Palace: No snub of Church leader

Undersecretary Abigail Valte. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Malacañang on Sunday denied it snubbed the head of the World Council of Churches, explaining that President Benigno Aquino III could not meet with the Protestant leader on Friday because of the state visit of the Amir of Kuwait.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the meeting between Mr. Aquino and the Rev. Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit, secretary general of the World Council of Churches, did not push through due to “scheduling constraints on both sides.”

“The WCC’s requested date for the courtesy call was on the same date as the state visit of the Amir of Kuwait,” Valte said in a text message to reporters.

The President’s schedule on Friday did not list a meeting with Tveit, only the state visit of the Amir of Kuwait, among others.

Protestant leaders had expressed disappointment over the scrapping of the meeting between Mr. Aquino and Tveit, who is in the country to attend the preassembly conference of the WCC Commission for World Mission and Evangelism at Traders Hotel in Manila until March 27.

The conference brings together some 300 church leaders  around the world from various Christian traditions—Protestant, Anglican, Roman Catholic Orthodox, Pentecostal and independent churches.

Pastor Rex Reyes Jr. of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines said Tveit had met with victims and families of human rights violations in the country, some of whom belonged to WCC member churches.

Tveit is Norwegian and would also have expressed support for the resumption of peace talks between Manila and the communist National Democratic Front, Reyes said.  Norway is the facilitator of the talks.

Manila’s Catholic Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle, who graced the occasion on Thursday, welcomed the religious leaders to the Philippines.