Sereno ‘deplored, cringed’ at Duterte kiss with Pinay in Korea — spokesperson

Ousted Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, a vocal critic of President Rodrigo Duterte, "deplored" his headline-grabbing kiss with a married Filipina in South Korea, her spokesperson said Wednesday.

Lawyer Josa Deinla, one of Sereno's representatives, told ANC that like the rest of their team, the erstwhile top judge "cringed" at the incident, which has come under fire for supposedly normalizing prejudice against women.

"This is the kind of behavior that encourages or emboldens sex offenders, normalizes misogyny, sexism and gender discrimination," Deinla said.

"He has shown this kind of behavior against strong women because of the misogyny of this government. They cannot abide women who are strong and are speaking up for themselves, who are fighting the oppressive status quo," she added.

Critics condemned Duterte's kiss with Bea Kim, a Filipina expat who has two children with her Korean husband, at a public event during the President's official visit to South Korea.

The woman said there was no malice in the act. Malacañang defended the chief executive, saying the incident was a "playful act" accepted in Filipino culture. Duterte himself said there was nothing wrong with it.

But Deinla disagreed, saying the act ought not to be justified. The woman was "under duress," too, and was in no position to refuse the President's beckoning, she said.

The controversial incident follows a string of what critics call Duterte's "misogynistic" acts, which include a statement that female rebels ought to be shot in the vagina, that he would take responsibility if his soldiers raped women in Mindanao under martial law, and that while he believed in women's competence, some jobs were inappropriate for them. — MDM, GMA News