PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Monday insisted his rape joke was again taken out of context and that rapists would go to hell if they raped children and a Miss Universe.
Speaking before presidential appointees in Malacañang, Duterte said he never tried to pull off another rape joke when he spoke about the heinous act in a speech over the weekend.
“What I said was, ‘You know, even if you rape a one-year-old or a Miss Universe, just the same you will lose your balls and I will kill you’.” Duterte said
“What’s wrong? Why do you say I’m threatening people?”
In his speech before Filipino-American tourists visiting Davao City late Friday night, Duterte recounted his problem with the 1980s anti-communist group Alsa Masa, who would often ransack houses, rape women and children and take them hostage.
He then said he would congratulate a rapist if he would still commit the crime knowing he could die doing so.
In a mix of Filipino and English, Duterte said: “What I don’t like is for children to be raped. If you mess up with a Miss Universe contestant, maybe I would even congratulate you for having the balls to rape somebody when you know that you are going to die,” Duterte said.
In the same speech, Duterte again slammed the media perceived as critical of his presidency, including broadcast giant ABS-CBN and the newspaper Philippine Daily Inquirer, which announced recently that tycoon Ramon Ang, who is known to be close to Duterte, was in talks to buy a majority stake from the Prieto family.
Friday was the third time Duterte made off-color jokes about rape following his earlier remarks about having mistresses.
While addressing military troops in Iligan City in May at the height of the clashes in Marawi City, Duterte said he would back soldiers, even one who would be found guilty of rape while martial law was in operation there.
He also sparked outrage at the height of the 2016 presidential campaign after he cracked a rape joke about the deceased Australian missionary Jacqueline Hammil.
In defense of Duterte, Malacañang simply brushed off his remarks saying that he was not joking; rather, he was being sarcastic.