Sara Duterte hits back at rape joke critics

FILE: Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio. (Photo: City Government of Davao/Facebook)

After President Rodrigo Duterte was criticized for his latest rape remark, it is now the Presidential daughter’s turn to hit back at her father’s critics.

“I pose this question to all who seemingly want to see Davao City fail – what have you done to help?” Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said on Friday, August 31.

The President on Thursday jestingly said Davao City has many rape cases because it has many beautiful women.

[READ: Duterte: Davao has many rape cases due to its beautiful women]

Duterte was commenting to the recent report of the Philippine National Police (PNP) that his hometown recorded the highest number of rape cases, which is at 42, in the second quarter of 2018.

Acknowledging this report, Duterte-Carpio said the city government has already been taking steps to address these rape cases since last year.

“In 2017, this fact has been taken up in the Davao City Peace and Order Council (DCPO), where it was discovered that many of these cases where incestuous rape or rape by someone who has a close relationship with the victim such as a neighbor or a friend,” she said.

The Davao City Social Services and Development Office, she added, was also tasked to conduct a research as well as implement programs to curb the increasing number of such crime.

Moreover, the Mayor also enumerated several ‘interventions’ of the city government and its partner agencies.

Among these and the “most effective” of which, she said, is that children in targeted communities are given knowledge about sexuality and sexual abuse, including when a family member’s touch is no longer “appropriate and acceptable.”

“This positive effect of government action should not be lost in the repertoire of the President and the attacks by those who hate his guts and humor,” the Presidential daughter stressed.

The Palace earlier defended the President’s statement, saying the public should not give “too much weight” on what Duterte says in jest.

While saying that people across the country have different senses of humor, Roque clarified that people in the South, particularly in Cebu and the Visayas, are “not okay with rape jokes.”

Duterte had been criticized by several government officials, women’s rights groups, and the public for his actions and remarks against women.

In June, Duterte kissed a married Filipina on the lips in public during his official visit to South Korea, and in February, the Chief Executive also threatened to shoot female communists in their vagina.