I Hope Our Children Are Not Watching Duterte

In a previous post during the 2016 presidential elections in the United States, I wrote:

"We are the role models for our children. Our children watch and learn from us. A nation's leader may not be necessarily a diplomat, or born with a sweet tongue, but with all certainty, a nation's leader talks to his or her constituents. Months ago, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton reminded us that we need to make sure that our children could be proud of "the choices we are about to make, the goals we will strive for, and the principles we will live by", since we are our children's role models. Every adult is, and a nation's leader is one of the most important role models."

That post also shared thoughts from award-winning author of children books, Candy Gourlay, who spoke about the fears of what leaders say in public, how this can adversely affect our children.  It is truly unfortunate that the current president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, seems to ignore our responsibility in shaping the minds of our young. I will not repeat what Duterte recently said in a meeting with Filipinos in the Vietnamese town city of Da Nang (If you are interested, you can view his speech on Newsweek). I do not think it is something Filipino children should be proud of. His spokesperson, Harry Roque, back in the Philippines, maintained that the remarks were only made in jest. Jest or not, it was clearly not a good role model for our children.