During his speech last Friday, President Rodrigo Duterte told a group of Indian and Filipino business leaders in New Delhi that he would attract visitors to the Philippines by “offering 42 virgins.”
Duterte said that if Muslim extremists can lure followers ‘by promising 42 virgins in heaven when they die’, he said he can also invite foreign visitors to the country by offering the same thing.
“And the come-on is that if you die a martyr, you go to heaven with 42 virgins waiting for you…Well, if I could just make it a come-on also for those who would like to go to my country,” President Duterte said in his speech.
The president, together with his delegation, went to India last January 24 to attend a three-day regional summit between India and leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The following day after he made the remark, a group of activist for women called the Philippine president an “international embarrassment” and said that he “has no respect for Filipino women.”
“Duterte dismisses Filipinas as mere goods for trade, that women are just sights for tourists.
“This insults millions of women who work hard to build our nation with honor only to be represented as virgin fodder for tourists by the President himself. This insults millions of overseas Filipino workers who have created a name in Filipino workmanship abroad,” the Akbayan Women’s rights group said.
The group also said that Duterte’s remark is “extremely worrying” as it “reinforces the culture of sexualization – treating women as sexual objects, devoid of dignity and human rights.”
Meanwhile, Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque came to the president’s defense saying that what Duterte said was “just a joke.”
“That was clearly said in jest. There’s no need to clarify what was really a joke made by the President. If you don’t mind” Roque said in a press briefing on Sunday.
