Retired RTC judge defends Mayor Rody

By ARMANDO B. FENEQUITO JR.
A retired Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge in Davao City defended presidential bet Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte over the issue of rape joke.
Former RTC Judge Jesus V. Quitain said in yesterday’s I-Speak Media Forum, the issues had been brought out of context just to make Duterte’s image bad.
Duterte has been under fire in the past days after his remarks on Australian missionary Jaqueline Hamill who was raped and killed during a 1989 hostage incident.
Quitain said the people did not understand the context of the speech of Duterte that time. He said Duterte volunteered to be the hostage for the release of a three-month old child when Felipe Pugoy detained several civilians used as hostage at the Davao Penal Colony in Davao del Norte.
In a report of Mindanews, the alleged rape of Hamill happened in the second hostage-taking, in August 1989 involving Pugoy at the detention center of the Metrodiscom (now Camp Domingo Leonor) where Duterte reportedly took out his Uzi and fired a magazine to finish off the perpetrators.
“He is a responsible mayor who is always thinking of the health and safety of his people,” he said.
Quitain said Duterte’s move was very dangerous because the perpetrators might kill him that time.
“In the whole world, no other city mayor of a city with a population of 1.5 million volunteered to be a hostage for more than two hours,” he said.
Quitain said if Duterte did that 27 years ago, he can also do that again for the people of the country if he will become a president.
He compared Duterte to the role of former Manila City Mayor Alfredo Lim during the Luneta hostage incident in 2010 where eight hostages were killed.
Quitain said the Manila Police did not allow Lim to meddle in the hostage taking that is why he had no involvement on the incident.
The mayor apologized for the rape joke and he said “there was no intention to disrespect our women and those who have been victims of this horrible crime.”