Palace on Duterte flirting with Bohol mayor: Pa-kwela lang iyon

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte publicly flirting with Mayor Tita Baja-Gallantes was just for fun, Malacañang said Friday after the chief executive was again criticized for his remarks loaded with sexual innuendos.

In his speech on Wednesday at a campaign rally in Garcia-Hernandez town in Bohol, Duterte teased the mayor, praising how beautiful she is. But he added that he would “really grab and hold on to your panty if you try to leave, even until the garter snaps.”

READ: Duterte publicly flirts with Bohol mayor

Sought for comment on the incident, Panelo said the President was just being humorous.

“Alam ninyo, kapag si Presidente kasi ang nag-ano, nagpapatawa lang iyon, kasi people are always expecting na eh na magpapatawa siya, eh iyon ngang girl tawa ng tawa eh, kasi alam naman niya, kilala niya si Presidente na ganoon, pa-kwela lang iyon,” he told reporters in Malacañang.

(He is only joking because people expect him to crack jokes. The “girl” was even laughing because she knows that that it was a joke and she knows the President.)

But why is there a need for Duterte to make such remarks?

Panelo said the people loves it.

“Eh iyon ang kumakagat sa tao eh, di ba ang mga Pilipino kung ano ang kinagisnan (That’s what the people like, that’s what we are used to),” he said.

The party-list Gabriela has slammed Duterte’s remarks, and strongly condemned what it calls the “sick and disgusting display of machismo, infidelity, and ethical bankruptcy.”

READ: Gabriela on Duterte’s flirting with Bohol mayor: ‘no wonder cockroach likes him’

Duterte publicly flirted with Baja-Gallantes in the same speech where a cockroach crawled on him.

WATCH: Cockroach crawls on Duterte who jokes ‘Liberal ‘yan’

“No wonder the cockroach cozied itself with the President in Bohol, as he yet again spewed putrid material,” Gabriela Reps. Arlene Brosas and Emmi de Jesus said in a statement.

This was not the first time the President made obscene remarks in his public speeches. Last December, Duterte narrated how he touched her maid’s private part.

READ: Palace says Duterte’s confession of touching maid a ‘spliced story’

The President was also criticized for ordering the military in February 2018 to shoot female communist rebels in the vagina.

READ: President Duterte slammed by writers, activists for ‘shoot in the vagina’ statement

Duterte has defended himself, saying it was a “sort of sarcasm.” (Editor: Eden Estopace)