Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte will not be endearing himself to feminists anytime soon.
Certainly not after he uttered a new sexist statement during a campaign rally in Bohol on Wednesday. He told the town mayor that she’s so gorgeous, he would hold on to the garter of her panties to stop her from ever leaving him.
Crazy, but he really did say that.
The object of Duterte’s attention was Mayor Tita Baja-Gallantes of the town of Garcia Hernandez, reported GMA News.
In his speech delivered in Cebuano, Duterte said: “[Y]ou are truly beautiful. If it were me, why would I ever break up with you? I will really grab and hold on to your panties if you try to leave, even until the garter snaps. You’re just too beautiful.”
Most people would be shocked and speechless if they hear such an odd statement, but according to The Philippine Daily Inquirer, the crowd actually laughed at what Duterte said.
“Actually, I’m not trying to pull your leg,” Duterte told Gallantes, according to the Inquirer. “But the truth is I heard, if I may [be] allowed to say it in public and it will not offend you, you and your husband are separated.”
Wooing Gallantes further, he asked her if she wants to elope with him. “Can you run away with me? You have children, don’t you, mayor? How many children do you have? I have three, four. I have four but they’re all grown up already so I don’t have a problem there anymore.”
Duterte then jokingly asked his former special assistant, Christopher “Bong” Go, to take care of his partner Honeylet Avanceña when he goes away with Gallantes.
Speaking with Go, Duterte said: “Please take care of my wife while I’m away. I am here in Bohol to play. To play the game of love.”
Duterte also took it upon himself to tell Baja-Gallantes that he is no longer seeing Agusan del Norte Governor Angel Amante-Matba, someone he apparently used to date, Politiko reported.
Read: When You’re Smiling: In age of Duterte, politicians play it for laughs ahead of election
“But we are no longer together, mayor. You might have heard. No more. I had a landslide win [in 2016] in her province. And that’s because of love. If her husband is listening: Sir, we don’t have anything going on right now. We only have memories,” Duterte said.
Duterte has come under fire for a number of sexist and misogynistic statements since becoming president. In February 2018, he ordered soldiers to shoot female rebels in the vagina. In December, he said that he molested his family’s domestic worker when he was a teenager, a statement that his spokesman Salvador Panelo later said was untrue.
The Gabriela Women’s Party, a feminist party-list group in Congress, has condemned Duterte’s cringe-inducing public courtship. In a statement last night, they said it was no wonder that Duterte attracted a pesky cockroach’s attention during the Bohol campaign rally.
“We in Gabriela Women’s Party strongly condemn this sick and disgusting display of machismo, infidelity, and ethical bankruptcy,” the group said. “We call on women to make May 13 elections a platform for the resounding rejection of [Duterte’s] misogyny and macho-fascist leadership.”
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