PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday insisted he was simply being “sarcastic” when he uttered yet another rape joke before soldiers.
He also fired back against former US presidential daughter Chelsea Clinton and cited her father’s illicit affair with a young woman.
“Kagaya ni Chelsea, she slammed me for the rape joke. I was not joking,” Duterte said at the 119th Philippine Navy celebration in Sasa Warf, Davao City.
“I was being sarcastic. You listen to the speech… Sabihin ko sa kanya, when your father, the President of the United States then, was s―ing [Monica] Lewinsky and the girls there in the White House, how did you feel? Did you slam your father?”
Duterte accused Clinton’s youngest daughter of hypocrisy.
“Kaya kayong mga Amerikano, si Chelsea, be careful because you live in a glass house,” Duterte said.
“When President Clinton was f**king Lewinsky, what was your statement or reaction?” Para bang binubugbog ninyo ako sa kritisismo―ay p―tang ina, iinsultuhin ko rin kayo.”
Lewinsky was a White House intern who admitted to having had what she called an “inappropriate relationship” with US President Bill Clinton from 1995 to 1997. But the news of the Clinton–Lewinsky relationship broke only in January 1998.
Chelsea, who was born in 1980, was only 18 years old when her dad’s misbehavior was exposed.
In the same speech, Duterte accused American soldiers of raping the residents of the countries they were assigned to.
“It is a crime actually committed by soldiers, mostly Americans, in Okinawa in Japan. But we never heard of a Filipino,” Duterte said.
“I am just warning them that anything they do, I have to answer for it. But I take responsibility for your kagaguhan. Sarcastic ako magsalita.”
Duterte also brought up the case of transgender woman Jennifer Laude who was killed by US Marine Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton.
“You didn’t have to kill the transgender. Sana sinipa na lang,” he said. (J.P. Bencito. Ms)
