{"id":166942,"date":"2018-06-14T05:36:54","date_gmt":"2018-06-14T09:36:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=166942"},"modified":"2018-06-14T05:36:54","modified_gmt":"2018-06-14T09:36:54","slug":"duterte-denies-persecuting-priests-slams-villegas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/06\/14\/duterte-denies-persecuting-priests-slams-villegas\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte denies \u201cpersecuting\u201d priests, slams Villegas"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"President<\/a>
FILE:\u00a0Duterte then went on, saying that his ‘issue with women’ is the same with priests. (ALFRED FRIAS\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The President as a response to the statement of the Archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan, denied \u201cpersecuting\u201d priests in relation to the recent killings of three clergymen.<\/p>\n

During the oath-taking ceremony of the newly-promoted uniformed personnel of the Philippine National Police (PNP), Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), and Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on June 13, Wednesday, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte brought up the topic of priests.<\/p>\n

\u201cSabi nung nabasa ko sa ano <\/em>(What I read was), \u2018Stop persecuting priests.\u2019 Wala naman akong sinabi<\/em> (I did not say anything) and I did not\u2026\u201d he said referring to Archbishop Socrates Villegas\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n

In Villegas\u2019s lengthy statement regarding the recent slays of Catholic priests, he said that they \u201cseek the guidance of the Holy Spirit that our leaders in government may arrest the further erosion of law and order in the country and restore respect for human life and human dignity, keeping in mind that they are \u2018the king\u2019s good servants but God\u2019s first.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cLet us implore the grace of God to touch the heart of the President of the Philippines to stop the verbal persecution of the Catholic Church because such attacks can unwittingly embolden more crimes against priests,\u201d he further wrote.<\/p>\n

Duterte then went on, saying that his \u2018issue with women\u2019 is the same with priests. Alam mo \u2018yung pari<\/em> (You know the priest) is no better than me. May mga pari d\u2019yan tig-dalawa ang asawa<\/em> (There are priests out there that have two wives),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also said that he chose to suppress some police findings given to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cEh babae eh. Pareha kami ng<\/em> issue ng babae nung pari na \u2018yun, babae. Eh pinigilan ko kasi hindi maganda kung mag-sige sila daldal, bitawan ko \u2018yan. Sabihin ko, \u2018Kung ikaw, pari, kabitin mo \u2018yung anak \u2013 asawa ng sundalo, kabitin mo \u2018yung asawa ng mayor, mamamatay ka talaga.\u2019 \u2018Yun sinupress ko \u2018yun, hindi ko pinalabas<\/em> (It is about women. That priest and I have the same issue with women. I suppressed it since it is not good for their image, but if they still talk, I will release it. I will say \u201cYou are a priest, but you have affairs with the daughter \u2013 wife of a soldier, have an affair with the wife of a mayor, you will really die.\u2019 I suppressed that and did not let it go public),\u201d Duterte explained.<\/p>\n

He also said that he sent a copy of the suppressed \u201cmatrix\u201d to the chairman of the Catholic Bishops\u2019 Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).<\/p>\n

\u201cPero kung \u2018yang si<\/em> Soc karon gusto nila o \u2018di ilabas ko. Si<\/em> Soc Villegas o si\u2026 Parang san — ang problema nitong mga buang na ito? Santo lahat sila. Ibang mga gobyerno, mga sundalo o mga pulis, puro demonyo na <\/em>(But if Soc Villegas wants to suppress\u2026 Like what is their problem? It seems like they are saints, but other employees of the government, soldiers, police, are like demons),\u201d Duterte added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The President as a response to the statement of the Archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan, denied \u201cpersecuting\u201d priests in relation to the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":166096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[8449,17277,11083,7983,15269,14387,12616],"class_list":["post-166942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-bureau-of-fire-protection","tag-bureau-of-jail-management-and-penology","tag-catholic-bishops-conference-of-the-philippines","tag-philippine-national-police","tag-philippine-coast-guard","tag-rodrigo-roa-duterte","tag-socrates-villegas","mauthors-bea-kirstein-t-manalaysay","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}