President Rodrigo Duterte (L) and Fr. Robert Reyes. INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS
Fr. Robert Reyes is hoping that President Duterte will have a change of heart this Lenten season.
Fresh from holding mass to mark Ash Wednesday inside Senator Leila de Lima’s cell at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center, Reyes called on the foul-mouthed President to stop cursing and stop ordering killings.
Asked to expound his earlier call to the President to “stop making noises,” Reyes explained: “Forty days walang pagmumura. Forty days walang order na pumatay. Sana 40 days walang dugo. Forty days walang pananakot at walang harassment.”
(Forty days of no cursing. Forty days without ordering killings. I hope for 40 days without bloodshed. Forty days without threats and harassment.)
READ: Duterte urged to ‘stop making noises, repent from sins’
The activist priest, a close friend of De Lima, said God could make miracles and touch the President’s heart.
“Baka magkaroon ng conversion sa puso ng Presidente at sa puso ng bawat isa. Malay niyo maghimala ang Panginoon itong Cuaresma,” Reyes told reporters at Camp Crame.
(The hearts of the President and other people could be converted. Who knows, the Lord could perform a miracle this Lent.)
He also asked the President, who has been at odds with his archenemy De Lima over the issue of drug killings, to love all Filipinos, even his enemies.
“President, love your enemies and enemies should also love you pray for your enemies as your enemies should pray for you,” he said.
De Lima, the former Justice secretary and Human Rights commissioner, has staunchly criticized the President for encouraging government forces to kill suspected drug criminals without due process.
The senator was detained at Crame over her alleged involvement in the illegal drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison. It was Duterte who first associated De Lima and his former aide and lover Ronnie Dayan to the Bilibid drug trade.
“Alam ko sa puso ng Pangulo pwede niyang sabihin, ‘Mahal ko lahat ng mamamayan ko, pati ‘yung mga hindi ko kabagang at hindi sumusuoporta sa akin,’” he said.
(I know that in the President’s heart he can say, “I love all my countrymen, even those who aren’t my companions and don’t support me.”) JE