Duterte to complainants at CHR: Go to hell

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has choice words for the groups that filed a complaint against him before the Commission on Human Rights in connection with his now controversial rape joke.

"Go to hell," Duterte said when asked about the petitioners that filed the case before the CHR on Wednesday.

Duterte also said he would ignore the complaint against him.

"I will not respond to CHR complaints," Duterte said.

Women's groups on Wednesday filed a complaint with the CHR after he said in a campaign speech last week that he wished to have been the first to rape an Australian missionary when he saw her remains after she was killed in 1989.

The groups said they are insulted, shocked and outraged when Duterte poked fun at the crime, which they said is a violation of the Magna Carta for Women.

Duterte, a frontrunner in the May 9 presidential election based on a recent Pulse Asia survey, has since apologized for his remark, which ignited a firestorm of condemnation from various sectors.

The complainants said the apology was insincere.

CHR chairperson Jose Luis Martin Gascon accepted the complaint and said it would undergo a formal process including getting the reply from Duterte.

In a statement, Gascon said rape should not be trivialized.

"As Gender Ombud, the Commission on Human Rights takes cognizance and expresses grave concern over the recent statements made by presidential bet Mayor Rodrigo Duterte during his campaign on the rape of an Australian lay minister decades ago and on his reaction to his daughter's revelation of being a 'rape victim' herself," he said. —NB, GMA News