Ranking The Worst Sexist Comments President Duterte Has Made About Women

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is known for making sexist and misogynistic comments, and at the worst times too. Human rights groups, women and ordinary citizens have all condemned his vile statements, but as you already know, or will soon find out, literally nothing stops Duterte from making the most inappropriate "jokes." Maybe it’s because the crowd always laughs when he does… which they really need to stop doing…

So we took it upon ourselves to rank Duterte’s nastiest remarks on a scale of 1-10, from bad to worst.

Since there’s an abundance of things the president has said to choose from for this list, let’s take the most recent one. Speaking at the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Class of 2019 graduation ceremony in Baguio City, Duterte thought it would be funny to throw in a few rape jokes for the crowd… which we highly doubt they wanted to hear.

As a tradition at the PMA graduation ceremony, a list of offences are read out by the president, which he then pardons the cadets for doing. His list, which was all pretend, consisted mainly of rape offences. “The No. 1 is for rape, the No. 2 is drugs with rape – with robbery” he said. “Third, rape of women in Baguio – the beautiful ones,” he added. And if that wasn’t enough, he went on to ask who the beautiful ones were, because he needs “good and capable soldiers.”

But don’t fret - people are used to his antics anyways, says Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo. In a text to the media, Panelo said: "He made some mischievous remarks to make people laugh. People have been so used to his jokes hence his audience always receive them with hearty laughter."

Rating: 8. It’s not funny to make rape jokes. Period.

In 1989, Australian Jacqueline Hamill was one of five missionaries held hostage and killed in a prison siege. She was raped and murdered before the troops arrived. Although a sad moment in Philippine history, Duterte seemed more concerned with something else than the way the crime unfolded.

"I was angry because she was raped, that's one thing… but she was so beautiful, the mayor should have been first,” Duterte said at a Quezon City rally, referring to himself. “I looked at her face - son of a bitch - what a waste.”

The president has since refused to apologise for the insensitive remarks.

Rating: 9. Turning a painful moment for many into a trivial joke is just not right.

Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) was a horrible disaster that killed and impacted thousands of Filipino citizens. At a commemoration event for the deadly typhoon in 2016 held in Tacloban City, Duterte thought it was appropriate to sneak a little flirt in.

Not so little though. First, he said that part of the reason why he attended the event was because Vice President Leni Robredo was there. “Where she goes, I follow,” he said. Okay - not the worst thing he has said. Until he made some creepy remarks about her outfit: “Ma'am Leni wore a dress that was shorter than usual. The protocol officers probably noticed I was always behind her. I told [Finance Secretary] Sonny Dominguez, ‘You're too far, come closer. Check out her knees…” a Rappler translation shows.

Rating: 7. Gosh Duterte, these people were there to commemorate a terrible event, but were forced to witness your creepy antics instead.

Political rallies are not where you usually hear misogynistic comments. But as we have learned so far, practically nothing gets in the way of Duterte and a chance at making a degrading remark aimed towards women.

At a Bohol rally earlier this month, the president took to Garcia-Hernandez town mayor Tita Baja-Gallentes as his next victim. Calling her beautiful, he said: “If it were me, why would I ever break up with you? I will really grab and hold on to your panties if you try to leave, even until the garter snaps.”

To make matters worse, he asked the mayor to “run away with me” since she has already separated from her husband. The crowd even laughed according to The Philippine Daily Inquirer… awkward. Duterte was previously married and has since been annulled. He now is with his longtime partner Cielito "Honeylet" Avanceña, with whom he has a daughter.

Rating: 7. More creeping with politicians at professional events? Put some respect on their name.

At yet another event that was supposed to be at least somewhat inspirational, Duterte slid in yet another, completely sexist comment.

Trying to express his gratitude for the women who received the Outstanding Women in Law Enforcement and National Security of the Philippines award, Duterte addressed the women in the crowd as “puta,” which translates to "bitch" or "whore."

He went on to call women “crazy” for “depriving me of my freedom of expression. You criticise every sentence or word I say, that is my freedom to express myself.”

Yes, as this list shows exactly, Duterte has been deeply deprived of his freedom of speech.

Rating: 8. Remember what we said about respect? These women were there to feel empowered. Not cool.

In a 2018 speech to former communist soldiers, Duterte gave an order on what to do with female guerilla fighters.

“There’s a new order coming from the mayor, ‘We will not kill you. We will just shoot you in the vagina,’” he instructed them to say, since without vaginas, women are “useless.” Again, this tone deaf comment recieved laughter from the audience.

Rating: 9. This was just unnecessarily brutal and misogynistic. Also - was it that necessary to single out female rebels from their male counterparts?

Probably the worst on this list is when Duterte admitted to being a perpetrator of sexual assault himself.

At one of his speeches earlier this year, Duterte decided to tell the crowd about something he did as a teenager in university.

Recounting the time he entered a maid’s room while she was sleeping, he said: "I lifted the blanket … I tried to touch what was inside the panty … I was touching [it]” until “she woke up so I left the room." He also mentioned that he went back to assault the woman another time.

We won’t even rank this one guys. Heck, forget all our rankings – all these jokes are unacceptable. Especially coming from the most powerful man in the Philippines. Or any man for that matter.

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