Wow! Mayor Duterte takes a swipe at the pope?
We're in the midst of the political season and some presidential candidates have already gone far ahead in the surveys, while others remain stagnant in the bottom like Liberal Party's Manuel "Mar" Roxas. Then came Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte who after showing us how wishy-washy and teka-teka he is; suddenly decides to run for president but for the most stupid reason of all -- because the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) did not disqualify Sen. Grace Poe. I can enumerate many other reasons for Mayor Duterte to run for the highest office like his plan to install a Federal State but he had to come up with this nonsensical reason!
So now that Mayor Duterte is in the running, he too is having legal problems of his own with the Commission on Elections because he is supposed to be a substitute candidate for the Partido Demokratikong Pilipino Laban ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) who had a mayoralty candidate for Pasay City but withdrew. So now Mayor Duterte is supposed to be taking his place, but my understanding of the issue on substitution is that, Mayor Duterte can only substitute the PDP-Laban candidate for Mayor of Pasay City. Even on this, he cannot even qualify for that post as he has no residency in Pasay City.
Now the PDP-Laban has officially named Mayor Duterte as its presidential bet even as the fact remains that he had failed to file his CoC before the Comelec deadline.. something he has to hurdle. Now isn't it obvious to me that this in a way trying to fool the Filipino people? I would have more respect for Mayor Duterte if he had the guts to file his COC before the Comelec deadline. But alas he failed to do so.
Now that he has thrown his hat into the presidential race, Mayor Duterte is suddenly getting high ratings on the surveys because many people believe that he is a no-nonsense mayor. Many people apparently believe in his yarn that Davao City is the safest city in the Philippines.
Allow me to remind you that two years ago on June 2013 Mr. Richard King who owns the tallest building in Cebu City was murdered in Davao City? Mind you that was an unsolved crime. In my book, if a rich man like Richard King can have his life snuffed out in the streets of Davao City and that murder remains unsolved today, I think Mayor Duterte shouldn't make frivolous claims that his Davao City is the safest city in the Philippines.
That's not all. Just last March 2015, a Mr. Wilson Chua was shot by two gunmen on board a motorcycle in Davao City. I heard from news reports that he was the primary suspect in the killing of Mr. Richard King. I saw this video of his assassination being featured in a GMA-7 news report as all this was taken by a CCTV camera. Again this crime happened in the streets of Davao City and yes, no one including the Philippine National Police, has solved this crime. Come on, Mayor Duterte, your Davao isn't really a safe place to be with people getting murdered left and right.
But there is no stopping with the people who want Mayor Duterte to be their president, even if the social media networks are full of photos of Mayor Duterte publicly photographed kissing women. Alas, the voters were blinded by Duterte. They might as well be blinded by Satan!
Yesterday morning when I opened by Facebook page I was aghast by the multitude of negative comments that suddenly Mayor Duterte got from angry netizens. I didn't know that Mayor Duterte took potshots at the Catholic Church when he was proclaimed as the official standard bearer of the PDP-Laban and without any provocation from anyone from the Catholic Church Mayor Duterte made this remark, "The Roman Catholic Church must reform to prevent it from being extinct. Yung ibang presidente takot kasi kapag nagkampanya ang mga pari, talo na sila."
Then Mayor Duterte took potshots at Pope Francis saying, "Sabi ko, 'Bakit?' Sabi sarado na [ang daan]. Sabi ko, 'Sinong darating?' Sabi si Pope. Gusto kong tawagan, 'Pope, p--- ka, umuwi ka na. 'Wag ka nang bumisita dito." For those of you who are smitten by Mayor Duterte you better think again. This man attacked the pope for visiting the Philippines!
Come now, why didn't he attack Pres. Barrack Obama and the other world leaders or Pres. Benigno Aquino III for hosting the APEC summit here? Here's what Arch. Soc Villegas said about Mayor Duterte's remarks against the Pope. "When we find vulgarity funny, we have really become beastly and barbaric as a people. When a revered and loved and admired man like Pope Francis is cursed by a political candidate and the audience laugh, I can only bow my head and grieve in great shame." Mayor Duterte, the Catholic Church will not change because of you and because the Lord Jesus Christ told us that "The gates of hell shall not prevail against her!"
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