Pacquiao keeps mum on ‘close friend’ Duterte’s rape joke

Rep. Manny Pacquiao (right) speaks during a press conference with Vice President Jejomar Binay in Sarangani on April 19. YUJI GONZALES/INQUIRER.net

SARANGANI—Filipino boxing icon and senatorial aspirant Manny Pacquiao has kept mum on the controversial rape joke involving close friend and fellow Mindanaoan Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.

In a press conference before campaigning with Vice President Jejomar Binay in this province, the Sarangani representative said he would rather not comment on the issue because he was not a presidential candidate.

“Hindi naman president ang tinatakbuhan ko, senador lang. ‘Yang usapan nila ay sa kanila ‘yan,” Pacquiao told reporters at the Sarangani capitol.

“Close friend ko ‘yan, tumira din ako sa Davao, besides that siguro hindi na ako magbigay ng comment,” he said.

The tough talking Duterte drew flak for joking that he should have been the first to rape Australian lay missionary Jaqueline Hamill, who was murdered during a jailbreak at the Davao City Police Office in 1989.

“Son of a b****, what a waste. I was thinking that they raped her and lined up. I was angry because she was raped, that’s one thing. But she was so beautiful, the mayor should have been first, what a waste,” Duterte said, as captured by a now viral video.

Pacquiao had also been heavily criticized for relegating gays who engage in homosexual acts as “worse than animals.”

Pressed by a reporter to comment on Duterte, the Sarangani representative simply stood his ground on the controversial statement, adding he was in no position to condemn anyone.

“I am not condemning anyone. I am also a sinner a person na gumagawa ng kasalanan. Who am I to condemn someone?” he said.

Pacquiao, fresh from a victory against Timothy Bradley in what he said was the last fight of his boxing career, is running for senator under the opposition slate of Binay’s United Nationalist Alliance. RC