Palace: Duterte won’t change, don’t give too much meaning to his sex jokes
MANILA, Philippines — As they say, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
Malacañang has taken up the cudgels yet again for President Rodrigo Duterte’s fondness for sex jokes after the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) urged the Chief Executive and other government officials to neither bolster nor tolerate violence against women.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque on Thursday said Duterte will no longer change, that people should not give too much meaning to the President’s sex jokes.
“Alam niyo, let’s not give too much meaning to the jokes of the President. Gano’n lang talaga si Presidente at hindi na siya pwede magbago because he’s already in his 70s. Pero wala pong any malice ang mga joke niya,” Roque said in an online briefing.
(Let’s not give too much meaning to the jokes of the President. That’s just how the President is and he cannot change anymore because he’s already in his 70s. But his jokes have no malice.)
“Pakiusap ko po, ‘wag tayong parang Amerikano. ‘Yung mga Amerikano kasi lahat binibigyan ng napakalalim na kahulugan pero dito po naman sa Pilipinas, let’s take a joke for what it is — a joke,” Roque said.
(My request is, let’s not be like the Americans. Americans give deeper meaning to everything but here in the Philippines, let’s take a joke for what it is — a joke.)
During a briefing on the aftermath of Typhoon Ulysses, Duterte poked fun at a local official for having plenty of women.
He then joked about an acquaintance who died because of the lack of women and sex.
READ: ‘Sobrang babae’ or ‘undersexed?’ Duterte wraps up typhoon briefing with jokes
When sought to comment on Duterte’s remarks, Roque earlier said the President only wanted to “lighten the mood” as the country faced problems due to recent typhoons.
But for the CHR, “dismissal of remarks that make light of women’s sexual objectification and which justify the same as a ‘means of coping’ with stress send the message that sexism in government is normal and that the government takes the issues of women and girls lightly.”
It was not the first time for Duterte to issue controversial jokes about women which earned him criticism from women’s rights advocates and human rights groups.
During his campaign in 2016, Duterte said he should have been the first to rape a “beautiful” Australian missionary who died in a prison riot in Davao.
READ: LOOKBACK: The Davao hostage crisis of 1989: Part 1
He also once admitted ogling at Vice President Leni Robredo’s legs during a Cabinet meeting, kissed the lips of an overseas Filipino worker in South Korea, among others.
KGA
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