The footage above is the full interview of Al Jazeera’s Mehdi Hasan with Ernesto Abella, the presidential spokesperson of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Just a heads up: It is incredibly painful to watch.
The clip of Abella stammering before a relentless Hasan has gone viral on social media. But to be fair, Abella was able to answer Hasan’s questions.
Did he give substantial answers? Perhaps not, but he was able to answer most of the time. Most of the time.
The clip that has gone viral occurs within the last two minutes of the interview, when Hasan pointed out Duterte as the “president who says he’d kill his own kids if they took drugs, who makes jokes about wanting to rape women, who’s called the US ambassador a gay son of bitch and the Pope a son of a prostitute.”
Hasan asks Abella, “Your job must surely be an impossible one having to spin for him?”
Abella answered, “Let’s put this way: I understand that there’s a culture clash in here, but I understand where he’s coming from because it’s a particular subculture. The Cebuano subculture speaks in a very rough kind of humor, but I understand, that’s why my task is to be able to interpret him and act as a conduit and bring out the true intention of the president.”
Abella, who used to be an evangelical preacher as pointed out by Hasan earlier in the interview, better start thinking of other alibis for the president’s foul mouth other than blaming an entire subculture of peace-loving Visayans.
“What’s was the true intention when he said he wished he had raped the Australian missionary before she had been gang-raped?” Hasan asked.
After a few seconds (not sure if it was the signal delay or Abella just needs time to process things), Abella answered, “It was a joke, a joke that was difficult to translate.”
Well, there goes your only job, man, and you failed.
Reader Interactions