Mr Rodrigo Duterte, the presumptive winner of the Philippines presidential election on Monday (May 9), is known for saying things that would anger some people and make others blush.
But his no-holds-barred style has endeared him to many voters, who no doubt are also won over by his record in turning the Philippines’ third largest city of Davao from a crime-ridden backwater to one of the country’s fastest growing regions.
Here’s a round-up of his most infamous quotes on the campaign trail.
On crime
– “Forget the laws on human rights. If I make it to the presidential palace, I will do just what I did as mayor. You drug pushers, hold-up men and do-nothings, you better go out. Because I’d kill you,” he said at his final campaign rally in Manila on Saturday, referring to his record after 22 years as mayor of Davao.
– “I’ll dump all of you (criminals) into Manila Bay, and fatten all the fish there.”
On women
– “They raped all of the women… There was this Australian lay minister… when they took them out… I saw her face and I thought, ‘Son of a b****. what a pity… they raped her, they all lined up. I was mad she was raped but she was so beautiful. I thought, the mayor should have been first.” — Speaking at a campaign rally about a prison riot in Davao in 1989 that saw inmates take a female Australian missionary working at the prison hostage before raping and killing her.
– “I was separated from my wife. I’m not impotent. What am I supposed to do? Let this hang forever? When I take Viagra, it stands up.”
AFP, Reuters
On diplomacy
– “If I become president, go ahead and sever (diplomatic ties).” — Mr Duterte referring to the relationships with the US and Australia, two of the Philippines’ closest allies, in the aftermath of his “joke” on the Australian female missionary.
On the Pope
– “We were affected by the traffic. It took us five hours. I asked why, they said it was closed. I asked who is coming. They answered, the pope. I wanted to call him: ‘Pope, son of a whore, go home. Do not visit us again’.” — Mr Duterte recalling how Manila’s already congested traffic became worse during the pontiff’s visit in January 2015.
On territorial disputes in South China Sea
– “I will ride a jet ski (to the Spratlys) while bringing the Philippine flag.”
– “I would say to China, ‘do not claim anything here and I will not insist also that it is ours’. But then I will just keep a blind eye.”
On Donald Trump
– “He’s a bigot and I am not.” — Mr Duterte rejecting comparisons of him with the presumptive Republican nominee in the US presidential election, Mr Donald Trump.
And finally, on his own cussing
– “For every profanity, there’s a story behind it. People should go beyond my cussing.”
Source: BBC, Philippine Daily Inquirer/Asia News Network, AFP
This article was first published on May 10, 2016.
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