Speaking at a groundbreaking ceremony in the City of Naga, Cebu, Duterte linked the arrival of Christianity to colonialism. "Why would I celebrate the arrival of the Spanish here? Why would I?" he said.

"You know, they came to this country as imperialists. We are not Spanish and they subjugated us for 300 years. That's painful for me… And yet I was asked for a commemoration for the 500 years since they arrived here," he added. Read more

He appears to have taken offence at Australian missionary nun Patricia Fox.

She has joined an investigation into alleged human rights abuses in Mindanao.

Duterte attacked critics who "come here under the cloak of whatever religion and start to blabber their mouths and attack us."

The president says there is separation of powers between church and state. And that prevents church people from criticising his administration.

"Do not include your god in the platform of your criticism in your attacks because, when I attack, if you include God in the issue, son of a bitch, I'll get back at that god," he said.

A day before Duterte had met Archbishop Romulo Valles. Valles is president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines.

Duterte's office released a statement after that meeting. It promised a moratorium on statements about the church.

The president says he discussed toning down his rhetoric during the meeting with the archbishop.

Yet he said the agreement wouldn't prevent him from telling the truth.

Since then Duterte continued to attack God, whom the president said "never created hell because, if he created hell, he must be a stupid god."

The president says his god is the "six million Filipinos plus the others who voted for me above the margin, and those who really voted for me."

Duterte apologises to God

Later in the day the president made a qualified apology to God.

"If it's the same god, I'm sorry, that's how it is. Sorry God. I said sorry God. If God is taken as a generic term by everybody listening, then that's well and good," he said.

The president said church leaders should "never use the name of God as a front to attack government [because] that is not the proper way to do it."

The president again attacked Sister Fox, saying that she was agitating people.

This week, the bishops' conference condemned the government's anti-narcotics war. It has killed thousands of suspected drug users and dealers in the past two years.

The bishops also condemned the killings of three Catholic priests in recent months.

Source:

• UCA News
• Manila Bulletin
• UCA News

Image credit: UCA News

He says that would punish them for fighting the government

Human rights watchdogs and women's groups have criticised his attitude.

Human Rights Watch says this is the latest in a series of "misogynist, derogatory and demeaning statements he has made about women".

"It encourages state forces to commit sexual violence during armed conflict.Duterte made the threat in a speech this month.

In a government transcript he said Philippine soldiers should not kill women rebel fighters.

"We will just shoot your private parts, so that if there are no more private parts, you would be useless."

Duterte delivered the speech in his native Visayan, a language spoken in central and southern Philippines.

The president also criticised female soldiers for leaving their children and families to join the communist movement.

Emmi de Jesus, a Congress member representing the Gabriela Women's Party, denounced Duterte's "nasty remark".

She says it contributes to the culture of "impunity" in the country.

De Jesus says the president further confirms himself as the most dangerous macho-fascist in the government.

She says it pushes soldiers to commit more human rights violations.

Duterte has been under fire several times for making misogynistic comments.

In India last month, he said that he'd like to attract visitors to the Philippines by offering "42 virgins".

In July 2017, he made rape jokes while talking about Miss Universe.

Two months earlier, Duterte told his soldiers fighting Muslim rebels that they could rape up to three women without getting punished.

It's all humour

Duterte's spokesperson, defended the president's comments, saying critics should lighten up.

"You know, sometimes, these feminists are a bit OA," Roque said using the Filipino term to mean over-acting.

The Communist Party of the Philippines launched a rebellion in 1968 that has so far claimed the lives of more than 30,000 people.

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They are making their clergy "martyrs" to harassment on social media and an easy target of trolls who make up lies for the media about them.

This is because of the clergy's continued criticisms to certain government policies, he said.

Many of those who are targeting the clergy say they are Catholic, Villegas says.

At the same time, they are watching the clergy become the "punching bag of public officials" which Villegas says their own parishioners "view with glee".

Villegas is strongly opposed to Duterte's war on drugs, which has killed thousands of people in vigilante-style executions.

Villegas gave an example of the excuses Catholics are making for their behaviour.

"I am a Catholic, but I agree that drug addicts must be killed; they are useless. I am a Catholic but I am pro-death penalty. … I am a Catholic, but I do not always obey my bishop, he is too old-fashioned. … I am a priest but my bishop's circulars are optional for obedience. … I am a Catholic but … I am a Catholic but …,'" Villegas said.

He has led prayer marches and written letters and official conference documents decrying the "war on drugs" and the death penalty.

Other church officials have also expressed dismay through various statements.

Source

• Crux
• Inquirer.net
• YouTube

These same police blame "vigilantes" for the attacks which focus on killing the poor, the senior police officers say. Read more

That activism builds on a grand history, from popes defying emperors and kings in the Middle Ages, to modern examples such as clergy in Poland joining the Catholic population in rising up against the Communist system, as well as the vast Catholic mobilization in the Philippines to overthrow the corrupt regime of Ferdinand Marcos.

In recent days, examples from around the world suggest that this tradition of political engagement is alive and well.

