Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman on Tuesday defended the 73-year-old leader from criticism after he kissed a married woman on the lips in front of thousands of cheering Filipinos in South Korea.
“The kiss really was an act that was intended to please the Filipino crowd,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque said.
“If there’s anyone who should complain, it should only be the woman who was kissed and she’s not complaining.”
Roque added that there was nothing immoral about the kiss, which Duterte asked for in exchange for a copy of a book about alleged corruption in the Catholic Church in the Philippines that he gave out at a gathering of Filipinos living in Seoul on Sunday.
“I don’t think there’s anything immoral. After all, the president has reiterated he is single,” he said.
Duterte’s marriage to the mother of his three adult children was nullified in 2000.
He has a common-law wife, Honeylet Avancena, with whom he has a teenage daughter.
Lawmakers, women’s rights groups and some Filipinos on social media have criticized Duterte for kissing the woman, who is married to a South Korean and has two children.
“It was a despicable display of sexism and grave abuse of authority,” said Senator Risa Hontiveros.
“President Duterte acted like a feudal king who thinks that being the president is an entitlement to do anything that he pleases.“
Duterte has in the past been accused of making sexist, misogynistic and disrespectful comments against women, including making rape jokes, questioning their integrity and even telling soldiers to shoot female “rebels’ vaginas”.
