TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsPhilippine president bugged by cockroach during speech
The bug popped up on Duterte as he was extolling the virtues of the candidates he has endorsed in next week's midterm polls at a campaign rally late Wednesday.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte delivers his State of the Nation address at the House of Representatives in Quezon city, Metro Manila, Philippines July 23, 2018. (Reuters/Czar Dancel)
P
hilippine President Rodrigo Duterte's unpredictable speeches frequently contain bombshell pronouncements, but the surprise this time came in the form of a cockroach ambling along the leader's shoulder.
The bug popped up on Duterte as he was extolling the virtues of the candidates he has endorsed in next week's midterm polls at a campaign rally late Wednesday.
An aide tried and failed to scrape the critter away with some papers, but Duterte brushed it aside as the government broadcast cut to a smiling but bemused audience in the central city of Bohol.
WATCH: A cockroach crawls on #PresidentDuterte's shirt while delivering his speech during a campaign rally in Bohol. @inquirerdotnet pic.twitter.com/iW13KCQ5wc
— Nestor A. Corrales (@NCorralesINQ) May 8, 2019
Duterte, who was nearing the end of his roughly 90-minute address, joked that the insect belongs to the opposition party.
The leader's critics quickly took to Twitter to mock his close encounter with the roach, which is more frequently seen scurrying over refuse.
"The cockroach must have realized that duterte is the trashiest trash it has ever seen," wrote @andy_crush.
"And I never thought I would say this but GOOD JOB EXPOSING THAT TRASH, DEAR COCKROACH," @keeyaaraaa posted.
Duterte is on the campaign trail to rally support for his candidates in next week's midterm polls, in which some 18,000 seats ranging from local councils to the upper house Senate are up for grabs.
