Philippine presidential front runner Rodrigo Duterte suffers fierce backlash after making rape joke at rally
Duterte, who promises mass killings of suspected criminals if elected, appears in a video joking about the 1989 rape of female Australian missionary.
Leading Philippine presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte, whose campaign promises a ruthless war on crime, was angrily condemned on Sunday after a video surfaced of him joking about a murdered Australian rape victim.
Duterte, who promises mass killings of suspected criminals if elected next month, appears in a video uploaded on YouTube making the joke about the female Australian missionary.
The missionary, who was ministering in a prison in Davao in the southern Philippines, was raped and killed during a riot by inmates in 1989. Duterte was the city mayor at the time.
“They raped all of the women ... There was this Australian lay minister ... when they took them out ... I saw her face and I thought: ‘Son of a bitch. what a pity ... they raped her, they all lined up. I was mad she was raped but she was so beautiful. I thought, the mayor should have been first,” Duterte is shown telling a crowd of laughing supporters at a campaign rally.
They raped her, they all lined up ... I thought, the mayor should have been first
Duterte, who boasts of the extrajudicial killings of suspects by vigilantes during his time in Davao, is the preferred candidate in the run-up to the May 9 election, according to the latest opinion survey on April 3.