Duterte cites women’s role in nation-building after usual tirade at Robredo

President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday recognized the role of women in nation building in celebration of Women's Month two days after he unleashed another tirade against the country's highest woman official, Vice President Leni Robredo, and told her to die.

“I join the entire nation in celebrating Women's Month. The government recognizes the role of women in nation-building and upholding the fundamental equality before the law of both genders,” Duterte said in his message.

“This is why we are working relentlessly to ensure that they will have equal access to education, economic opportunities, health care and social services, and growth opportunities,” Duterte added.

The President’s latest jab at Robredo stemmed from the Vice President's insistence that the Chinese COVID-19 vaccine Sinovac should get a positive recommendation from the Health Technology Assessment Council (HTAC) before being administered under the government’s COVID-19 vaccination program.

Robredo made the suggestion on the same day that 600,000 doses of the vaccine arrived in the country, the only COVID-19 vaccine brand delivered to the country thus far.

The President said, “Iyan ang mahirap sa iyo eh, you want to be relevant. And you….you know, sometimes you make an idiotic stance. Iyong mga ganoong 'they deserve the best.' Anak ka ng…Bakit ako? I would give them the worst? Mamatay ka na. Hindi  ko iwanan ‘yong mga frontliners and you do not need to really be redundant about it.”

The President, who has earned the ire of women's groups for sexist and misogynistic remarks—including saying that the Presidency is not a job for a woman, and that women rebels should be shot in the vagina to become "useless"— has lashed out at several prominent women during his term, including Robredo, Senator Leila De Lima, Rappler editor-in-chief Maria Ressa, Conchita Carpio Morales and Ma. Lourdes Sereno when they were Ombudsman and Chief Justice respectively, and international figures such as International Criminal Court Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and United Nations special rapporteur Agnes Callamard. — BM, GMA News