Vice President Leni Robredo on Monday slammed President Rodrigo Duterte for blaming beautiful women for the high incidence of rape in Davao City.
“There is rape because there is a rapist, and not because there are beautiful women [around],” Robredo told reporters.
“We must take the matter seriously. We cannot just shrug our shoulders. We should not toy with the idea of rape. We just cannot make rape a joke.”
Robredo said any statement blaming a girl for the rape that happened to her could never be “funny.”
She made her statement even as Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo on Monday reminded Duterte’s critics that protecting the rights of women remained a top priority of the Chief Executive, and despite his joke that the reason why his hometown, Davao City, had the highest cases of rape in 2018 was because Davao had many beautiful women.
“The human rights critics and PRRD’s [Duterte’s] detractors are nitpicking again and making a [fuss] about a statement about many beautiful women being raped in Davao, making it a basis for accusing him of misogyny,” Panelo said in a statement.
He claimed Duterte’s critics “always distort” the meaning of his comments when the President was merely advancing a theory that “beautiful women” perpetuated the culture of rape.
Earlier, in a speech before the Filipino community in Jerusalem, Duterte justified his rape joke as freedom of expression.
During the 49th founding anniversary of Mandanue City in Cebu, Duterte said there were many rape cases in his hometown Davao City because there were many beautiful women.
Robredo did not agree.
“Freedom of expression has its limitations. We do not abuse this to disrespect every Filipino,” Robredo said. With PNA
