DAVAO CITY — President Duterte hit back at Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle during the gathering of barangay officials here, saying that he never bullied people and that it was the Church people who started it all.
“When did I ever scare or bully people?” President Duterte asked in the middle of his speech before barangay officials, mentioning Cardinal Tagle.
“Itong si Tagle, kwidaw daw ko, hadlokon, kanus- a bako nanghadlok (Tagle said, be careful, I’m scaring people, but when did I ever scare people)? ” the President said.
He said it was the priests who started it all when they said during Mass that they were praying to God for Duterte to die from ailment.
“So, when I lashed back and said, kill, they called me a demon,” Duterte said. “We would never come to terms because of the separation of Church and state.”
The Manila Archbishop, during a Simbang Gabi homily, hit bullies who abuse their power, a statement that some people interpreted as an allusion to the President’s actions against his critics. /ee