Joke and Dagger

Title: Again, Words and Intentions

An interesting exchange caught my eye on social media earlier this Monday. It was a live-tweet of an
episode of Talkback on ANC, where two guests discussed women empowerment and Duterte’s love of
rape jokes.

Standing up for women empowerment and the struggle against misogyny and male chauvinism was
Partido ng Manggagawa secretary-general Judy Ann Miranda. Meanwhile, standing up for Misogynist-
in-Chief Duterte was PCOO Assistant Secretary and honorary male chauvinist Ana Marie Banaag.

Miranda was relentless, repeating how Duterte’s language creates an unsafe environment for women,
how the “maraming rape dahil maraming magagand” joke shifts the blame for rape on women, and
that it becomes an example to people who hear Duterte’s words, especially impressionable children.

The “defense” of Banaag was simple enough. And by “simple” I mean “off-tangent.” A joke is joke;
let’s give Duterte leeway; focus instead on what he accomplished in Davao and on the programs of
the Duterte regime.

To the casual listener, Banaag’s logic might sound reasonable.

Is it?

I’ve said in this column that words and intentions matter. But what happens when, as Banaag seems
to imply, words conflict with intentions? Should intent be the end-all-be-all? Then again, if the intent
of the Duterte regime is to empower women, shouldn’t it follow that the words of Duterte reflect
this?

“It’s just a joke.” So is this entire Duterte regime. Which I suppose makes things consistent, both being
jokes that aren’t funny.

Nevertheless, words have power. Coming from the mouth of any ordinary person, bad jokes are just
bad jokes. But coming from the mouth of the President, bad jokes are practically policy statements.
Even beyond that, bad jokes coming from the President become benchmarks for public morality, as
well as the behavior of the general public.

“Yung Presidente nga natin ganyan eh, bakit ako hindi puwede?”

If Banaag had her way, we’d absolutely ignore Duterte’s words and marvel at the brilliant job Duterte
did as Mayor of Davao. Like declare Ramon Bautista persona non grata from Davao City for his
“hipon” joke (and here I thought jokes were okay). Because how dare Bautista imply that Davaoeñas
aren’t rape-worthy, the nerve of that guy, amirite?

Ironically, Duterte’s inappropriate joke was a response to the news that Davao remains the city with
the highest incidence of rape in the Philippines. So not only did he trivialize the matter of rape
incidence in his own bailiwick, he passed the blame onto good-looking Filipinas. More bang for our
buck.

Well never mind that, Banaag might say, let’s keep our attention on the alleged programs geared
towards women empowerment.

Er, what alleged “pro-women programs?”

The program where he calls a woman who admitted to being raped a “drama queen?”

Or the program where his lackeys accuse a woman of vague drug-related offenses and get her
incarcerated while they figure out what crime to charge her with?

Or the program where women in public office are consistently accused of immorality by “bloggers,”
complete with fabricated and edited photos?

Or the program where women get to sit on the lap of, and get their faces licked and/or sucked by, an
‘87 Robertito cosplayer?

Feel free to insert a “shrug” emoji here.

Perhaps Banaag should rethink telling people to examine “the actions we do in government.” Because
when we do, it becomes plain to see that there is, in fact, no conflict between Duterte’s words and
Duterte’s intentions.

By Duterte’s words and intentions, he wants to degrade the Filipina.

Most frightening of all: as President, Duterte has all the power needed to accomplish that.