Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday taunted the
country’s Catholic priests and bishops to take highly addictive crystal
methamphetamine, as he accused them of “hypocrisy” for criticising his
deadly drug war.
Duterte launched his broadside in response to the powerful Catholic
Church mounting a campaign to stop the killings in his anti-drugs drive,
which has claimed about 6,000 lives in less than seven months.
Duterte said that while parish priests around the country were well
aware of the extent of the illegal drug problem, their leaders who had
been railing about “extrajudicial killings” were clueless.
“The (critical) priests should take shabu to understand. I recommend one
or two of the bishops take it also,” Duterte said, using the local term
for crystal meth, the country’s most-used illegal drug.
Duterte, who has previously boasted about keeping multiple
mistresses, also sought to discredit Church leaders by accusing them of
violating their own vows of celibacy.
“We’re the same, with two, three wives. Don’t get me started — all the hypocrisy,” said Duterte, 71.
Duterte also accused the country’s Church leaders of plotting to
“suppress” the public exhibition of an unspecified film that he said
tackled the subject of “homosexuality of priests”.
“I’m telling them, ‘Why stop it? When you expose the frailties of
your faithful, you are free to shout in the pulpit,” he said. “But you
exempt yourselves. What is this?'”
Duterte spoke at length to defend his anti-drugs campaign during a
visit to a hospital in the northern Philippines that was aired on
television.
Duterte was elected in a landslide last year, after vowing on the
campaign trail to eradicate illegal drugs in society by killing tens of
thousands of people.
Police have reported killing 2,250 drug suspects since Duterte
assumed office, with 3,710 other people murdered by unknown suspects.
Independent surveys show Duterte remains hugely popular with many
Filipinos who are hoping his strongman style will fix the country’s
crime and corruption woes.
After largely keeping quiet over the drug war for months, Church
leaders are now leading a campaign to have their flock denounce the
killings.
About 80 percent of Filipinos are Catholic, a legacy of the Philippines being a former Spanish colony.
The Church played a key role in the ouster of dictator Ferdinand
Marcos in 1986 and corruption-tainted president Joseph Estrada in 2001.
Church leaders say they are not plotting to oust Duterte, rather to just stop the killings.
AFP
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