The Philippines and the war on drugs

The Filipino House of Representatives on March 10 approved a bill which, if endorsed by the Senate, would reimpose the death penalty for drug-related crimes, among others. Reinstating the death penalty was one of President Rodrigo Duterte's major campaign promises.

On Wednesday, several key Filipino lawmakers were expelled by the House leadership after voting against the restoration of the death penalty.

According to local reports, Duterte's "war on drugs" and extra-judicial killings have generated thousand of casualties since last July, and he's promised to execute "five or six" criminals per day once the death penalty is reintroduced.

If passed by the Senate and signed by the president, death will be carried out by hanging, firing squad or lethal injection for selling, trading and transporting drugs. Possessing drugs would lead to life imprisonment.

The Catholic bishops are having none of it, calling on the faithful to oppose the bill in any way possible. For instance, Bishop Joel Baylon of the Diocese of Legazpi called on the youth to take to social media.

"Use your capacity to post on social media against extra-judicial killings, the death penalty, and be online missionaries of God," Baylon said addressing them during the 8th Diocesan Youth Way of the Cross at Kawa-Kawa Hill in Ligao City, Albay on Saturday. Continue reading

Sources

• Crux article by Inés San Martín, an Argentinean journalist who covers the Vatican in Rome for Crux.
• Image: Pinoy News Today

The protest tagged ‘Walk for Life' was endorsed by Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.

Police estimate over 50,000 took part in the march.

The drug crackdown has left thousands of drug suspects dead.

According to a Police report, over 7,600 people have died since the anti-drug war began: about 2,500 of them were killed in shootouts during sting operations.

Pro-Duterte legislators hope to reimpose capital punishment as early as next month.

Catholic bishops have expressed concern over the drug killings.

Archbishop Socrates Villegas said no civilized country should allow such illegal actions to continue unabated.

"Execution is murder," he said. "We cannot teach that killing is wrong by killing those who kill."

"They ought to be judged by the court of law and never by the extrajudicial means."

Source

• wtop
• NAN
• Crux
• Image: McClatchy

Their opinion has not changed his views.

He remains determined to see his aim to rid the country of all drug users and dealers. By killing them.

Last weekend, a pastoral letter from the Catholic Bishops' Conference was read at Masses throughout the country. It strongly criticised the Government's means of ridding the country of drugs.

It said killing people was not the answer to trafficking illegal drugs.

It also said it was disturbing that many people didn't care about the bloodshed, or even approved of it.

"An even greater cause of concern is the indifference of many to this kind of wrong.

"It is considered as normal, and, even worse, something that [according to those who practise it] needs to be done," the letter said.

Duterte defended his position, separating people into all those who wish to end drugs and those who follow Church rules.

"You Catholics, if you believe in your priests and bishops, you stay with them. If you want to go to heaven, then go to them," he said.

"Now, if you want to end drugs … I will go to hell. Come join me,"

Eighty per cent of the Filipino population is Catholic. Most attend Mass each week.

Although the letter did not mention Duterte by name, it urged "elected politicians to serve the common good of the people and not their own interests".

It also called for steps to tackle "rogue policemen and corrupt judges".

The letter said the war on drugs has led to a "reign of terror" especially affecting the poor.

More than 7,000 people have died in the seven months since Duterte's campaign to rid the country of addicts and suppliers.

Over 2,500 of them were killed in what police say were shootouts during raids and sting operations.

Both the government and police have denied extrajudicial killings have taken place. The president's office had no immediate comment on the bishops' letter.

Source

• Crux
• Channel News Asia
• Image: Inquirer News

Some priests say challenging the thousands of killings in President Duterte's campaign could be dangerous.

Others support it.

More than 3,600 people have died at the hands of police and suspected vigilantes since Duterte took power in June.

Most were small-time drug users and dealers.

Duterte has quashed opposition to his war on drugs.

He had a 76 per cent satisfaction rating in a Social Weather Stations survey released last week.

In another Social Weather Stations poll, 84 per cent said they were satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the war on the drugs.

Despite this, a majority said they had qualms about the killings.

Opposing the drug war "in some locations becomes a dangerous job", said Father Luciano Felloni.

He is setting up community-based rehabilitation for drug users.

"There is a lot of fear because the way people have been killed is vigilante-style so anyone could become a target ... There is no way of protecting yourself."

Possible reprisals to anyone who criticises Duterte's campaign could suffer a similar fate, he said.

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said the Church was free to make statements.

He said there is no cause "to even imply" that anyone in the clergy would be targeted.

"The Church ... would do well to take heed and not presume that the people share their belief system."

"Are the means unnecessarily illegitimate?" said Father Joel Tabora, a Jesuit priest in Davao, where Duterte was mayor for 22 years.

Activists say about 1,400 people were killed from 1998 until the end of last year in Davao in a similar anti-crime and anti-drug campaign.

"People are dying, yes, but on the other hand, millions of people are being helped."

Source

• Channel News Asia
• Image: Asia Sentinel