Duterte to Church: Don’t use God’s platform to criticize me

AMID President Rodrigo Duterte’s growing spat with the Church, the Chief Executive on Saturday, July 7, took potshots at religious leaders who are supposedly using “the platform of God” in criticizing him.

Duterte, in a speech delivered in Matina, Davao City, said he respects religious groups who are critical of his policies and programs, as long as they are not dragging God’s name “in vain.”

The President said it would be fine with him if the church leaders would criticize him “with all the heart’s content.”

“The priests and the church and everybody connected with a sect or religion or whatever, when you criticize me, criticize me with all the heart’s content. Do it. I’m even asking you to do it para malaman ko hindi kayo agrabyado or agrabyado kayo sa performance ko (so I can assess if you are aggrieved or not aggrieved at my performance),” Duterte said.

“When you criticize me, do not use the platform of God. [Do not tell me] that God will send you to hell, that God will not forgive you, [that] hell is waiting for you. Do not do it. Do not take God’s name in vain because pag-resbak ko, makasali ko na ’yung Panginoong Diyos (God might be attacked if I hit you back),” he added.

The President’s latest remark came just a day after he revealed the supposed motives for the killing of Father Mark Ventura, who was shot death on April 29 in Gattaran, Cagayan.

Duterte’ “verbal persecution of the Catholic Church” was earlier blamed over the recent killings of priests in the country.

Apart from Ventura, Father Marcelito Paez was gunned down on December 4, 2017 in Jaen, Nueva Ecija, while Father Richmond Nilo was killed in a chapelin Zaragoza, Nueva Ecija.

Duterte has repeatedly slammed the Catholic Church for criticizing him over his brutal crackdown on illegal drugs.

But recently, the President created a committee tasked to hold dialogue with leaders of several religious groups, including the Catholic Church, to improve ties between the state and the Church.

Duterte is also slated to meet Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines president Archbishop Romulo Valles on July 9 to discuss issues that may have caused rift between the former and the Catholic Church.

Two days before his scheduled talk with Valles, Duterte called on the church leaders to be “neutral” when it comes to their views with his government.

“It is really the concept of our Republican system that there is a separation of church and state,” he said.

“Pero when you are a religious, you have to be something of a neutral dito sa faith mo pati government,” the President added.

(But when you are a religious, you have to be something of a neutral here in your faith and in the government.) (SunStar Philippines)