PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday slammed Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former United States President Bill Clinton, for chastising him over his recent controversial rape remark.
In his impromptu speech at the 119th Philippine Navy anniversary in Davao City, Duterte dressed down the younger Clinton, saying his unhumorous statement about rape was uttered out of sarcasm.
“I was not joking when I was lecturing [about rape]. I am a man of sarcasm. Have you noticed that? I won’t say ‘Rape, rape.’ I said, ‘If soldiers rape you, I will own it up.’ Because as a commander-in-chief, I hold responsible for everything and anything that is done as a consequence of martial law. I and I alone will be criminally responsible,” Duterte said.
“Chealsie, she slammed me for joking. I was being sarcastic. You listen, I do not laugh at my own jokes,” he added.
The firebrand President earned the public ire after telling the soldiers over the weekend that he is willing to be held liable, should they commit rape within the 60-day period of martial law in Mindanao.
The younger Clinton, in a post on her Twitter account, called Duterte a “murderous thug with no regard for human rights.”
She also said that Duterte’s rape remark was “not funny ever” as rape is a case that is “never a joke.”
The President said that instead of criticizing him, she should have just reacted on her father’s love affair with Monica Lewinsky. The alleged sexual relationship between Clinton and Lewinsky happened between 1995 and 1996 but was exposed two years after.
Duterte also cited the Americans’ rape cases in the Philippines, including the rape-slay case of transgender Jennifer Laude, who was killed by US Marine Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton in 2014.
He hit back: “I tell you (Chelsea): ‘when your father, the President of the United [States] then, was screwing Lewinsky and the girls there in the White House, how did you feel? Did you slam your father?’”
“[Also], what do the Americans do when they go to the Philippines? Those sons of a b**** rape [women here]. They will rape them, pay them and give the victim’s family and visa as compensation. The transgender (Laude) who was slain, he (Pemberton) could have instead kicked him or pushed him out of the room. You didn’t have to kill the transgender,” he added. (VoxPop Philippines)
