The frontrunner to be elected president of the Philippines has joked about an Australian missionary who was raped and had her throat slashed during a jail siege.
The comments by tough-talking mayor Rodrigo Duterte - a self-confessed womaniser - provoked immediate condemnation only three weeks before Filipinos go to the polls in an election seen as crucial to the nation's future. 
Grace Poe, the nearest rival to 71-year-old Mr Duterte, said the comments were "distasteful and unacceptable" and "reflect his disrespect for women".
A video that went viral on the internet shows Mr Duterte speaking at a campaign rally in Quezon City about a two-day siege at a jail in Davao City, 1000 kilometres south-east of Manila, which took place in 1989.
Thirty-six-year-old Tasmanian Jacqueline Hamill was one of five missionaries murdered by a gang of inmates before troops stormed the jail, killing all 16 hostage-takers.
Mr Duterte, who was then a local official, has claimed he ordered the storming of the jail.
According to a transcript of the video published by the Rappler news website, Mr Duterte told the rally that he saw Hamill's body brought out of the jail.
"I looked at her face - son of a bitch - what a waste. What came to mind was, they raped her, they lined up," he said.
"I was angry because she was raped, that's one thing . . . but she was so beautiful, the mayor should have been first. What a waste."
The video ends at this point although Mr Duterte appeared to be still talking.
Mr Duterte has ridden a wave of discontent in the violence-wracked nation of 100 million people to lead repeated opinion polls over months, pledging to wipe out crime, threatening to shoot criminals or drown them in Manila Bay.
Analysts say his surprise popularity in the majority Catholic country is similar to that the Donald Trump in the United States.
The women's group Gabriela demanded he apologise. "Rape, or any form of sexual abuse is not a joke, nor something to be trivialised . . . especially by those aspiring for the highest post in the land," the group said.
Mr Duterte said he would not say sorry for his remarks, even if it cost him the presidency: "I'm sorry in general. I'm sorry to the Filipino people, it's my style, it's my mouth, I said it in anger - listen to the story behind it."
He added: "It was not a joke. I said it in a narrative. I wasn't smiling."
Mr Duterte, nicknamed "Duterte Harry" after the Clint Eastwood character, is a seven-times mayor of Davao credited with turning the one-time murder capital into one of the few Philippine cities with a reputation for law and order.