Gabriela hits Duterte's rape 'jokes' in 'macho-fascist' training ground PMA
MANILA, Philippines — Women’s rights group Gabriela criticized President Rodrigo Duterte’s latest “rape joke” delivered in front of graduating cadets of the Philippine Military Academy.
“The sexist president is doing his infamous rape joke in his comfort zone, the training ground for his macho-fascist state machinery that perpetrates violations on women and the people,” the group said in a statement released Sunday evening.
Duterte joked that he would pardon those who have committed rape earlier the same day during the PMA graduation in Baguio City.
“I’ll pass you this time because I need good and capable soldiers and I know that one or two is bound to happen," Duterte told the graduates.
Gabriela Secretary General Joms Salvador said that by doing so, Duterte is “absolving them from accountability… because they are ’good and capable’ soldiers anyway.”
“No wonder there’s impunity within the military and police—you can get away with offenses big and small as long as you follow the Commander-in-Chief’s orders,” Salvador added.
GABRIELA slams Duterte’s latest rape joke
— GABRIELA (@gabrielaphils) May 26, 2019
“Walang kadala-dala itong bastos na Presidente. Matapos ng matagal na pagkawala sa mata ng publiko, magpapakita siya at maghahasik na naman ng kabastusan. " pic.twitter.com/fWokCrLEMa
The Gabriela official called PMA a “breeding ground for human rights violators” and ended the statement with a call for the youth to “stand up for the people and the country and put misogynists like Duterte in their proper place: in the garbage bins of history.”
While the women's rights groups found the president's latest remarks as "bastos," the crowd at the PMA graduation rites seem to find the "jokes" amusing.
The audience that included the Defense secretary, top military officials and diplomats laughed as Duterte pretended to read out offenses by PMA cadets.
The supposed offenses, which were supposed to be jokes, included rape and multiple rape.
"The Number one is for rape, p***** i**. Ang Number two is drugs with rape with robbery. Para sa Muntinlupa ito. Pangatlo, multiple rape of the women of Baguio. The beautiful ones. Sino 'yan?" Duterte said.
Malacañang, once again, has downplayed Duterte's "jokes," citing that the people have been used to his antics.
"He made some mischievous remarks to make people laugh. People have been used to his jokes hence his audience always receive them with hearty laughter," presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Monday. — Philstar.com intern Michelle Co
Gabriela holds One Billion Rising protest on Valentine’s Day against President Rodrigo Duterte's "habitual sexist tirades against women." Women protesters will slash the "tongues" of an effigy Duterte. The tongues represent misogynistic remarks uttered by the president. Duterte has made numerous "rape jokes," which earned criticisms from local and international rights groups. Recently, he remarked that troops shoot female New People's Army rebels in the vagina.
Gabriela slams President Duterte's latest rape joke at the Philippine Military Academy's graduation rites where the chief executive pretended to read out offenses committed by cadets, which, he joked, included rape and multiple rape.
"The Number One is for rape, p***** i**. Ang Number Two is drugs with rape with robbery. Para sa Muntinlupa ito. Pangatlo, multiple rape of the women of Baguio. The beautiful ones. Sino 'yan?" Duterte said as he pretended to read a list of cadet's offenses. The president said he would let the cadets off the hook for now "because I need good and capable soldiers and I know that one or two is bound to happen, but I will forgive you."
"Their Commander-in-Chief is actually absolving them from accountability at this early stage of their careers, and prodding them to commit offences and not be held accountable because they are 'good and capable' soldiers anyway," the women's rights group says.
"Walang kadala-dala itong bastos na Presidente. Matapos ng matagal na pagkawala sa mata ng publiko, magpapakita siya at maghahasik na naman ng kabastusan."
GABRIELA slams Duterte’s latest rape joke
— GABRIELA (@gabrielaphils) May 26, 2019
“Walang kadala-dala itong bastos na Presidente. Matapos ng matagal na pagkawala sa mata ng publiko, magpapakita siya at maghahasik na naman ng kabastusan. " pic.twitter.com/fWokCrLEMa
Vice President Leni Robredo says "jokes" about molesting sleeping househelp "normalize" sexual abuse.
On her weekly radio show, Robredo says that telling jokes is not wrong but says in Filipino that "there are some jokes that really shouldn't be told."
President Rodrigo Duterte reaped criticism last week for saying he had touched a sleeping househelp when he was still a teen. The Palace has said that the president's story was made up and was supposedly meant to highlight sexual abuse by Catholic priests.
Robredo says the "joke" could put Filipino OFWs at risk and says the president's story seems to have been told "without considering so many of our fellow Filipinos work as domestic helpers abroad and there have been many cases of abuse."
She says: "Parang ginagawang normal... Parang ginamit mo ito bilang isang biro o pahayag, parang nano-normalize yung isang bagay na napakasama."
(It makes it normal. By using it in a joke or a statement, it's like you're normalizing something that is so wrong.)
The Commission on Human Rights calls on the Duterte administration to refrain from making statements that may contravene its commitment to uphold the rights of Filipino workers abroad after a remark by President Rodrigo Duterte claiming to have abused a female domestic worker during his teenage years.
"Filipino domestic workers, especially women, face a number of challenges in some receiving countries. The current administration is fully aware of this condition when, in early 2018, the government even prompted a deployment ban in Kuwait following numerous cases of disappearance, death, and abuses of Filipino workers. Reports of similar forms of maltreatment are also being reported in other countries," CHR spokesperson Jacqueline Ann de Guia says in a statement.
The state human rights body urges the government to be consistent "both in words and deeds in this regard."
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