Admitting that he was hurt by criticisms from members of the Catholic clergy early in his term, President Rodrigo Duterte has renewed his attacks on the Church, saying he is not bound to listen to it.
“My job is not to listen to priests and nuns. My job is to protect the Filipino interest, period. I do not choose my crowd,” he said in Zamboanga City on Sunday night.
He accused priests of using the pulpit to attack him.
“You know why I was hurt by those fools? I was only two months as President [and] you priests, nuns, [the] Left, Tindig all participated: Oust Duterte, remove Duterte,” he said.
“There is always the principle of [separation] of church and state. When you attack me, do not use the pulpit because that is the extension of the church. If you want to, get out of the pulpit,” he added.
The government gets immediately blamed when a priest is killed, he said.
“‘Because he’s antimining, that’s why he was killed.’ Why will I kill a priest who is antimining,” the President said.
In his speech, he presented anew a matrix of the alleged affairs that slain priest Fr. Mark Ventura was involved in. —Julie M. Aurelio