Devaluing women’s worth

insulting words toward women were jokes that they by not “joking” about women as sex commodities?

Remember during the 2016 election campaign when candidate Duterte spoke about the 1989 prison riot in which an Australian missionary was killed, and inmates had lined up to rape her. He said he wished he had the some women still swoon over him.

One year after winning in May last year, he told soldiers in Mindanao that while martial law was in force, he would protect them from prosecution if they raped three women.

President Duterte is squandering his political capital with his degrading remarks about women. His anger over the abuse of Filipino women in Kuwait would have sounded more sincere and meaningful if he has not been devaluing their worth right in their own country.

A few weeks ago, the body of 29-year-old Filipino overseas worker Joanna Demafelis was found stuffed in a freezer in Kuwait. She supposedly committed suicide but the family said her corpse bore signs of abuse and that her organs had been harvested. She left the country four years ago to work as a maid

Showing his anger over the abuse, Duterte said he would “sell his soul to the devil” to bring home workers who were being abused in Kuwait. He then ordered a stop to deployment of workers to Kuwait.

Duterte’s anger is well-placed. But would have sent a stronger message if he had shown respect to Filipino women in the same way that he seems to expect other nationalities to do. As the golden rule says, “Do unto others what you want others to do unto you.”