Sara Duterte: This rape victim isn’t offended

MANILA, Philippines – Just a few days after presidential front-runner Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte drew flak for his rape comment, his daughter yesterday disclosed that she had been raped.

Former Davao mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio took to social media to disclose that she was also raped, but said she does not take offense at her father’s comments about an Australian missionary who was raped and killed in a Davao prison riot in 1989. 

She posted on her Instagram account a photo showing, “Not a joke. I am a rape victim. But I will still vote for my president Rodrigo Duterte.”

Sara did not elaborate.

“I am just saying I went through it and I do not feel offended by the rape joke. I do not want to talk about the details of my experience. It is embarrassing,” she explained.

She also admitted that she kept it to herself because she was ashamed to tell her parents.

“I don’t know, it was really a long, long time ago and it is immaterial to me and it is not affecting my personhood,” she said when asked what she thinks her father’s reaction would be.  

Sara also maintained that despite her father’s remarks, “he can still perform and he can deliver as president.”

Sara, who is again running for mayor after her father joined the presidential race, is on the third week of the 30-day Biyaheng DU30 bus trip, which brings her and her mother Elizabeth Zimmerman all over the Visayas and Mindanao to campaign for Duterte.

Duterte’s son, Davao Vice Mayor Paolo, also defended his father.

“First, it wasn’t a joke. It was a narration of events which transpired 27 years ago but nevertheless if it was a joke, I would still root for him. Not only because he is my father but also because I strongly believe that one should not be judged by the words one says but by the acts one has done,” he said.

Duterte apologized for his remarks and promised that he would be an effective leader.

“In spite of my dirty mouth, I’ll give you a clean government,” he said.

Failed in marriage, not in public service

Sara also defended her father on the annulment of his marriage.

She said that what happened to the marriage of her parents does not reflect Duterte’s impressive record as a public servant.

She said there are reports that rivals would use the failed marriage of her parents against her father, projecting him as psychologically incapacitated, impulsive, selfish and someone who makes decisions without remorse.

But Sara, a lawyer, said her father might have failed in marriage but definitely not as an elected public servant.

“Psychological incapacitated in a marriage does not reflect the character of a person outside the marriage,” she said. “He’s impulsive? He’s selfish? Does his track record in governance, as a public servant, show that he is impulsive or selfish? They do not.”

‘Duterte is sincere, principled man’

For Mayor Leoncio Evasco of Maribojoc, Bohol, many still do not know the character and personality of Duterte.

He said that behind Duterte’s strong personality, he is a sincere and principled man.

“I have known Mayor Duterte as a public official probably more than anyone, having served him as chief of staff while he was still an appointed vice mayor in 1986, a good 30 years ago... I have seen him take the risk and take the road less traveled in the course of his dedicated public service,” Evasco said.

Evasco also stressed that every single centavo of the money of the people of Davao City was well spent, every resource well allocated, distributed, disbursed and used.

“I can swear to God that he has not taken advantage of his position to enrich himself or any member of his family,” he added.  – With Robertzon Ramirez