Team DailyPedia
A certain Robin Haines Merrill has denounced the presidential candidacy of PDP-Laban Standard Bearer Davao City Mayor Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte after the latter made a controversial rape remark about Australian missionary Jacqueline Hamill.
According to Merrill, who also worked as a missionary in Manila at the same time as Hamill did in Davao, people should not vote for leaders who “speak vile things” against women. Although she never worked with Hamill nor is related to her, Merrill said that the 36-year-old missionary’s death deeply affected her.
“Looking back on this photo, I realize ministering in jails as a woman is very risky and looks outright naive, like the ‘you got what was coming to you’ mentality that is prevalent today. But all ministry and everyday LIFE is a big risk, and we must be obedient to the voice of the spirit of God, even if it leads us to death,” she wrote on her Facebook account.
[facebook https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10208020121573825&set=a.1038004123325.8307.1622167097]
Along with her lengthy post, Merrill shared a photo of her playing flute with her colleagues inside a jail in Manila.
While ministering inmates, Hamill was gang-raped and killed by Federico Pugoy and prisoners during a hostage situation inside Davao Metrodiscom in 1989. Duterte, who was in his first term as a mayor and regional chairman of the peace and order council, offered himself as a hostage in exchange for Pugoy’s hostages. Since the suspects had killed some of the hostages, Duterte gave a shoot-to-kill order including himself “if they saw him bloodied”.
Recently, Duterte drew flak after citing a story about Hamill whom he described as very beautiful during his campaign rally on April 12 in Quezon City.
Duterte said: “T***a, sayang ito. Ang napasok sa isip ko, ni-rape nila. Pinagpilahan nila. Nagalit ako kasi ni-rape. Oo, isa rin yun. Napakaganda. Dapat ang mayor muna ang mauna.”
(***, it’s a waste. It entered my mind that they raped her. They took turns in raping her. I got furious because they raped her. Yes, it’s one thing that she’s very beautiful. The mayor should have been first.)
Duterte’s rape remark drew laughter from his supporters during the political rally. However, he soon came under fire after a video of the joke went viral.
After earning the ire of netizens, Duterte apologized to Filipinos offended by his statement but clarified that it wasn’t a joke.
“It was not a joke, I said it in a narrative. I was not smiling. I was just talking plain sense narrative,” Duterte said.
