MOUTH’S FAULT. Presidential candidate Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte during a speaking engagement in the city in this undated photo. A day he said he would not apologize “as a matter of honor,” Duterte apologized for a rape joke he made during a campaign rally at the expense of an Australian missionary who was held hostage, gangaped, and then brutally killed in Davao in 1989. He says there are times “his mouth can get the better of me.” (FILE PHOTO BY NITZ ARANCON)
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By CONG B. CORRALES
Associate Editor

PRESIDENTIAL candidate Rodrigo Duterte yesterday took back his words of not apologizing “as a matter of honor,” and expressed regret for a rape joke he made during a recent political rally.

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In an e-mailed statement yesterday, Duterte said his remark was not intended to disrespect women in general.

“Sometimes my mouth can get the better of me,” Duterte said in the statement.

Duterte’s apology comes at the heels of a major backlash after the remarks he made on the alleged rape of an Australian missionary held hostage and killed in August 1989 during a speech at Amoranto, Quezon City last week.

It has also put his supporters on the defensive. Some have resorted to posting memes with pro-Duterte messages.

For her part, Lalae Garcia, convenor of the Tubaga Movement, was surprised when this paper informed her that Duterte has issued an apology. Tubaga Movement is a local organization with many advocacies, including women’s rights and welfare.

“Last night, he was insistent that he will not apologize for his rape joke,” said Garcia.

However, Garcia said the act of apologizing was a “good move.”

“That’s a gentlemanly and statesman-like apology. Among gisaludo ang iyang pagpangayo’g pasaylo sa mga kababayen-an,” Garcia said.

A Mindanews report a day earlier quoted Duterte as saying: “I am the master of my fate and the captain of my soul. If it brings me down, let it bring me down. If it brings me up to the presidency, well and good I will serve you but I will not as a matter of honor, apologize.”

In the new statement, Duterte said he is a man of “many flaws and contradictions,” and that his life has been an open book.

He said that if elected, he would protect women, children and families from crime.

Duterte, however, reiterated that he would not apologize for the things that he has done to protect the people, “especially the weak and defensless.”

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Before joining the Gold Star Daily, Cong worked as the deputy director of the multimedia desk of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), and before that he served as a writing fellow of Vera Files. Under the pen name "Cong," Leonardo Vicente B. Corrales has worked as a journalist since 2008.Corrales has published news, in-depth, investigative and feature articles on agrarian reform, peace and dialogue initiatives, climate justice, and socio-economics in local and international news organizations, which which includes among others: Philippine Daily Inquirer, Business World, MindaNews, Interaksyon.com, Agence France-Presse, Xinhua News Wires, Thomson-Reuters News Wires, UCANews.com, and Pecojon-PH.He is currently the Editor in Chief of this paper.