Church ‘not all negative’ of Duterte

A CEBUANO priest expressed hope that President Rodrigo Duterte will not only look at the negative comments of the church against him but also the positive ones.

Fr. Carmelo Diola of the Archdiocese of Cebu said the president should not practice “selective readings” of the Church’s assessment of his first 100 days in office.

“I hope nga ang iyang readings sa simbahan dili selective because if he listens to Archbishop Jose Palma, positive man. Unfortunately ang iya rang nadungog is negative (I hope that his reading of the Church is not selective because if he listens to Palma, it’s positive. Unfortunately, all that he hears is the negative),” he said.

Recently, Duterte hit Archbishop Emeritus Fernando Capalla of the Archdiocese of Davao for finding fault on his administration.

Diola said he will pray for Duterte to have the gift of self-control and prudence to say the right words at the right time.

“He’s an unconventional president. We never had a president like him. Many times, he discusses in public what should’ve been discussed in private,” he said.

But the priest commended Duterte for some of his words which acted as a wake-up call to the Filipinos on the underlying issues of the country.

“Naa siyay ubang ginasulti nga makaingon pud ko nga it’s high time nga gisulti pud (He said some words that I can tell for myself that it’s high time we talked about it),” Diola said.

For Duterte’s first 100 days in office, Capalla told Mindanews that Duterte could be “the greatest president” if he learns to listen.

Archbishop Palma gave Duterte a 7, which is higher than the rating the President gave himself on his first 100 days: 6 on a scale of 10.

“Nakalitan siya nga mayor siya unya karon presidente na. Wala pa na-develop iyang system, mao tong naay sayop-sayop ang lista sa iyang narco-politicians (He was not yet accustomed being the president, as shown in the errors in his narco-politicians’ list),” he said.

Diola said he couldn’t believe what former President Fidel Ramos said that Duterte had not done anything for the last three months.

Diola cited an executive order to enforce the freedom of information law and the efforts of the administration to end contractualization as some of Duterte’s accomplishments so far.