Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte: Avoid Condoms Because 'They Don't Feel Good'

Filipino president Rodrigo Duterte, who somewhat regularly makes headlines in the western world for quotes he gives during speeches or interviews, did so once again recently. At a time when the Philippines are experiencing a surge in new HIV cases, Duterte went against conventional wisdom and said not to use condoms, NPR reported.

Duterte made the remark during a speech to a group of Filipino workers who had just returned from Kuwait after a Filipino woman’s body was found in a freezer. He went off on a tangent about the country’s large population, which Duterte said would be more manageable if it were cut in half and then some.

Duterte’s solution? Women should use birth control solutions and men should not use condoms because they “don’t feel good,” per NPR. Video of the speech can be seen below.

He compared the act of heterosexual intercourse with a condom to eating a piece of candy with the wrapper still on. Though Duterte was talking about population growth and not HIV, his remarks were seen as insensitive in the face of a large-scale HIV problem in the country. More than 11,000 new cases reportedly emerged in 2017, capping off a large increase over the past decade.

Condoms are not 100 percent certain to prevent transmission, but they do help.

There have been several examples of Duterte quotes stirring controversy during his presidency, but perhaps the biggest source of outrage has been his administration’s war on drugs. Around 12,000 people have been killed through Duterte’s anti-drug policies, according to Human Rights Watch.