MANILA – Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has been branded a misogynist and “macho-fascist” after his ordered the country’s soldiers to shoot female guerrilla fighters directly in the vagina because without their genitals they are ‘useless’.
Duterte, who is dubbed as ‘The Punisher’, made these comments while addressing over 200 former communist soldiers in Malacañang last week.
“‘There’s a new order coming from the mayor, ‘We will not kill you. We will just shoot you in the vagina’,” said Duterte. He went on to say that without their vaginas, women would be “useless”.
Duterte mentioned the Visayan word “bisong”, meaning vagina, repeatedly throughout the speech, although it was later censored from an official Palace transcript, replaced simply with a ‘dash’, the Guardian reports.
In the speech, he ordered his army to kill anyone in the New People’s Army (NPA), be it male or female. “If there is no vagina, it would be useless,” he said, implying that women are “useless without their genitals”.
The crude orders drew anger from human rights organisations and women’s groups in the region. “It is just the latest in a series of misogynist, derogatory and demeaning statements he has made about women,” said Carlos H Conde, the Philippines researcher for Human Rights Watch.
“It encourages state forces to commit sexual violence during armed conflict, which is a violation of international humanitarian law.”
Congresswoman Emmi de Jesus, speaking on behalf of the Gabriela Women’s Party, denounced President Rodrigo Duterte as a “macho-fascist,” and said his “anti-women” remark “takes state terrorism against women and the people to a whole new level”.
Previously, Duterte has made rape jokes about Miss Universe and told his soldiers they had permission to rape up to three women during a conflict without facing punishment.
Duterte, who took over in 2006, has a history of controversial remarks, including calling Barack Obama “son of a wh*re”.
Duterte is currently under investigation by the International Criminal Court for his ‘war on drugs’ which has seen nearly 4,000 people killed in vigilante-style executions since he came to power in June 2016.
Duterte claimed in November 2017 that he had killed someone in a stabbing by the time he was 16-years-old, but his aides have claimed that he is prone to ‘hyperboles’.
Human rights groups have also condemned his violent crackdown on drugs, in which thousands of people have been killed.
