PHILIPPINES
Telegraph (UK)
James Rothwell
16 OCTOBER 2016
Rodrigo Duterte, the president of the Philippines, has said that being sexually abused as a child had a major impact on his politics, including a war on drugs which has left more than 3,000 people dead.
In his first interview since being sworn in as leader, Mr Duterte said his abuse at the hands of a Catholic priest largely shaped his personality and his political development.
Asked whether the experience affected his world view, Mr Duterte told Al Jazeera English: “Yes, to a large extent actually…it is what you get on the way that shapes your character, and even your politics.
“It sort of blends into something which, it can be said forms your own values in life,” he added.
Mr Duterte, who won the Philippines’ general election by a landslide last May, first revealed the abuse during a speech on the campaign trial in December 2015.
He claimed to have been molested by a priest named Father Paul Falvey at some point during the 1950s.
“That’s how we lost our innocence,” he said at the time. He said he did not report the incident because “I was young then and I was afraid of what will happen.”
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