Controversial Duterte kiss not part of Pinoy culture, Gabriela tells Palace

Gabriela Women's Party on Tuesday slammed presidential spokesperson Harry Roque's apparent downplaying of President Rodrigo Duterte's controversial kiss with a Filipino woman in South Korea.

Roque had called the incident a mere "playful act" that is "accepted in the culture of Filipinos."

"Asking a woman to come onstage for a kiss to supposedly entertain the crowd isn't part of Filipino culture," said Gabriela Women's Party Representative Arlene Brosas in a statement.

"Rather, it forms part of the rotten misogynist culture being promoted and normalized by Duterte through his speech and actions in public events," she added.

At a meeting with the Filipino community in South Korea on Sunday, Duterte gave one Filipina a book about corruption in the Catholic Church entitled "Altar of Secrets" and expressed his intention to kiss her on the lips, which he did.

The act drew cheers from the audience, with the Filipina woman, named Bea Kim, later saying there was no malice in it.

Harry Roque, in an interview with CNN Philippines on Monday, shrugged off criticisms of Duterte.

"It's a playful act. There was no malice in it. The woman made it clear that she didn't think there was malice in it. It was all intended as a light moment and let's leave it at that," Roque said.

But Brosas pointed out that the issue is never about the woman giving consent to the kiss, but about the highest official of the land displaying machismo before Filipinos and the rest of the world.

"It was about Duterte using women for the fanfare to make up for his failure to uplift the status of women and migrant workers," she said.

"It was about the President leveraging his power to solicit a favor which the woman can impossibly refuse, all to satisfy his masculine pride and garner cheers amid declining ratings," she added.

Even prior to this incident, Duterte had already been accused of inappropriate behavior towards women. —JST, GMA News