Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's mouth has landed him in hot water again, this time for kissing a married woman on the lips in front of thousands of his cheering supporters.
In this video from PTV taken Sunday, June 3, 2018, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte leans in to kiss a Filipino worker at the podium during a town hall-style meeting with overseas Filipino workers in Seoul, South Korea. (PTV via AP)
Duterte, known for his verbal outbursts and other antics, is being slammed by critics for the kiss, which took place Sunday during a town hall-style meeting with overseas Filipino workers in South Korea. One senator called the act "a despicable display of sexism and grave abuse of authority."
Duterte sought a kiss from the woman after he called her on stage to give her a copy of a book at the event in Seoul. When Duterte asked if she can explain to her husband that the antic was just a joke, and she said yes, the president leaned in and kissed her as thousands erupted in cheers.
The state-run TV network aired the scene live in the Philippines.
While the woman has defended the kiss and said she was thrilled by her encounter, others said the president went too far.
"President Duterte acted like a feudal king who thinks that being the president is an entitlement to do anything that he pleases," said Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who asked the public not to pass judgment on the woman. "Even if the act was consensual, it was the president, possessed of awesome, even intimidating, power who initiated it."
The left-wing Gabriela women's party condemned Duterte's act, which it said underscored his "machismo and misogyny." The "macho spectacle," it said, "alarmingly makes sexual advances against women look right."
Aside from growing alarm over his bloody crackdown against illegal drugs which has left thousands of mostly poor drug suspects dead, Duterte has come under fire from women's groups for sexist remarks, including one where he told troops to shoot female insurgents in the genitals during a public outburst against communist guerrillas.
He has also publicly kissed women in the past, including at rallies during his campaign for the presidency.
The latest incident came near the end of a two-hour rambling speech, when Duterte offered the crowd a book about alleged corruption and abuse in the Catholic church. He pointed at two women.
"There's payment for this, a kiss. You in white, are you ready to engage in kissing? Come here," the 73-year-old Duterte said as he summoned the women to the stage.
One of the women gave the president a peck on the cheek. The other woman reached for the president's hand and put it on her forehead in a traditional gesture of respect for an elderly. But the president asked her to come closer for a kiss, pointing to his lips.
Amid the roar of the crowd, Duterte asked if the woman was married and if her husband was around. He inquired if she could explain to her husband that what they were about to do was just a joke.
She said her husband wasn't around and replied yes to the president's other question.
"Make him jealous," the president said.
Duterte then leaned in and kissed the visibly overwhelmed woman, who screamed in joy and covered her face. He then hugged her.
"Don't take that seriously," Duterte later told the crowd. "It's just to give people fun."
The woman, who is married to a South Korean and has two daughters, later said in a TV interview that she was thrilled by her face-to-face encounter with the president. She said there was "no malice" in the presidential kiss, which was meant to dazzle the crowd.
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Tuesday police seized the largest haul of methamphetamine in the country in years without anybody being killed, in a subtle criticism of his predecessor’s notoriously deadly crackdown on illegal drugs.
Police seized nearly 1,630 kilograms (1.8 tons) of methamphetamine Monday from a van and arrested its driver at a checkpoint in Alitagtag town in Batangas province south of Manila. Intelligence operations were underway to arrest other suspects, officials said without elaborating.
Locally known as shabu, the powerful stimulant had a street value of more than 13 billion pesos ($228 million), officials said.
"This is the biggest shipment of shabu that we’ve seized, but not one person died. No shots were fired and nobody was injured because we operated slowly,” Marcos told reporters in Alitagtag, where he presented the boxloads of seized drugs to the press.
"This should be the approach in the drug war for me and the most important objective is to stop the smuggling of illegal drugs into the Philippines,” Marcos said, adding that the newly seized drugs came from outside the country.
Marcos, who took office in mid-2022, has vowed to continue the crackdown on illegal drugs launched by his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, but said it would be done differently and focus more on rehabilitating drug addicts.
Under Duterte, more than 6,000 mostly poor suspected drug dealers were killed in reported clashes with law enforcers. The widespread killings alarmed Western governments, including the United States, and sparked an ongoing International Criminal Court investigation as a possible crime against humanity.
Police say there have been considerably fewer killings of drug suspects under Marcos, but human rights groups have expressed alarm over the continued killings and asked Marcos to cooperate with the ICC in investigating the killings that took place when Duterte was president and a longtime mayor of southern Davao city.
As president, Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the ICC’s founding treaty in 2019 after the court launched a preliminary examination into thousands of killings under his anti-drugs crackdown.
Critics said then that Duterte’s move was an attempt to evade accountability. The ICC prosecutor, however, said the court still has jurisdiction over alleged crimes while the Philippines was still a member of the ICC, a court of last resort for crimes that countries are unwilling or unable to prosecute themselves.
Marcos told Manila-based foreign correspondents on Monday that his relationship with Duterte is “complicated.” The brash-speaking Duterte has openly accused Marcos of being a weak leader and of using cocaine in the past, an allegation that the current president has repeatedly denied.
Marcos’s vice president is Duterte’s daughter, Sara, and they were elected in 2022 with landslide victories.
Marcos renewed his stance that he would not bring the Philippines back to the ICC. When asked if he would hand over Duterte if the ICC decides to issue a warrant for his arrest in the future, Marcos said he would not.
In this handout photo provided by the Batangas Public Information Office, Philippine President. Ferdinand Jr., third from left, talks to reporters as he visits Alitagtag town in Batangas province, Philippines on Tuesday April 16, 2024. Marcos Jr said Tuesday police seized the largest haul of methamphetamine in the country in years without anybody killed, in a subtle criticism of his predecessor's notoriously deadly crackdown on illegal drugs. (Batangas Public Information Office via AP)
