‘Santo Rodrigo’: Follow me, not those ‘drunks’

President Duterte

Before he took office, President Rodrigo Duterte told his supporters to join his “Iglesia ni Duterte.” Early this year, he said God was “stupid.” On Thursday, he called Catholic saints “fools” and “drunks,” saying Filipinos were better off following another patron, him—“Santo Rodrigo.”

Mr. Duterte was poking fun at All Saints’ Day (Nov. 1) and All Souls’ Day (Nov. 2), the two days in the year when Filipinos pay their respects to their dearly departed, flocking by the millions to cemeteries across the country.

“So, Happy All Saints’ Day,” he said at the end of a briefing on the effects of Typhoon ‘Rosita’ (international name: Yutu) in Cauayan City, Isabela province.

Then he said: “These Catholics are really idiots, bitches. Why is there an All Saints’ Day and also an All Souls’ Day? We don’t even know who those saints are. Who are those fools? A bunch of drunks.”

“You stick here,” he told officials. “I’ll give you one patron so that you don’t have to go around anymore. Get hold of a picture of mine. That’s what you place on the altar—Santo Rodrigo.”

His remarks were greeted with laughter.

‘Unpresidential’

But former Education Secretary Armin Luistro, a religious brother, was not amused by Mr. Duterte’s “ranting and raving in an unpresidential way.”

The president of De La Salle Philippines, a network of Lasallians that includes De La Salle University, on Friday said he was “more disturbed” by the country’s problems that had remained unsolved under the Duterte administration.

“I am not scandalized anymore by the irreverence that Mr. Duterte’s foul mouth dishes out every now and then. Neither God nor his saints are bothered anyway,” Luistro said.

Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma said Mr. Duterte was not in a position to interpret Catholic teachings and people should figure out what the President really means when he speaks.

“Every time I hear him saying things like these, I just say to myself, ‘Why is he making such remarks when he is not a teacher of doctrine?’ We better decipher what to believe and what not to believe in what he says,” the 68-year-old prelate said.

Earlier on Thursday morning, in his message for All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, Mr. Duterte urged Filipinos to be advocates of peace and solidarity and “alleviate the suffering of others.”

“We Filipinos welcome the month of November with open hearts as we remember our saints and our dearly departed loved ones, whose lives have deeply inspired us to grow in faith, hope and love,” he said.

“Together, let us emulate our saints, pray for the eternal repose of souls and deepen our engagement with our communities as we work for real and lasting change,” the President said.

Typhoon briefing

At the end of the typhoon briefing, he told a disaster management official who had not visited his departed relatives to go home and do so before resuming his work.

“We all have our obligations to the dead. It’s practically a part of the culture but more than that it is something that is very important for us to commune with our ancestor,”  said Duterte, who also later visited the tombs of his father and mother in Davao City. —WITH  REPORTS FROM MARIEJO S. RAMOS AND ADOR VINCENT MAYOL