Philippine’s 16th President Rodrigo Duterte, who has barely held office for 6 months, had already earned himself quite a reputation in the international community. And when at a recent international summit he referred to Barack Obama as a ‘Son of a whore’, he put the veritable cherry on top.
The ill-spoken Duterte has constantly been in news for his insensitive, crude and often sociopathic comments. He has made rape jokes, insulted several significant political leaders and dignitaries, spoken of killing and massacring criminals with hapless abandon, and even encouraged his countrymen to kill as many criminals as possible. He is also constantly making dirty sex jokes, using swears and expletives and making lewd allusions. He claims his mouth has no filter.
While the world was outraging over Duterte’s insult to Obama, the US President isn’t the first person he has insulted, and from the looks of it, he won’t be the last.
Let’s take a look at some of the most significant insults Duterte has dished out over the course of his career:
1) Pope Francis
This is not the first time Duterte has used this particular expletive, seemingly his favourite. Duterte called Pope Francis a ‘son of a whore’ after the Pope allegedly caused traffic jams on the roads of Manila when he visited in 2015. He also told senior church officials to not “f**k with me”.
2) US Ambassador to Philippines
Duterte used his favourite expletive yet another time when he referred to the US Ambassador to Philippines, Phillip Goldberg, as a ‘gay son of a whore’.
3) A gang-rape victim
In one of his campaign speeches, he even joked about being the first one who should have raped Jacqueline Hamill, an Australian missionary who was raped and killed during prison riots in Davao, Philippines in the 80s under Duterte’s Mayorship. According to AFP, Duterte allegedly said,
“Son of a bitch. 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.”
4) United Nations
Duterte threatened to quit the international organization, and form one of his own with China and others, when he was asked to cease the extrajudicial killings in Manila. He called the UN ‘stupid experts‘.
5) Donald Trump
Interestingly, Duterte’s foul mouth has earned him the title of ‘Trump of the East’. But Duterte had a very straightforward opinion on the US Republican Presidential candidate:
“He is a bigot and I am not.”
6) Singapore
President Duterte offended an entire nation when he said he would burn the national flag of Singapore after the latter announced an investigation into a morphed picture of Duterte with Singapore’ Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
And some other objectionable (read disturbing) comments from the President, such as:
On drug-peddlers and addicts : “I’ll dump all of you into Manila Bay and fatten all the fish there.”
On illegal logging : “Cut the trees and I will cut your heads.”
On militants: ‘If they anger me.. I will eat them alive”
On the South-China Sea dispute: “I will ride a jet ski while bringing the Philippine flag.”
On Viagra: “I’m not impotent. What am I supposed to do? Let this hang forever?”
Nicknamed ‘The Punisher’ by Time magazine, the 71-year-old former mayor was sworn in on May, because he promised to ‘clean-up’ the streets of Philippines. He promised to wage a deadly war on Philippine’s drug trade, and on coming to power (he won with a 6.6 million-votes lead), the new President kept his word.
From May, a war is what has been raging in Philippines, with over 2,400 extrajudicial deaths. Duterte has vowed to kill ‘100,000’ drug dealers and pushers, and continue the massacre until all traces of the drug trade are terminated from the country.
To sum up, Rodrigo Duterte is no stranger to the proverbial acid tongue, and his very many indiscretions are proof that him insulting POTUS was not out of character for Duterte at all.
Why then are we so surprised about him calling Obama names?
Feature Image Source: Reuters
