterte on Aussie rape. I can’t fathom how his followers can laugh at it.”

Many Filipinos have embraced Mr Duterte for his vulgarity-laced speeches, his boasts of sexual conquests and his promised war on crime.

Even when he called Pope Francis a “son of a w****,” in a speech last November, his followers in the devoutly Catholic nation forgave him.

Spokesmen for Mr Duterte had no comment. Many of his followers brushed off the controversy.

“We won’t apologise for he has done nothing wrong, it was a clear joke for God’s sake,” one Filipina supporter said on Twitter.

* Agence France-Presse