CEBU CITY, Philippines — Presidential candidate and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte is urging the public to look behind his use of cuss words, saying “behind those words is the real tragedy and agony of the Filipinos.”
In a news conference, Duterte said cursing has been his way of expressing his anger at the many unresolved and unaddressed issues in the country, including traffic and criminality.
He cited the traffic in EDSA, which caused thousands of commuters to suffer, including a pregnant woman who gave birth on the road because she didn’t make it to the hospital.
“I’m presenting myself as President of the Republic of the Philippines. Judge me not by the cuss words and the curses. Judge me for what I stand for,” he said.
Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, president of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), earlier advised Duterte to lessen the use of cuss words and the mention of killings in his statements.
The mayor could use other scenarios, aside from killing criminals, to illustrate his point, he said.
“I won’t tell him to eliminate cursing. Maybe just don’t do it 100 times,” he had said.
“Be yourself, but everything in moderation,” he said.
Duterte, the PDP-Laban standard-bearer, is known for cursing and using salty language, which forms part of his image as a tough guy and iron-fisted ruler of Davao City. Duterte has also boasted about killing criminals.
Duterte told reporters here that he hated using cuss words but admitted that he couldn’t help it because he was used to it.
He, however, said he should not be judged based on this.
The mayor even claimed that he had a grade of 86 in Good Manners and Right Conduct when he was in school.
Duterte, however, said that if elected President, he would use the military and police to stop criminality and “wipe them out.”
He said he would not even mind landing in jail for doing that.
In stressing his point, he just mouthed the f word and didn’t say out loud when he said “You have to stop (f__ing) people.”
Duterte was with running mate, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, for a series of campaign sorties in Cebu on Thursday.
In his message to Cebuanos during a rally in Plaza Independencia on Thursday afternoon, he reiterated his request to see behind his use of cuss words.
“Behind sa akong pamalikas is a story behind (There is a story behind my cursing),” he said.
Cebuanos, who were at the rally, laughed.
Duterte received a lot of flak during his proclamation as the official presidential candidate of PDP-Laban, when he gave a speech where he cursed Pope Francis for the heavy traffic triggered by the papal visit in January.
It triggered a reaction from Archbishop Socrates Villegas who didn’t think Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s expletive against Pope Francis was funny.
“When a revered and loved and admired man like Pope Francis is cursed by a political candidate and the audience laugh, I can only bow my head and grieve in great shame. My countrymen have gone to the dregs,” said the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).
The CBCP also urged the voters not to elect candidates who were asking for the revival of death penalty.
Duterte, however, said it would be up to the Catholics if they would support him or not.
“If you believe in the bishops, go ahead. Go to another choice. Me, I rise and fall on my words,” he said.
Duterte said he didn’t mind winning the elections due to his support for the revival of the death penalty. SFM