CHR: Duterte encourages violence against women

MANILA, Philippines — President Duterte’s latest “joke” that directs soldiers to shoot female guerrillas in the vagina encourages violence against women, according to an official of the Commission on Human Rights.

CHR spokesperson Jacqueline de Guia decried the statement made by Duterte last week, reminding the government of its duty to ensure that human rights of all Filipinos, including women, are protected and respected.

“Time and again, the commission asserts that words matter. The President’s recent remark on shooting female NPA (New People’s Army’s) vaginas openly encourages violence against women,” she said.

“It is the duty of the government to ensure that women, as humans with rights and as part of the country’s most vulnerable and marginalized, enjoy the protection of the State and not be at the forefront of inflicting violence against them,” she added.

Duterte made the remark during a speech before former communist rebels at Malacañang.

“Tell the soldiers. ‘There’s a new order coming from the mayor. We won’t kill you. We will just shoot your vagina,’” he was quoted as saying. “If there is no vagina, (they) would be useless.”

The remark was picked up by the international media, with stories appearing in The Washington Post and the UK’s The Guardian.

It was not the first time that the President was criticized over his remarks against women.

In 2016, the CHR found Duterte liable for violating the Magna Carta of Women over a rape joke that he uttered during the campaign period.

The agency also criticized the President when he made similar jokes in various speeches.

In a separate statement, De Guia called on the government to protect the indigenous peoples in Mindanao following Duterte’s offer to give P20,000 bounty for every NPA rebel killed by lumads.

“Lumads have long been victims of different forms of injustices. They form part of the country’s most vulnerable and marginalized,” said the CHR spokesperson.

“We urge the government to adopt measures that would protect their rights rather than further abuses by using them as instruments of violence against fellow Filipinos,” she added.

Various women’s rights groups, including party-list Gabriela, have criticized Duterte over his statement.

Gabriela yesterday took presidential spokesman Harry Roque to task for defending President Duterte for his “shoot in the vagina” remark.

It said Roque’s “lame justification cannot cover up Duterte’s anti-women verbal diarrhea, which has already angered women and various groups across the country and the globe.” 

“It is a ridiculous defense of Duterte’s un-presidential and obscene endorsement of violence against women,” it said.

Gabriela said Duterte’s remark “is a glaring proof of his macho-fascist mindset and constitutes a flamboyant seal of approval to what was otherwise barbaric acts that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) used to conceal or keep secret.”

“We should remind Roque and the President that in 2011, two female NPA fighters who were killed by state forces were found without their pants and their panties were torn in the crotch area,” it added.

It noted that the AFP denied the allegations, “but now, having the green light from the President, they might as well admit to these facts and claim the prize from their fascist leader.”

“Roque should also be fully aware of the magnitude of the President’s statement as the former lawyer of the victims of the Ampatuan massacre, where a witness testified that women victims were stripped and shot in the genitals, their vital parts chopped with a knife,” the group said.

“Duterte should expect angry vaginas to furiously denounce his macho-fascism,” it said.

An official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) yesterday criticized the offer of Duterte to give P25,000 to the lumad for every NPA they kill.

As this developed, CBCP-Episcopal Commission on the Laity chairman Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo labelled Duterte’s pronouncement as a call against life. 

“That is against life. There should be a process. Do not kill even the NPA since we have the courts,” said Pabillo.

He said these statements would only promote a culture of violence, which is contrary to Church teachings because it encourages people to take matters into their own hands. 

“Hopefully, we will not keep quiet. We need justice. We need respect as women,” said Ma. Julieta Wasan, president of Sangguniang Laiko ng Pilipinas. – Jess Diaz, Evelyn Macairan