MANILA: A tough-talking Philippine mayor has widened his lead in a poll ahead of May 9 presidential elections, but analysts said Sunday his chances will likely be hurt by a storm of criticism over a rape joke and offensive remarks against major Western allies.

Mayor Rodrigo Duterte of southern Davao city led with 34 percent of 4,000 respondents in the Pulse Asia survey released Sunday, while Sen. Grace Poe followed with 22 percent in the poll commissioned by the ABS-CBN TV network.

Vice President Jejomar Binay was third at 19 percent, while former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas got 18 percent among the top contenders in the survey, which had a margin of error of plus or minus 1.5 percent, according to ABS-CBN.

Pulse Asia President Ronald Holmes said the survey was concluded before Duterte’s remarks last week in which he joked he wanted to be the first to rape a beautiful Australian missionary who was killed and sexually assaulted by inmates during a 1989 hostage-taking crisis in a Davao prison.

Australian Ambassador Amanda Gorely tweeted that “rape and murder should never be joked about or trivialized” and “violence against women and girls is unacceptable anytime, anywhere,” remarks which were backed up by her American counterpart in Manila.

Duterte later angrily asked the two ambassadors to shut up in a campaign rally. When a reporter mentioned about the Philippines’ diplomatic ties with the U.S. and Australia possibly being cut over the issue, Duterte quipped: “If I become president, go ahead and sever it.”

After rival candidates and social media commentators criticized Duterte, the 71-year-old mayor clarified that his comments were in response to a hypothetical question from the media about the possibility of the two Western allies initiating an act to cut their ties with Manila.

President Benigno Aquino III, who has endorsed Roxas’s candidacy, also hit Duterte, saying the U.S. is one of the country’s largest trading partners.