Critics distorted Duterte rape comment – Panelo

Presidential Chief Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo. INQUIRER FILE

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo on Monday said the recent rape remark of President Rodrigo Duterte was “distorted” by his critics.

“The human rights critics and PRRD’s (President Rodrigo Roa Duterte) detractors are nitpicking again and making a fuss about a statement about many beautiful women being raped in Davao making it a basis for accusing him of misogyny,” Panelo said in a statement.

“They always distort the intended meaning of the President’s comment,” he noted.

On Thursday, Duterte said that Davao City, his hometown, has the highest number of rape cases in the country because “there are many beautiful women” there.

READ: Duterte on Davao’s high number of rape cases: ‘Many beautiful women there’

Panelo said Duterte “was merely priding himself to the fact that Davao, from where he is from and Mayor for twenty three years, abounds with beautiful women and at the same time advancing a theory that their being beautiful could be one motivating reason why the rapists sexually abuse them.”

Panelo also pointed out that Duterte has advanced the protection of women’s rights and has given recognition to women by appointing them to his Cabinet and in other high offices in the government.

“The President reveres his late mother and as Davao City Mayor had undertaken projects and measures protective of the rights of women and advancing their cause,” he said.

“As President he has given recognition to women of distinction by appointing them to his Cabinet and in other high offices in the government, the latest of which is putting a woman at the helm of a male dominated Supreme Court,” he added. /cbb

READ: Duterte defends rape remark as freedom of expression