Duterte flirting with Bohol mayor just humor — Palace

MANILA, Philippines — President Duterte was just trying to be funny when he flirted with Garcia Hernandez Mayor Tita Baja-Gallantes at a campaign rally in Bohol Wednesday night, his spokesman said yesterday.

“You know the President is just joking. People are always expecting that he will crack some jokes – pakwela lang yun (it’s his style). Yun ang kumakagat sa tao eh, mga Pilipino, kung ano kinagisnan (That’s what clicks with the people – Filipinos – that’s how things are),” he said, fending off criticism from women’s rights party-list group Gabriela.

Duterte had asked Gallantes many times during his speech if she would want to elope with him, at one point even saying something about the mayor’s undies.

“You are truly beautiful,” he told the mayor while they were on stage. “I will really grab and hold on to your panty if you try to leave, even until the garter snaps. You’re just too beautiful,” he said, to laughter from the crowd.

The Chief Executive added he was in Bohol “to play the game of love” as he quipped about asking former aide Christopher Go to take care of his wife while he was away.

Recalling the President’s speech getting interrupted by a flying cockroach which landed on the President’s shirt, Gabriela said “cockroaches attract foul-mouth.”

It was not the first time that the Chief Executive had drawn flak for making lewd remarks about women.

At his meeting with the Filipino community in Seoul, South Korea last year, Duterte kissed a Filipina worker on the lips in front of a rather thrilled crowd. 

After Gabriela and other groups denounced Duterte for his action, presidential daughter and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio promised to join her father in his official trips abroad to prevent similar incidents from happening again.