{"id":167511,"date":"2018-06-21T01:38:45","date_gmt":"2018-06-21T05:38:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=167511"},"modified":"2018-06-21T01:38:45","modified_gmt":"2018-06-21T05:38:45","slug":"we-have-no-policy-of-hatred-against-priests-duterte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/06\/21\/we-have-no-policy-of-hatred-against-priests-duterte\/","title":{"rendered":"We have no policy of hatred against priests: Duterte"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\u201cWe<\/a>
\u201cWe have no policy of hatred against priests. Nothing of that sort. As a matter of fact, we respect the Church,\u201d Duterte said in his speech during a gathering of the Philippines League of Councilors (PCL) in Iloilo City. (ACE MORANDANTE\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday said his government has no policy of hatred towards religious leaders particularly Catholic priests.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no policy of hatred against priests. Nothing of that sort. As a matter of fact, we respect the Church,\u201d Duterte said in his speech during a gathering of the Philippines League of Councilors (PCL) in Iloilo City.<\/p>\n

Duterte made this clarification amid allegations that his administration is provoking hatred and violence against the clergymen following the church\u2019s attack against some government policies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I want is that these few bishops stop linking the government. The truth is I cannot kill priests, even women and children,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

Recently, Malacanang joined the Catholic bishops and the faithful in condemning the murder of Fr. Mark Ventura, Fr. Tito Paez and Fr. Richmond Nilo.<\/p>\n

Fr. Nilo was shot dead in a Nueva Ecija chapel while Fr. Paez was killed by motorcycle-riding gunmen in Jaen, Nueva Ecija while Fr. Ventura was also killed by a riding in tandem assailants in Cagayan province.<\/p>\n

The murder of the three priests happened in a span of less than seven months.<\/p>\n

Duterte said he is not discounting the possibility that some of the priests were killed because of their respective advocacies.<\/p>\n

Before attending the PCL event, Duterte graced the distribution of the Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) in Cabatuan, Iloilo.<\/p>\n

While Duterte was delivering his speech, the church bells rang prompting the President to pause for a few moments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the tolling of the bells. That\u2019s too many. Three is enough. Who is your bell boy? Tell the bell boy to stop. That\u2019s too much,\u201d Duterte said in jest.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, I do not want to create a scene but you know, I have my duty. I am a Christian and I believe in God, I respect the tolling of the bells,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday said his government has no policy of hatred towards religious leaders particularly Catholic priests. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":167516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[52055,13135],"class_list":["post-167511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-catholic-priests","tag-president-rodrigo-duterte","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167511","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=167511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}