Duterte on kissing woman on lips: It's my style
President Rodrigo Duterte lashed back at his critics, saying they were just envy and kissing someone on the lips was his style.
In his press conference Tuesday night at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport shortly after he arrived from a three-day trip to South Korea, it was Duterte who brought up his controversial kiss on the lips to a Filipina in Seoul even before a reporter asked him.
"What is your question, about the kissing?" he said, adding, "we enjoyed it. It was a showbiz and everybody enjoyed it."
Duterte said if there was malice in kissing the woman, who was later identified as Bea Kim, he could not have kissed her in public.
"Asking for malice, I do not do it in public if there is malice. I would pull the woman’s --- down somewhere along the empty hall there," he said.
He recalled that during his campaign in Davao City for the mayoralty race, "I kissed every woman there, lips to lips."
"It's my style. You look for your own style. There is nothing wrong in a simple kiss you cause an uproar. They're just envious. Tell them to change their false teeth," Duterte said.
When asked of the reaction of his common-law wife Cielito "Honeylet" Avancena of what he did, Duterte replied, "It's not a question. It's a question of the perverts. Why do you have to dwell on kissing?"
If there was any person who would say something from what he did, he said it could be her daughter with his first wife, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio.
He said he would stay first in Manila for a few more days before going back to Davao to "cool-off" the situation.
Many Filipinos reacted differently on Duterte's gesture of kissing a Filipina on the lips during his meeting with the Filipino community in Seoul on Sunday.
The woman, who is married to a Korean and has two kids, said there was no malice on it.
In defending Duterte from his critics, Presidential Communications Operations Office Assistant Secretary Margaux "Mocha" Uson even came out with a video showing how late Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. was kissed on the lips by his woman supporter before going down from the plane that brought him to Manila where he was assassinated at the tarmac of the now NAIA in August 1983.
Aquino's daughter, actress Kris Aquino, slammed Uson and even challenged her that she was ready to take a fight with her for dragging his late father into the controversy.
Asked of his reaction on what Uson did, Duterte said, "Well, the logical answer would be to ask my daughter if she was hurt. I can only ask for my territory...I cannot dwell into the..first of all, with due respect, the person is already dead. Second, I do not know the exact feelings."
Duterte insisted he never felt any sensation with Kim when he kissed her on stage.
"I can only generate an emotion if I kiss a woman I love. Any other stranger is pure showbiz," he added. Celerina Monte/DMS
