Brosas slams Duterte over sex jokes during typhoon briefing

Gabriela Women's Party Representative Arlene Brosas on Monday slammed President Rodrigo Duterte for making sex jokes while conducting a televised briefing on the government's typhoon response in Camarines Sur.

In a statement, Brosas called out Duterte for "still having the audacity to blabber inappropriate jokes when people literally drowned and died due to the series of calamities."

During the said briefing, Duterte and attendees exchanged jokes about being “undersexed” amid the string of storms that had lashed the country.

The jokes came in a briefing held in the wake of a series of typhoons hitting the Bicol region over the past few weeks, with the latest, Ulysses, claiming at least 67 lives across the Philippines.

"Sa gitna ng sunod-sunod na kalamidad habang nasa panahon ng pandemya, ang kailangan ng mga Pilipino ngayon ay hindi payaso kundi epektibong pamumuno at kongkretong plano," Brosas said.

"Instead of dropping sexist remarks, the government should double time in providing emergency assistance. [He] should also apologize and explain its lack of preparedness and inadequate response tantamount to criminal neglect," Brosas added.

In an interview earlier in the day, Vice President Leni Robredo also criticized the exchange of sex jokes among government officials during the briefing, saying it was "bad communication."

“Kapag may matindi tayong pinagdaraanan, nakapakahalaga iyong mensahe na we are giving outmost urgency on things that are really urgent  Kapag binibigyan ng atensiyon ang ibang bagay, ‘yung naco-communicate natin, mali,” Robredo said in an ANC interview.

“‘Yung nako-communicate natin, hindi ito (bagyo) ganun kaimportante na seseryosohin natin. Hindi lang ito on this incident. If we are going through something really serious, it is very important for us to communicate how urgent a particular matter is,” she added. --Erwin Colcol/KBK, GMA News