President Rodrigo Duterte drew outrage Sunday after saying he “touched” his maid when he was a teenager, with women’s groups accusing him of attempted rape and encouraging sexual abuse, while the Palace tried to dismiss the tale as “a laughable anecdote.”
In his latest remarks, Duterte recounted a confession he had with a priest in high school, detailing how he had entered the room of his maid while she was sleeping.
“I went to the room of the maid. I lifted the blanket. I tried to touch what was inside the panty. I was touching it. She woke up, so I left the room,” the teenage Duterte told the priest.
When the priest asked where he went after, Duterte said he went to the bathroom to do the “usual” and went back to the maid’s room.
“I tried to insert my finger, Father. There was hair. It was wet,” he said.
Asked if the maid woke up, Duterte said: “No, Father. She was closing her eyes. Fast asleep.”
“So, I went to the bathroom again, Father. Twice,” he added.
The priest then told Duterte to recite one Our Father and five Hail Mary’s, so he will not go to hell. Duterte, however, shrugged off the belief of hell and some of the other Catholic teachings.
Women’s rights political party Gabriela denounced Duterte’s “repulsive” comments and called for him to resign, saying he had confessed to attempted rape.
“Rape does not happen only through penile insertion. If it is a finger or an object it is considered rape,” said Joms Salvador, secretary general of Gabriela.
Duterte, 73, made the remarks as he blasted the Catholic Church over allegations of sexually abusing children.
The president, who brands the church the “most hypocritical institution” in the mainly Catholic nation, said Saturday that he and his classmates at school were molested during confession.
It was his latest tirade against bishops and priests who have been critical of his drug war which has left more than 5,000 people dead, according to official figures.
Duterte and his aides often dismiss his controversial statements about women as a “joke” or insist they are taken out of context.
Duterte provoked fury in 2016 when during an election campaign speech he said he had wanted to rape a “beautiful” Australian missionary who had been murdered in a prison riot.
Women’s advocates said Duterte’s latest comments endangered domestic workers.
More than a million Filipinos work abroad as domestic workers, according to the Labor Department.
“Flaunting abusive practices encourages the rape culture and in this case, sexual abuse of domestic workers,” said Jean Enriquez, executive director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women-Asia Pacific.
The Palace played down Duterte’s confession of misbehavior as a “laughable anecdote.”
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said Duterte purposely “spliced” the story with vulgarity to characterize the behavior of the priest who insisted on hearing more sins during their confessions when there were none.
“In his inimitable allegorical style of dramatizing the sexual abuse the President suffered when he was a minor, he (Duterte) has made up a laughable anecdote to dramatize the fact of sexual abuse that was inflicted on him and his fellow students when they were in high school,” Panelo said in a statement.
The Palace official said Duterte has even asked the public to research on the internet the late Jesuit priest Fr. Mark Falvey, who allegedly groped him and other Ateneo students during sessions in the confession box.
“The Jesuit order paid $16 million settlement on complaints of sexual abuse filed against him,” Panelo said.
He said Duterte has come up with “an unorthodox and mischievous method” of exposing and criticizing the hypocritical practices of the men in robes.
“While the telling of the concocted story triggers laughter [from] his audience, the message that the President intends to convey is not lost on his listeners,” he said.
“The President will not discard his shocking and amusing out-of-the-box utterances that have been his political signature, which has endeared him to the masses, and which he finds effective in transmitting to the nation his political and social dogmas,” he added.
In his speech, Duterte again related that he was molested by a Catholic priest.
“It’s true. All the children went through that. While we’re confessing, they touch us,” Duterte said in his speech.
The President also mentioned in his speech that case of a foreigner priest in Biliran who was arrested for 50 cases of molesting.
The President also expressed skepticism over the Church’s concept of hell.
“They invented heaven and hell. There’s heaven because you will really go there. Now if you say hell, why would God create you and throw you to the fires? How will you burn?” Duterte asked, displaying again his copy of the book “Altar of Secrets: Sex, Politics, and Money in the Philippine Catholic Church.”
The book, which Duterte claims to be a “bestseller,” contains exposés on ranking prelates.
“I’m not picking a fight with them. But the situation is being handled by the Church. All countries that the Church interferes in do not progress. Everything [does not advance] once the religions meddle,” he said.
He said priests should not use religion to interfere in the affairs of the state.
“They will use it as their platform. It’s really crazy… Do not use the platform of religion to criticize me. Just say that I am wrong. Do not use God,” he said.
“The Catholic has become a very lewd thing. She (the Church) has to correct itself before it can clearly [criticize]. If not, I will really be their enemy and I will continue to attack them,” he added.
He then said the Catholic belief of a Holy Trinity was “silly.” – With AFP