“Don’t fuck with me, girls.”
This is how petty the President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte got, speaking to an audience in Pampanga on Wednesday, a day before International Women’s Day.
He was referring to International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Agnes Callamard.
Duterte is currently being investigated by the ICC for the thousands allegedly killed in his administration’s war on drugs.
In November, Duterte threatened to slap Callamard for probing extrajudicial killings.
“But if I meet them, especially the black lawyer, (Bensouda) and the slim one, Callamard, who is undernourished and not eating,” he said.
He didn’t say exactly what he would do “if” he meets them, except that if these women were planning to keep him in check, he wasn’t here for it.
And we’re not here for the misogyny.
This isn’t the first time Duterte showed his fear of women who check him, nor is it the first time he has made a sexist comment.
He accused Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales of partiality and threatened to investigate her.
Rappler reporter Pia Ranada, one of the more critical and aggressive reporters covering the president, had been completely banned from covering the president and his activities last month.
Last month, Duterte told soldiers that if they encountered female rebels on the field, they should not kill the women but “shoot them in the vagina.”
These words are coming from the president who often boasted during campaign rallies that he was pro-gender equality because he signed one of the most progressive women’s development codes into local ordinance during his time as mayor Davao City in 1997.
Duterte said that he would continue his campaign against drugs despite the threats to prosecute and investigate him.
“In the matter of drugs, it (anti-narcotics drive) will not stop, despite or in spite of the threats of ICC and everything. I don’t care about them,” he said during the speech in Pampanga.
For someone who “doesn’t care about them” he sure has a lot to say about these women.
Happy International Women’s Month!
