Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte has sexist outburst at women’s event

Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte has had a jawdropping outburst at an event to celebrate the achievements of female police and army officers, labelling them “crazy” and “b*****s”.

Controversial Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte has had a bizarre sexist outburst at an event celebrating the achievements of women.

Addressing an audience comprised almost exclusively of female police and army staff, Mr Duterte called them “b*****s” and “crazy women” who were “depriving [him] of [his] freedom of expression”.

Women at the event were being celebrated for their efforts in law enforcement and national security, and Mr Duterte began to address them with: “Puta (b*****s), you know you women are depriving me of my freedom of expression. You criticise every sentence or word I say, but that is my freedom to express myself.”

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Picture: AFP

Mr Duterte said the comments were supposed to bring them “to the limits of despair”, following his remarks last week advising women to stay away from Catholic priests, for which he was criticised.

“The women should refrain from going near the priests because when you are near him, he will just smell the scent of your body,” he said last week.

The Philippines President has been at war with the Catholic Church, which has been critical of his war on drugs - a cornerstone of his presidency which is believed to have left 5000 people dead.

“And if he corners you in the church, you’re in trouble, he will court you,” he said.

“Do you know why? It’s because he is a man. God gave him a penis. What will they do with that?

“Will they slap it against the door every morning? God was the one who made a mistake there, not us,” he said.

But Mr Duterte also said at the same event that he loved women, justifying this with the fact he has multiple wives.

“I love women,” he said.

“That’s why you see I have two wives. That means I like women.”

The country’s Gabriela Women’s Party slammed him as a “macho-fascist president [who] would be the last person who could give decent advice on how women can stay away from or fight abuse”.

Mr Duterte once launched a foul-mouthed tirade against Barack Obama. Picture: AFP

Mr Duterte has a history of controversial comments.

He called Barack Obama a “son of a w***e in 2016, and said in 2017 that the Catholic Church was “full of s***”.

And just last year, he told soldiers to shoot female communist rebels in the vagina, adding they would be “useless” without them.