Duterte’s 3-man team starts dialogue with religious sector

Members of the three-man team include Roque, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Ernesto Abella (pictured), and Commissioner Pastor Boy Saycon of the EDSA People Power Commission. (PCOO photo)

MANILA — The three-man panel formed by President Rodrigo R. Duterte to dialogue with the Catholic church and other religious congregations started its first meeting on Wednesday, with hopes to begin the “healing” between all parties involved.

Duterte created the three-man committee after several religious leaders took notice of his scathing remarks about God and the Catholic church in his speech at the recent National ICT Summit in Davao City.

In his official Twitter account, Presidential spokesperson Secretary Harry Roque said the three-man committee met with leaders of the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches (PCEC) at the Greenhills Christian Fellowship (GCF) headquarters in Ortigas to kick off the talks.

Members of the three-man team include Roque, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Ernesto Abella, and Commissioner Pastor Boy Saycon of the EDSA People Power Commission.

“Sisimulan nga natin ‘tong proseso with the PCEC (We will start the process of holding dialogues with the PCEC),” Roque said in a press briefing televised at ANC 24/7 and livestreamed on his official Facebook account.

Roque said that he will also try to schedule a meeting between Duterte and the PCEC leaders, stressing the importance of moving forward from their public tiff.

“I will try to schedule a meeting between the President and the PCEC dahil importante naman po na magsimula nga yung hindi lang yung diyalogo pero insofar as kung ano magagawa ng (because it is important to start not just the dialogue but what could be done by) PCEC to start the process of healing and moving forward,” Roque said.

Roque, meanwhile, hoped that leaders of the Catholic church will soon be available to sit down with the panel after their scheduled gathering in Tagaytay.

“We exerted all efforts to initiate the dialogue with the Catholic church pero meron pong pagpupulong ang mga obispo ngayon sa Tagaytay kaya nga po hindi kami napagbigyan (but there is a gathering of bishops in Tagaytay that’s why we were not accommodated) but we hope that after that meeting in Tagaytay they will give that opportunity.”

PCEC national director Bishop Noel Pantoja, for his part, expressed gratitude to the President to initiate talks, describing it as a “blessing in disguise.”

“What happened became a blessing in disguise because this opened up an opportunity for the Christian church and the body of Christ to be able to have a dialogue with the leaders of the nation and hopefully with the President in the coming days so that we can pray for him and express our desire to support in the building of the nation,” Pantoja said.