I am Ari Luis Halos, husband and father.  Some of the events that rocked my comfortable little life were the rape-slays of Ms. Eileen Sarmenta and Given Grace Cebanico in my little town of Los Baños, Philippines.  Hence, I was deeply disturbed by Mayor Duterte's remarks about Jacqueline Hamill, a missionary who was raped and killed at the Davao Penal Colony back in 1989.  Not to take away from his accomplishments as a mayor and a women's rights advocates, but I find it reprehensible that he would say about Jacqueline, "Napakaganda, dapat si Mayor ang nauna” (Very beautiful, the Mayor should have gone first).

Mayor Rody's remarks are wrong in that it obviously trivializes rape, demeans women into sexual objects, compromises the friendly relations between the Philippines and Australia, and defames a dead person. The remark is wrong on so many levels.

Yes, he's a good mayor, I'll give him that, but his remarks were just sick. I hope that you remember we aren't talking about a sex doll, but about a person.

So please, Mayor Duterte, please do the decent thing and apologize to Jacqueline's family and to her country. You know it's the right thing to do.