Public reaction to shaming of De Lima 'alarming,' says CBCP exec

MANILA, Philippines — The local Catholic hierarchy expressed alarm over the public's reaction to President Rodrigo Duterte's "public shaming" of Sen. Leila de Lima.

Fr. Jerome Secillano, public affairs chief of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, noted that while Duterte's tirade against De Lima was hardly a surprise, it was the people's response that was unsettling.

"What is alarming to hear are the reactions of the people. It's as if what the president did was perfectly fine. When Duterte himself was called names by his detractors, people came to his defense and bullied his critics," Secillano said in a state news report.

Duterte, at a news conference Wednesday, linked the senator to the illegal drug trade and called her an "immoral woman." De Lima, for her part said, Duterte, who also criticized the United Nations for condemning the spate of killings of suspected drug criminals in the country, is "abusing and misusing his executive power."

Secillano said, meanwhile, that the scenario suggests a clear case of double standard.

“Even if people nowadays exude passivity when it comes to morality, decency and civility, at least let us exercise fairness and equity in dealing with others," the CBCP official said. — Philippines News Agency with a report from the Associated Press