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Women’s advocate Pia Cayetano mum on Duterte kissing OFW, rape jokes, etc.


Women's rights advocate Pia Cayetano would not comment on President Rodrigo Duterte's actions and comments that women's groups found objectionable.

Facing the media after filing her certificate of candidacy in a bid to return to the Senate, Cayetano said she was not Duterte's spokesman and recounted her accomplishments in upholding women's rights.

“I’m not the President's spokesperson. The President can defend himself and answer the questions with respect to his actions and his words," Cayetano said.

"When it comes to my actions, my record speaks for itself. I would always defend women and children, as well as healthcare and education," she added.

Pressed to comment on President Duterte’s move of kissing a married Overseas Filipino Worker on the lips during one of the Presidential engagements, Cayetano responded that she never backs down from a fight, and that he took on powerful lobbyists when she sponsored and defended the passage of landmark measures such as the Reproductive Health Law, the 100-day maternity leave, the sin tax law which increased taxes on cigarettes and alcoholic beverages and the banning of age discrimination in the workplace.

“I beg to remind my critics to look at who fought the fight. You fight your battles in different areas, but there are other opportunities where I am talking to my principal, in occasions CEO, that their statements and polices are not good for the Filipino people. [I do that] even with celebrities. I do it in a way that is most effective,” Cayetano said.

“The records [of my work] are there. It is an open book,” she added. —NB, GMA News

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