CHR: Duterte, usec's sex jokes at disaster briefing 'inexcusable'

President Rodrigo Duterte and an undersecretary's jokes on how too much sex causes aging in men at  a post-typhoon briefing should not be allowed to pass unchecked, the Commission on Human Rights has said.

According to CHR commissioner Karen Gomez Dumpit, the jokes were  tantamount to violence against women which should never be tolerated.

“CHR condemns the normalization, trivialization of sex jokes and sexual objectification of women," Dumpit said.

In a briefing following the onslaught of Typhoon Ulysses, Duterte told the story of an official whom he said had aged because he had too many women.

“‘Brod’ ko pa. Pero naubos ang panahon niya sa ano, tumanda na. Nakakatanda talaga ‘yan. Sobra babae, nakakatanda ‘yan,” Duterte jested.

The official, an undersecretary, then said, “Undersexed daw po ako. ‘Undersexed.’ Kaya kung puwede po, gawin mo na akong Secretary para hindi na ‘undersexed.’”

A few moments later, they discussed a friend who had passed away, apparently because of COVID-19.

Duterte quipped: “P— ina, kulang sa babae ‘yung ganun.”

"These should not be excused. Not when the country is reeling from a national emergency, not in November, when we are observing the 18 days of activism against [violence against women] and especially not coming from high ranking government officials during an emergency response briefing,” Dumpit said.

“The Commission once again reminds the President and other high ranking officials present during the briefing that the state is not only obliged to protect women from discrimination and violence, but also have the obligation not to perpetuate nor tolerate violence against women,” she added.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, Jr. dismissed the sex jokes as one of the President’s way to  cope with a difficult situation in the aftermath of the series of typhoons.

Dumpit said that sex jokes were not a way to cope but an affront to women.

“Rather than the sexual objectification of women—seeing women’s only function is to serve men’s sexual pleasures—what should have been made visible in the briefing is the need for immediate and mainstreamed gendered responses and addressing the importance of protecting women and girls during and post disaster,” Dumpit said.

“Instead of making jokes at the expense of women during a government briefing, they have to respond immediately to the gendered and intersectional needs of women facing multiple disasters. They have to have zero-tolerance for violence and should not be perpetuators themselves,” she added.

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 scores of lives across the Philippines.

Unprecedented floods also trapped nearly a hundred people in Cagayan for three days straight. Duterte visited the region, still struggling with massive flooding, on Sunday prior to going to Bicol. -NB, GMA News