Amid the furor over the remark that Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte made about Jacqueline Hamill, the Australian missionary who was raped and killed during the 1989 hostage-taking incident at the Davao Penal Colony, the Australian ambassador to the Philippines issued a statement on its social media channels.
During his speech at the Amoranto Sports Complex on Apr 12, Duterte had said, “Ang napasok sa isip ko, ni-rape nila. Pinagpilahan nila lahat do’n. Nagalit ako kasi ni-rape? Oo. Isa rin ‘yun. Pero napakaganda. Dapat, ang mayor muna ang mauna (What I thought was, they raped them. They lined up to rape her. Was I mad because she was raped? Yes, that’s one of the reasons. But she was so beautiful. The mayor should have been first).”
READ: Duterte slammed for joke about Australian missionary who was raped and killed
He later explained: “In my utter anger, gutter language iyan eh (it’s gutter language). Salitang kanto… (Street lingo). Galit ako nun, sabi ko, ‘O, eto, ang ganda ganda pa mukhang artista galing Amerika. Pu****ina, naunahan pa ako!’ Patayin mo lahat (I was angry when I said, ‘Oh, this woman is so beautiful like a movie star from America. Son of whore, why did anyone get ahead of me?’ You want to kill them all. Sa galit iyon (I said that in anger), I was not joking.”
READ: Duterte on rape joke: I wasn’t joking. I was angry and just used ‘gutter language’
Amanda Gorely — the Australian Ambassador to the Philippines — weighed in on the issue via Twitter and on the official Australia in the Philippines Facebook page. “Rape and murder should never be joked about or trivialised. Violence against women and girls is unacceptable anytime, anywhere,” she wrote.
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