DAVAO CITY (July 10) — President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday denied attacking the Catholic Church and ended speculations on who his God is.
“The people whom I serve is my God,” he stressed. “Sila ang Diyos ko.”
He also pointed out that he does not believe God created hell. “If he created hell, he must be a stupid God. My God is not stupid to create man only to burn him in hell. Hindi ako naniniwala sa ganoon eh. (I do not believe in that). I also do not believe in heaven because if I do, only a fraction of you will ever enter heaven,” he said.
Hell, according to Duterte “is fiction.”
“Hindi ko man nakikita. Gusto ko man tumulong diyan sa Diyos na ‘yan, wala man ako magagawa. Hindi ko man siya nakikita.” (I cannot see that God. However I want to help that God, I can do nothing. I cannot see that God.)
“Pero dito sa mundong ‘to nakikita ko ang impyerno. Dito ko yayariin ‘yang mga—-. Sinabi ko do not destroy my country because I will really kill you. Do not destroy the young, our children,” Duterte added. Duterte has repeatedly said, he will not allow Filipinos to suffer further, as he vowed to stop illegal drugs and corruption in government.
He also denied attacking the Catholic church, this after he met Davao Archbishop Romulo Valles, the president of the Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Tuesday night at the Palace.
In an interview with reporters at Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga on Tuesday, Duterte said he was not at liberty to divulge the proceedings of the meeting but in the middle of his interview, he again directed his comments against his Catholic critics “Huwag mo akong bigyan ng, turista ka dito (Do not give me something like, you’re a tourist here), then you come here under the cloak of what religion, and start to blabber your mouth and attack us.”
Duterte again emphasized the separation of the church and the State.
He asked his critics not to use God in criticizing him, “I have the right to answer. There is a separation of powers. Why are you fucking… the name of the Lord against me?” Duterte said. “I am not attacking the Church,” he stressed. On his meeting with Valles, Duterte revealed, “We were discussing some modality of behavior, but definitely that would not prevent me from just saying my truth.”
Duterte claimed, “I am not attacking the Church. What I said that if you use religion as a format, I was not referring to any religion.” He said he could be referring to Christian evangelists who want to talk to him – even as his earlier speeches mostly singled out Catholic bishops and priests.-Jiann A. Padillo/NewsLine.ph
