Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte had a message for women who oppose him: “Tell the soldiers. ‘There’s a new order coming from the mayor. We won’t kill you. We will just shoot your vagina.' If there is no vagina, it would be useless.”
From The Washington Post:
Duterte regularly denigrates and threatens women, but when challenged, he insists it was all just a joke. Just last week, his spokesman accused women of “overreacting” to the president’s comments. “I mean, that’s funny. Come on. Just laugh,” Harry Roque said.
According to the official transcript from the Wednesday event, the crowd did, in fact, laugh at Duterte’s remarks.
Duterte, who was elected president in 2016, has made headlines for “joking” about the rape of a kidnapped Australian who was later killed and for telling troops to rape women in conflict. He often shares unsolicited opinions on the sexual attractiveness of women, particularly female politicians who question his policies, in an apparent effort to demean, shame and silence them.
Trump is noted for praising Duterte and boasting about his great relationship with the despotic leader. One reason might be that Trump's "name is on a 57-story, $150 million building in Manila. Duterte named the head of the corporation that developed it as an envoy to the United States."
