Furore over ‘ disgusting’ kiss by Philippines Prez

Manila, June 4: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte drew condemnation Monday after kissing a Filipino woman onstage during his visit to South Korea, prompting outraged activists to call it “disgusting”.

During his appearance on Sunday in front of a mostly migrant Filipino crowd, Mr Duterte called the woman onstage and, pointing to his lips, said, “Come here! Where’s my ( kiss)?”

After learning that her husband was not in the audience, Mr Duterte instructed her to explain to her husband that they were engaging in a “joke”.

“Don’t take it seriously. It’s just for fun, a gimmick,” Mr Duterte later told the crowd, who mostly shrieked in apparent approval.

The woman involved later said that there was “no malice” in the kiss, but the women’s rights political party Gabriela in a statement denounced Mr Duterte for his “perverted

During his appearance on Sunday in front of a mostly migrant Filipino crowd, President Duterte called the woman onstage and, pointing to his lips, said, ‘ Come here! Where’s my ( kiss)?’

way of getting back at his women critics”.

“Gabriela views President Duterte’s recent kissing of a migrant Filipina during his meetandgreet with Filipino ( workers)... As the disgusting theatrics of a misogynist President who feels entitled to demean, humiliate or disrespect women according to his whim,” it said.

President Rodrigo Duterte has fought publicly with powerful women who criticised his deadly narcotics crackdown and human rights record and his previous comments on women, including rape jokes and incitations to shoot women guerrillas in the vagina, have resulted in angry charges of misogyny against him.