Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte is once again under fire from critics – this time it’s not for his infamously obtuse rhetoric, but for kissing a woman on the lips during a visit to Seoul.
Duterte was addressing a meeting of the Filipino community in the South Korean capital when he announced that he would exchange a copy of a book for a kiss from a woman in the crowd. “No men, the price for this is a kiss,” he said, while calling out to a woman in white. “Are you ready to kiss?”
READ MORE: ‘Avoid condoms, they’re not pleasurable,’ Duterte tells Filipinos
When two women went up on stage, Duterte told them they could share the book. He pecked one woman on the cheek before signaling he would prefer a kiss on the lips from the second. “Are you single? You’re not separated? But can you tell him that this is just a joke?” Duterte said, as he moved in to lock lips with the woman.
WATCH: President Duterte gives an overseas Flipino worker a kiss on the lips during his meeting with the Filipino community in Seoul. | via Christina Mendez in South Korea pic.twitter.com/s61lVCCcMq
— The Philippine Star (@PhilippineStar) June 3, 2018
Ironically, the book he exchanged for the kiss was about allegations of sleaze and corruption in the Catholic Church. The tawdry nature of the incident was not lost on former solicitor-general Florin Hilbay who, in a statement cited by AP, said: “This is the path that normalizes misogyny.”
Gabriela, a women’s rights group, also slammed the president’s “disgusting theatrics,” telling ABS-CBN that Duterte felt “entitled to demean, humiliate or disrespect women according to his whim.”
Some took to Twitter to register their disgust with the Philippines president’s bizarre display.
I feel like I need to pour bleach all over my twitter feed now just to cleanse it of this disgusting video BUT HOW
— camie juan (@camiejuan) June 3, 2018
going off twitter for a while. imma wait until that disgusting photo of duterte’s death kiss dies down. that shit is puke material
— paulina christine (@piaescano) June 3, 2018
The controversial leader has also been accused of making misogynistic comments in the past. In February, he delivered speech to troops in which he appeared to advocate shooting female communist rebels in the vagina.
Last year, he was caught in a number of controversies over his alleged “jokes” about rape. In July, he made a speech in his home city of Davao in which he told people he would congratulate someone for “having the balls” to rape Miss Universe contestants.
In May, he told a meeting of Philippines soldiers that they had carte blanche in the battle against Islamic State-affiliated Maute in the southern island of Mindanao. “I’ll be with you all the way. If you go down, I go down… If you raped three [women], I will be the one to admit that it’s me,” he said.
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