Papal visit organizers deny Pope's endorsement of Duterte

MANILA, Philippines – The Papal visit organizers on Wednesday clarified that the photo of Pope Francis endorsing presidential candidate Davao City Mayor Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte is not true.

On its Facebook page, Papal Visit – Philippines 2015 asked the public to stop spreading the fake campaign picture and refrain from using the Pope’s name for political gains.

“May we inform the public that this statement from the Pope IS NOT TRUE. It came from a satire piece and is a fake. We beg everyone to please stop spreading this and to please cease from maliciously using the Pope for political gains,” it said.

The campaign picture was posted by a netizen named Pbr Bohoist to the Facebook page of Duterte’s supporters, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte for President.

The netizen's post said that “even the Pope admires Duterte and so do the Filipino.”

Last December, Duterte earned negative reactions from netizens and was slammed by several Catholics after he cursed at the well-loved Pope when he narrated the traffic he went through during the papal visit. He has apologized since then, noting that he is just cursing about the situation and not the Pope.