A VIDEO of Mayor Rodrigo Duterte joking about an Australian missionary who was raped and killed in Davao City has gone viral.
As of yesterday, the presidential candidate said he saw no need to apologize for saying he should have had the woman first.
“If it brings me down, let it bring me down. If it brings me up to the presidency, then well and good. I will serve you but I will not as a matter of honor apologize for it,” he told some journalists.
In the video, posted last Saturday, April 16, by YouTube user Beatboxer ng Pinas, Duterte is speaking at what appears to be his April 12 campaign rally in Quezon City.
The transcript of the one-minute video clip goes:
“Nirape nila lahat ng mga babae so ‘yung unang asolte, kasi nagretreat sila, naiwan yung ginawa nilang cover, ang isa doon yung lay minister na Australyana. Tsk, problema na ito.
Pag labas, edi binalot. Tiningnan ko yung mukha, ‘tangina parang artista sa America na maganda. Putangina, sayang ito. Ang nagpasok sa isip ko, nirape nila, pinagpilahan nila doon. Nagalit ako kasi nirape, oo isa rin ‘yun . Pero napakaganda, dapat ang mayor muna ang mauna. Sayang.”
(All the women were raped so during the first assault, because they retreated, the bodies they used as a cover, one of them was the corpse of the Australian woman lay minister. Tsk, this is a problem. When the bodies were brought out, they were wrapped. I looked at her face, son of a bitch, she looks like a beautiful American actress. Son of a bitch, what a waste. What came to mind was, they raped her, they lined up. I was angry because she was raped, that’s one thing. But she was so beautiful, the mayor should have been first. What a waste.)
The video clip ended at this point, although Duterte still appeared to be in the middle of a speech.
Duterte’s running mate, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, tried to address the controversy during last night’s vice presidential candidates’ debate on ABS-CBN. He said that during the negotiations, the mayor had even offered himself as a hostage, in exchange for the missionaries. “He will explain,” he said.
A women’s advocate in Cebu, Tessie Fernandez, told Sun.Star Cebu yesterday that Duterte does not deserve to be president if he aims to demean women with his statements.
“It’s very irresponsible. He does not deserve to be running for a higher office if he says something like that,” said Fernandez, executive director of Lihok Filipina.
The video provoked comments from angry and offended netizens, although some of the mayor’s supporters also defended him by asking voters to focus on what he has done, rather than what he has said.
The incident Duterte was referring to seems to be the 1989 hostage-taking by Felipe Pugoy, an inmate of the Davao City Police Office. Pugoy had taken hostage of missionaries who had visited the DCPO to preach.
One of the missionaries was an Australian woman named Jacqueline Hamill.
According to an Aug. 16, 1989 story in the Chicago Tribune, Hamill and four other hostages were among the 20 people killed in the hostage drama in Davao City. The Chicago Tribune story reported that Hamill was “raped and had her throat slashed” by a gang inside the jail during the hostage-taking.
Duterte, in his television show “Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa,” had admitted he ordered the shooting of the hostage-takers. (Pia Ranada of Rappler.com)