Duterte slammed over threat to shoot rebels in the genitals
MANILA, Philippines — Human rights groups condemned the Philippine president on Tuesday for saying that troops should shoot female communist rebels in the genitals to render them “useless,” which they said could encourage sexual violence and war crimes.
The left-wing group Karapatan said President Rodrigo Duterte “has distinguished himself as a frothing-in-the-mouth fascist who incites the worst violations of international humanitarian law.”
Duterte’s remarks “are but the latest of the series of this madman’s display of tyranny, lunacy and machismo,” Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said.
The U.S.-based group Human Rights Watch said the remark last week was the latest in a “series of misogynist, derogatory and demeaning statements he has made about women” that encourage state forces to commit sexual violence during armed conflicts.