By Prince Golez

President Rodrigo Duterte only made up his confession that he molested a maid when he was a teenager, Malacañang said.

Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made the statement on Sunday after women’s rights group Gabriela dismissed as “deeply disturbing” Duterte’s alleged lewd act on a helper.

“It is unfortunate that in its zeal to promote its advocacy on the protection of women’s rights as well as in its obsession to put the President in a bad light, the women’s rights group has lost the ability of discerning a reality from a rebuke on the hypocrisy of the priests who molested him and his classmates when they were high school students,” said Panelo.

Duterte’s “laughable anecdote,” he added, was only meant to “dramatize the fact of sexual abuse that was inflicted on him and his fellow students when they were in high school.”

“He purposely added and spliced the story with vulgarity to characterise the behavior of the priest who insisted to hear more sins during their confessions when there were none,” according to him.

In several speeches, Duterte claimed he and his high school friends suffered sexual abuse from priests.