This contributed essay by Forum member and Facebook friend Maximo Tumbali was published in the June 4, 2018 issue of the Manila Standard. The Forum is reprinting it in full for the benefit of Forum members and our Facebook friends.
Collecting "payment" in jest for a copy of the book he gave away to an overseas Filipina worker in South Korea, President Rodrigo Duterte gives her a kiss in the lips, drawing spirited cheers from the predominantly OFW crowd but snide comments from his detractors back home and on social media. The book was Filipino journalist Aries C. Rufo's controversial nonfiction work Altar of Secrets: Sex, Politics, and Money in the Philippine Catholic Church. That big fuss about President Digong’s very public onstage kiss!By Maximo Tumbali, Forum member and Facebook friend By the looks of it, what Digong got himself into was not a kissing spree, for it was brief, lasting only for a handful of seconds, and he did it with the woman’s consent.
His virile instinct upon seeing women lurked but he managed to handle it in a way that made him even closer and endeared to his audience.
He was just trying to be himself, expressly romantic and sweet to the opposite sex.
Yes, it was a kiss on the lips but not torrid and wild and scandalous. It was done with finesse, sincerity, and respect. Both kissing parties seemed to have done it devoid of any malice.
Only the envious hypocrite would say that such an act was lascivious and could ignite prurient desire, and was therefore unbecoming of the president.
In fairness to Digong, such lip kissing done in front of a big audience should not be dubbed sexual misdemeanor but rather a warm expression of human affinity.
A confirmed septuagenarian, Digong’s smooch should be seen or treated as a symbol of man’s natural admiration for a woman. Besides, as he himself admitted, his kiss was also a gimmick to entertain his spectators.
Many, of course—especially his detractors—would disagree, but the whole issue should not eat up our precious time talking or thinking about it.
We do have a lot of other significant and more productive things to spend our time on. Ergo, this whole lip kissing affair should be no big deal.
After all no less than our hero, the late Ninoy Aquino, was not spared too of this rather seemingly ineluctable, yet normal romantic expression. The only difference is that Ninoy was kissed on the lips by two or more women without him asking for it, whereas in the case of Digong, it was an act done with mutual consent.
Mind you, if Secretary Mark Andanar were still the presidential spokesman, he would have hailed in public his idol not just a rockstar but also a veritable, irresistible kisser.
Meantime, the public would like to hear Harry Roque’s assessment, comment, and feedback on the President’s kissing act. Will he consider it as another first in the life of the President? Lip kissing done in full transparency!
For this, President Duterte has earned a new moniker: “The Lip-Kissing President.” Well, not bad for one who is a lover of women.
