BY: CHARLES NIKKO LIMON
A kissing “auction” involving a 77-year-old woman during a campaign event in Urdaneta City, Pangasinan, has drawn outrage from women’s rights group GABRIELA, who condemned the act as degrading and exploitative.
The incident occurred during the miting de avance of Team Parayno-Parayno in Barangay Nancamaliran West on April 24.
Vice mayoral candidate Jimmy Parayno was seen encouraging the elderly woman to kiss him, first on both cheeks, and eventually being pushed toward kissing him on the lips.
“Do you want to personally kiss Vice Mayor Jing?” Parayno asked through a microphone, to which the woman agreed.
The crowd laughed as the woman gave Parayno three kisses, the first two on his cheeks. For the final kiss, Parayno pointed at his face and said, “Don’t you want to kiss on the lips?”
Several other candidates joined in, offering money in exchange for the woman kissing him on the lips. “1,000 pesos from me, another 1,000 pesos from BM Rose. That’s 2,000 pesos already,” said mayoral candidate Julio Rammy Parayno III. “Then 1,000 pesos from Joseph, and another 1,000 pesos from my son—3,000 pesos more! That’s 6,000 pesos!”
After some dancing, the woman eventually kissed Jimmy Parayno on the lips.
The incident sparked sharp criticism from GABRIELA.
“We are outraged by this reprehensible display where local officials essentially ‘auctioned off’ an elderly woman’s dignity for their entertainment and the crowd’s amusement,” said GABRIELA Secretary-General Clarice Palce in a statement.
“This is not charity or generosity, it is exploitation,” she added. “It grossly violates a woman’s dignity and reinforces the harmful notion that women can be treated as objects to satiate men’s pleasure.”
Palce also said government officials and candidates should be held to the highest standards in respecting women. “It is infuriating to witness such vulgar and exploitative behavior instead of offering real solutions to the poverty that so many Filipinos face.”
GABRIELA further claimed the act violates the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Resolution No. 11116—also known as the Anti-Discrimination and Fair Campaigning Guidelines which prohibits acts that demean women during the election period.
The group has called on COMELEC to investigate and hold the candidates accountable.
The news team is still seeking the side of Jimmy Parayno.
