Alvarez tells CBCP to clean its own ranks first before criticizing President

Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO)

Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on Wednesday lashed out at bishops critical of President Rodrigo Duterte and his brutal war on drugs, saying the Church should clean up its ranks of pedophiles first.

Alvarez pointed to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) as being one of the sources of “noise” that could have pulled down the satisfaction and trust rating of the President, per the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey.

READ: SWS: Duterte’s net satisfaction rating down from ‘very good’ to ‘good’

“Look at the CBCP. They squawk and squawk,” the Speaker told reporters.

“They should fix their priests first. They have many scandals. There are many pedophiles (among them). They should fix their ranks first. Why don’t they scold their own priests?” Alvarez said.

The Speaker said it was possible that the questions asked of the SWS respondents might have been biased against the President.

“Let us look at whether there is no slant here or if it is being used to say the trust in the President has gone down,” Alvarez said.

“First, what were the questions? Second, what areas were surveyed? In Mindanao, there was no decline. In fact, it went up one point. But it went down in the Visayas and Mindanao. So let us ask SWS, what are the areas and what questions were asked,” he said.

Told that the SWS questions were uniform every survey period, Alvarez conceded he had not read the reports.

Alvarez also mistakenly attributed to SWS a statement that despite the fall in his popularity “there is still love” for the President.

READ: Abella: Despite fall in ratings, ‘love is still there’ for Duterte

He ranted that such a remark was unheard of coming from the pollster.

Told that the statement actually came from presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella, Alvarez joked: “Well, for me, it’s hard to talk about love.” /jpv