{"id":204003,"date":"2019-02-26T02:50:49","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T07:50:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=204003"},"modified":"2019-02-26T02:50:49","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T07:50:49","slug":"dont-harm-priests-theyre-not-part-of-political-ruckus-prrd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/02\/26\/dont-harm-priests-theyre-not-part-of-political-ruckus-prrd\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t harm priests; they\u2019re not part of political ruckus: PRRD"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his speech during the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-LABAN) campaign rally at the Alonte Sports Arena in Bi\u00f1an City, Laguna on February 23, 2019. ALFRED FRIAS\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Despite his personal tiff with the Catholic Church, President Rodrigo R. Duterte warned those who threaten to harm priests and bishops to stop, noting that they are not part of the \u201cpolitical ruckus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duterte\u2019s warning came after Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, in a text message to former presidential aide, Christopher \u201cBong\u201d Go, reported that some priests have been receiving death threats.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng sagot ko ganito: \u2018Yang away ko sa Katoliko, amin lang ‘yan — personal. Kayong mga adik, ‘wag ninyong totohanin<\/em>\u00a0(This is my answer: My feud with the Catholic Church, it\u2019s just personal. You addicts, don\u2019t take it seriously),\u201d the President said during the 1st National Assembly of the Liga ng mga Barangay sa Pilipinas in Pasay City Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi ‘yan sila kasali sa<\/em>\u00a0ruckus — political ruckus. Ako, I was just responding —\u00a0sinagot ko lang ‘yung sabi ng pari (na) mamatay ako. Pero huwag ninyong patayin talaga ‘yung mga obispo, pati pari<\/em>\u00a0(They\u2019re not part of the political ruckus. I was just responding to the priest who wished me dead. But don\u2019t kill bishops and priests). It is not allowed,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Those who harm bishops and priests would have to answer to him, Duterte said, noting that he would not get anything from having clerics killed.<\/p>\n

\u201c‘Pag ginawa mo ‘yan sa kanila, ako mismo ang kalaban mo at ako ang hihirit sa iyo kasi ginagawa ninyo ‘yan para siraan ako. Ano man ang makuha ko ‘pag patayin ko ‘yang pari?<\/em>\u00a0(If you harm them, you\u2019ll have to face me. I\u2019m going to make you pay because you\u2019re doing it to destroy my reputation. What do I get from having priests killed?),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte admitted that he is angered by how priests do not have to pay taxes, but said he is not \u201cmad\u201d at the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlam mo hindi ako galit sa simbahan. Pero itong mga obispo ng mga elitista dito sa Maynila, ‘yung hindi nagbabayad ng buwis, nakaupo diyan sa lupa ng gobyerno na walang bayad<\/em>\u00a0for so many years (You know, I\u2019m not mad at the Church. But these bishops of elitists in Manila, the ones who don\u2019t pay taxes, but sit on government land without paying for so many years),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Under the Constitution, religious organizations are exempted from the payment of taxes.<\/p>\n

This is not the first time Duterte has warned against killing bishops and priests. He first brought up Tagle’s text message during the PDP-Laban campaign rally in Cebu City on Sunday night.<\/p>\n

He said that according to Tagle, priests have been receiving death threats from persons, who claimed to be working for the first family. However, he denied this and warned impostors to \u201clay off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cReligious (leaders) has nothing to do with the vagaries of life. Lay off! Stop threatening them or ako ang makalaban ninyo (you\u2019ll have to face me),\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Despite his personal tiff with the Catholic Church, President Rodrigo R. Duterte warned those who threaten to harm priests …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":203836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-204003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204003","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\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}