Don’t use the pulpit to criticize me—Duterte

President Rodrigo Duterte (Photo from an RTVM video)

President Rodrigo Duterte has asked the Catholic Church not to use the pulpit to criticize him after he agreed to stop his anti-Church rhetoric, his spokesman said Tuesday.

This development came after Duterte had a 30-minute private meeting with Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) President Romulo Valles on Monday in Malacanang.

“[O]ne of the things that the President did mention was, given that there is separation of church and state, huwag naman sanang gamitin ang pulpito para batikusin iyong kaniyang administrasyon,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a Palace briefing in Indang, Cavite.

The Palace official said the President was open to taking in criticisms from the public but not from clergymen, citing the separation of the Church and State.

“Tinatanggap niya ang mga batikos, ang mga pula ng mga ordinaryong mamamayan,” he said.

“Pero kung pupuwede ay huwag sanang manggaling doon sa pulpito at huwag manggaling sa simbahan mismo iyong pagbabatikos sa kaniya dahil mayroon nga tayong paghihiwalay ng simbahan at ng estado,” he added.

During their meeting, Duterte agreed to refrain from his criticisms against the Catholic Church, which earlier earned his ire for calling God “stupid” and questioning the creation theory in the Bible. Daphnie Beltran, INQUIRER.net trainee /jpv

READ: Duterte meets Valles, agrees to ‘moratorium on statements’ vs Church