President Rodrigo Duterte and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry seem to get along just fine, but Duterte and American Ambassador Philip Goldberg?
We don’t think so.
During his Aug 5 speech in front of soldiers in Camp Lapu-Lapu in Cebu City, Duterte shared his sentiments about the U.S. ambassador.
In his speech, Duterte said Kerry’s fine but he’s annoyed by the U.S. ambassador, whom he cursed and called gay.
As quoted in an ABS-CBN News report, Duterte recalled the previous campaign season, saying Goldberg shouldn’t have given a statement regarding Duterte’s “joke” about the Australian missionary who was raped and killed in a jail riot back in 1989 while he was still the mayor of Davao.
Aside from Goldberg, Australian ambassador to the Philippines Amanda Gorely also issued a statement about Duterte’s rape “joke.” Duterte’s response? He threatened to cut ties with the U.S. and Australia and told both ambassadors to shut their mouths.
In many cultures and countries, including the Philippines, being ‘gay’ doesn’t just refer to one’s sexual orientation. It is often used as an insult to say someone is cowardly or a wimp. Yes, even if it’s already 2016.
While we recognize that the president has the freedom to say anything he wants (shout out to human rights and the Constitution), we fail to see the correlation between being gay and releasing a statement against rape jokes.
