Gabriela: Duterte’s ‘condom blabber’ removes women’s right to decide about their bodies

MANILA, Philippines — Women’s group Gabriela on Saturday slammed President Rodrigo Duterte for discouraging the use of condoms that he said reduce sexual pleasure, the latest in what the group said is a string of “anti-women” remarks from the firebrand leader.

Duterte this week told returning overseas Filipino workers from Kuwait that they should refrain from using condoms, saying these lessen intense sexual pleasure and orgasm.

The president instead encouraged them to avail of free pills or other forms of contraception from government health centers.

"I know you don't like condoms, so you either have yourselves injected good for six months. You will have unlimited [sex]," he said.

In a statement, Gabriela, a group represented in Congress, said Duterte’s pronouncement is an attempt to take away women’s right to decide on matters concerning their bodies and reproductive health.

They also said Duterte’s “condom blabber” shows his problematic stance on population control that denies government accountability on the state of poverty in the country.

“Women's poverty is a direct result of neoliberal economic policy impositions that have for decades allowed foreign and local oligarchic control of the resources of country,” Gabriela said.

“Duterte continues this policy by freezing workers’ wages, legalizing labor contractualization, and stunting farm production,” the group added.

“Population control will not solve the problem where the masses lack resources because a few oligarchs have them in abundance.”

Duterte himself had pushed for the full implementation of the Reproductive Health Act, which Congress passed despite strong opposition from Church leaders in the predominantly Catholic Philippines.

He even signed an ordinance protecting women when he was still the mayor of Davao City.

But the foul-mouthed leader, who is also a self-confessed womanizer, has been blasted for his sexist and objectifying remarks about women—the most recent being his jokes about “42 virgins” as tourism “come-on,” and that soldiers should shoot female communist insurgents in the vagina.

READ: Duterte's 'shoot them in the vagina' remark encourages sexual violence, HRW says

Despite the backlash, Malacañang has repeatedly downplayed Duterte’s remarks as mere jests. “Do not take the president literally but take him seriously,” his spokesman said.

“We have had enough, we have no other recourse but to fight back and sever the tongue that speaks so vilely at us,” Gabriela said.

Early this week, women’s group Gabriela Southern Mindanao Region, who supported Duterte during the elections, said they were wrong for backing the president whose statements “reflect a very disturbing deep-seated misogyny and sexism.”

READ: ‘We’re wrong for supporting Duterte’ — Mindanao women’s group

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