Comelec slaps Davao de Oro bet with order over lewd remarks

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Comelec's Task Force SAFE calls out the Davao de Oro candidate for governor, asks him to explain why he should not be disqualified for his sexist remarks

MANILA, Philippines – The Task Force SAFE of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Tuesday, April 8, called out another candidate for making sexist remarks during his campaign in Davao de Oro.

In a three-page show cause order, Comelec Task Force SAFE head Sonia Bea Wee-Lozada gave Davao de Oro Representative Ruwel Peter Gonzaga, a gubernatorial candidate, three days from receipt of the notice to explain why an election offense complaint or a petition for disqualification should not be filed against him.

The task force said Gonzaga made crude, sexual remarks targeting women during three separate campaign events, which were caught on video and circulated online.

Gonzaga crossed from political theater into something more crass and calculated, amplified by the microphone, and met with laughter from the crowd. He asked women if they were skilled in bed, made a lewd reference to a widow’s genitalia before urging her to kiss a barangay councilor, and publicly told his own wife to spread her legs.

Gonzaga is the second gubernatorial candidate in Mindanao to receive a show cause order from the Comelec task force, raising concerns about a pattern of sexist rhetoric on the campaign trail — where machismo is used as a tactic and vulgar remarks are framed as crowd-pleasers.

Former senator Leila de Lima, meanwhile, decried the vulgarity, calling it a reflection of “a broken political culture that treats women as objects.”

“His sexist ‘jokes’ are not merely inappropriate – they are symptomatic of a deeper abuse of power,” De Lima said in a statement. “Leadership is not about drawing laughs from a crowd – it’s about drawing the line between right and wrong.”

She called on Gonzaga to apologize and called on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to discipline his party-mate in the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas. 

“The PFP must set a good example,” she said. – Rappler.com