Comelec commish on Duterte remarks: ‘There are 27.9M voters who can be raped’

A Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioner on Wednesday joined critics of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte over his "disgusting" remark about an Australian missionary who was raped and killed in a prison riot in 1989.

Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon highlighted in her statement that more than half of the total registered voters for the May 9 elections are women.

Guanzon said of the 54.3 million registered voters, 27,896,668 are women or more than 1.7 million than male voters.

"That's 27.9 million women voters who CAN be raped," the commissioner wrote. "And Rodrigo Duterte, a presidential candidate, makes a disgusting 'joke' about it, talking about rape and murder victim Jacqueline Hamill, an Australian missionary who was taken hostage in a Davao City prison, as if she was not a human being."

Prompted by the presidential candidate's remarks, Guanzon said that she will propose Code of Conduct for candidates in the next elections.

The commissioner is the chairperson of the poll body's Gender and Development Committee.

She said she will also try to reform the election rules "to emphasize gender sensitivity and gender equality."

Last week, a YouTube video uploaded by user "Beatboxer Ng Pinas" showed Duterte recounting the 1989 Davao City prison riot where Hamill and four other visiting missionaries were killed.

The Australian missionary was also raped by the inmates.

In the video, Duterte told his supporters: "P— ina, sayang. Ang napasok sa isip ko, ni-rape nila, pinagpilahan nila lahat doon. Nagalit ako kasi ni-rape? Oo. Isa rin 'yun. Pero napakaganda, dapat mayor muna ang nauna. Sayang."

The remarks earned criticisms on social media and from various sectors. It also got the attention of international media, and a statement from the Australian embassy here.

Duterte refused to apologize for the remarks, and only for his language.

An apology attributed to the mayor has been released on Tuesday. —ALG, GMA News