No place for tyranny and misogyny
There is no safe place in a society with a misogynist president who blatantly abuses his political power to persecute his critics.
President Rodrigo Duterte’s recent comment, “as long as there are many beautiful women, there will be more rape cases,” highlights his misogyny and limits women’s bodies into objects of desire.
Filipino women deserve more than this continued endorsement of rape culture. Rape has nothing to do with love, nothing to do with being beautiful, nothing to do with your clothes. It is about entitlement and the exercise of power against one’s being. As long as there are rapists and people who empower them, there will be more rape cases.
Duterte even has the gall to use the freedom of expression card to repeatedly excuse his rape jokes and victim-blaming mindset. This isn’t just an insult to injury, it is also hypocritical.
He has not only attacked the media which led to the erosion of the public’s trust. He also continues to attack and persecute those who do not subscribe to his political beliefs – from Senator Leila de Lima, to Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, and now Senator Antonio Trillanes.
Recently, Duterte signed Proclamation 572 to revoke Sen. Trillanes’ amnesty given by former President Benigno Aquino III in 2010. Trillanes, a known opposition politician, is now exposed and defenseless to multiple criminal and administrative charges.
This is an abuse of power. This is tyranny. This needs to stop and this is the time to say “enough.”
Rise up against a president who spits on everything our predecessors fought and died for, rise up against an administration that jeopardizes freedom and silences the voice of the Filipino people.