Philippine presidential candidate: Australian rape victim "so beautiful" he "should have been first".

“I was mad she was raped but she was so beautiful. I thought, the mayor should have been first.”

Sexist, inappropriate, misogynistic, downright shocking comments from a presidential hopeful in an upcoming election.

This time, not Donald Trump – but leading Philippine presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte.

The comments have surfaced in a video when Duterte was city mayor during a prison riot and an Australian missionary was raped and killed.

In the online video Duterte, 71, is shown telling a crowd of laughing supporters at a campaign rally that he wished he had “been first”. Via YouTube.

The missionary, Jacqueline Hamill, 36, was ministering in a prison in Davao in the southern Philippines when she was raped and killed during a riot by inmates in 1989.

In an online video Duterte, 71, is shown telling a crowd of laughing supporters at a campaign rally that he wished he had “been first”.

"They raped all of the women... There was this Australian lay minister... when they took them out... I saw her face she looks like a beautiful American actress and I thought: ‘Son of a bitch. what a pity... they raped her, they all lined up. I was mad she was raped but she was so beautiful. I thought, the mayor should have been first."

During the riot the inmates, after grabbing their guards’ weapons, seized Hamill and 14 other church workers, including a nine-year-old boy who were holding a Bible service in the prison.

The two-day hostage drama ended after government forces stormed the prison cell, killing all 15 hostage-takers. Hamill, whose neck was slashed, and four other hostages died.

Duterte has refused to back down. Via youTube.

Before the comments surfaced, Duterte, who promises mass killings of suspected criminals if elected next month was leading the polls in the May 9 election.

Philippines President Benigno Aquino's said through a spokesman the comments reflected Mr Duterte's "lack of fitness for the presidency" and his "utter lack of respect for women" reports The South China Morning Post. 

A rival presidential candidate, Vice-President Jejomar Binay, called the comments revolting.

"You are a crazy maniac who doesn't respect women and doesn't deserve to be president," Mr Binay told Mr Duterte in a statement.

A fellow missionary in Manila at the time of the incident in 1989, Robin Haines Merrill, took to Facebook to denounce Mr Duterte's candidacy.

"Jacqueline's death affected me deeply personally," she wrote, adding: "Don't vote for people who speak vile things against women".

After the outcry over his remarks Duterte addressed the furore saying he would not back down from the comments as he was angry and that was the way he spoke.

“Do not make me apologise for something which I did not do. It’s a matter of honor… I said it in the heat of anger,” he said.

Duterte said if he would lose his bid for the presidency, then so be it he said it was “gutter language and how “men” speak.

"That’s gutter language. That is how men speak," he told reporters. "I am sorry that others were offended."

"I am even willing to lose the presidency. Do not make me apologise for something which I did which was called for at that moment."