For Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, it was another year of sledges, threats and ‘rape jokes’
The Philippine president came to office in 2016 with a reputation for vulgar quips – it’s fair to say he burnished that reputation further in 2017
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has become notorious for his zero-tolerance approach to narcotics, overseeing a brutal crackdown that has delivered a mounting death toll. However, he has also become infamous for his bellicose, sometimes bizarre public statements.
This year proved that Duterte’s unpredictable rhetoric was by no means confined to the campaign trail. Quite the opposite, Duterte’s second year in office has brought with it a whole new string of insults, threats and off-colour remarks.
Whether he’s intimidating his politics foes or taking aim at the Philippines’ allies, giving police the green light to kill drug users or making “rape jokes” to boost soldiers’ morale, Duterte spent 2017 veering between the bizarre and the downright disturbing.
Watch: Duterte sings to Trump
When Islamist militants abducted and beheaded two Vietnamese sailors in the southern region of Mindanao, Duterte’s reaction was furious. “I will eat your liver if you want me to. Give me salt and vinegar and I will eat it in front of you,” Duterte said. “I eat everything. I am not picky. I eat even what cannot be swallowed.”
Duterte has followed through on his campaign promise to crack down on drugs, leading a brutal purge that has claimed thousands of lives. And when his son, Paolo, was accused of drug-trafficking, the president was equally unforgiving. “I said before my order was: ‘If I have children who are into drugs, kill them so people will not have anything to say’,” Duterte said.
The Communist Party of the Philippines has been waging an insurgency since 1968 and peace talks have been conducted on and off. Duterte, though, appears to be running out of patience. “You tell the guys there in the Netherlands: I am no longer available for any official talk. Let’s just go to war,” Duterte said, referring to rebel leaders living in European exile.
Duterte withdrew police from the front lines of his crackdown on drugs after a series of rights abuses were exposed. In their place, Duterte insisted he would be willing to kill criminals himself. “Those who rape children, who rape women, those sons of … if you don’t want the police, I am here now,” he said. “I will shoot them. That’s true. If nobody would dare it, I will pull the trigger.”
Tells the West: “Don’t f*** with us”
“Kill the idiots who resist arrest”
Anxiety has been building in Asia – and around the world – over North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. Duterte did not mince his words. “This Kim Jong-un, a fool … he is playing with dangerous toys, that fool,” Duterte said. “That chubby face that looks kind. That son of a bitch. If he commits a mistake, the Far East will become an arid land. It must be stopped, this nuclear war.”
“I’ve seen America and it’s lousy”
The US has long been one of the Philippines’ most vital allies but Duterte’s views on the relationship have been typically volatile and unpredictable. “I’ve seen America and it’s lousy,” he said in July. “It would be good for the US Congress to start with their own investigation of their own violations with so many civilians killed in the prosecution of the wars in the Middle East.”
Congratulates rapists for “having balls”
Duterte’s casual remarks about rape have raised eyebrows before and he courted further controversy when addressed diplomats in Davao. “What I don’t like are kids [being raped],” he said. “You can mess with, maybe Miss Universe. Maybe I will even congratulate you for having the balls to rape somebody when you know you are going to die.”
Vows to jail critics of martial law
The Philippine president invoked martial law to fight the Islamist insurgency in Marawi and warned his political foes he would jail them f they objected. “It’s not dependent on the whim of the Supreme Court,” he said. “Should I believe them? When I see the situation is still chaotic and you ask me to lift it? I will arrest you and put you behind bars.”
Ill health? No, just a circumcision
“If you rape three women, I’ll say I did it”
“Everybody is making a grab for the islands”
Duterte has taken shifting positions on China’s actions in the South China Sea. But in April he ordered the Philippine military for occupy and fortify their islands in disputed territory. “It looks like everybody is making a grab for the islands there, so we better live on those that are still vacant,” he said. “At least, let us get what is ours now and make a strong point there that it is ours.”
“Who among you here does not have a mistress?”
Duterte weighed in to defend one of his political allies who committed adultery. “This is a world of hypocrisy,” he told the House of Representatives. “Who among you here does not have a mistress? There are so many women and you [have] so short a time in this world. My God!” Duterte has previously boasted about having mistresses and using Viagra to have sex with them.
“The priests should take shabu”
“Come here … I want to slap you”
Abu Sayyaf militants have menaced the Philippines by seizing hostages and then demanding ransoms. Duterte, though, said he instructed the navy and the coastguard that “if there are kidnappers and they’re trying to escape, bomb them all”. His advice to potential victims? “So, really, don’t allow yourselves to be kidnapped.”
