President Duterte speaks the Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway groundbreaking (CDN PHOTO/ JUNJIE MENDOZA)
CORDOVA, Cebu–President Rodrigo Duterte stepped up his attacks against the Catholic Church whom he criticized for their alleged hypocrisy as he defended the government’s war against illegal drugs.
In a speech laced with profanities, Mr. Duterte pointed out that priests were fond of wearing golden cross on their chests and using golden chalices while living in palaces.
In contrast, he added, Jesus Christ was nailed to a simple wooden cross and used wooden cups.
“Mga pari wa nay gibuhat ug dili magyawyaw. Gwapog mga palasyo. Ibaligya na ninyo. Palit ninyog bugas ihatag sa pobre. Nya undang nag pang (kolekta). Kung dili, ipadakop ta mo. Extortion (Priests don’t do anything else but rant. They lived in palaces.
You should sell those and use the money to buy rice for the poor. And stop collecting money. If you dont, I will have you arrested. Exortion),” he said.
President Duterte was here to grace the groundbreaking ceremony for the third bridge that would connect Cebu from Mactan Island.
The Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEX) in Cordova town is a public private partnership between Cordova municipal and Cebu City governments and the private proponent Metro Pacific Tollways Development Corp. (MPTDC) owned by Manny Pangilinan.
Mr. Duterte was supposed to arrive at 3 p.m. at the boundary of Barangays Dapitan and Pilipog in Cordova to head in the lowering of the time capsule on the site where the bridge would be constructed.
But the President arrived at 4:50 p.m.
His 30-minute speech was focused mostly on defending his war against illegal drugs and his scathing attacks against the Catholic church.
Catholic Church leaders have repeatedly condemned the rising death toll in the Duterte administration’s war on drugs that have claimed at least 7,000 lives.
But President Duterte maintained that he was committed to stop illegal drugs in the country.
” Father, monsignors, bishops, this means to say marami pang patayan to. Kasi lalaban talaga yan. It won’t end tomorrow for as long as there is a drug pusher and drug lord,” the President said, adding that these drug personalities always fought back.
He pointed out that while the Catholic priests do not want any deaths in the ongoing war against drugs, the list of identified drug personalities cannot just be disregarded.
He said he will order the precinct commanders in towns all over the country to give the Catholic priests a list of all persons “playing drugs” and “destroying lives of innocents.”
“There’s a whale of a difference between killing an innocent person and killing a criminal. They ought not to be mixed up,” he stressed.
“I do not need martial law. I do not need to declare a suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. You destroy my country, you destroy the youth. I do not give a shit kung tanan pari magluhod, maghangad langit, mag ampo. I have a country to preserve and that is the Filipino nation. It has nothing to do with religion,” he added.
The President also referred the contents of the report of the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) without naming it.
In the 124-page report, it said more than 7,000 people had been killed — mostly by unidentified gunmen and some during police operations – since Mr. Duterte assumed office in July 2016.
While thousands of persons had been killed in the war on drugs, President Duterte said the government has also lost its share of law enforcers.
Among them, he said, were the 32 soldiers and 29 policemen who went after the drug laboratories, including in Mindanao.
He said it was his order to the police and military to go out and hunt down the drug personalities. If they violently resist and put their lives on danger, then law enforcers should just kill these personalities instead of being killed.
“I will kill you if you destroy the youth of my land. They are our assets,” the President said, lamenting how illegal drugs has affected the youth, making them unproductive members of society.