Rody still seething over priests’ criticisms

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – President Duterte continued his tirades against Catholic priests and challenged them to go around villages and convince drug addicts to stop their bad habit.

While the Catholic Church has said it supports anti-drug efforts, Duterte did not seem convinced and said the priests should make it their advocacy to teach and convince people, particularly the youth, against drug use.

Duterte issued the challenge in his speech at the turnover rites for a new drug rehabilitation and treatment center in Barangay Penaplata, Island Garden City of Samal, Davao del Norte late Friday afternoon.

The President lamented how he had been criticized by the Catholic Church, especially the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), due to the thousands of extrajudicial killings in the course of the drug war.

The President said the easiest way to stop the drug-related killings would for those involved to drop shabu altogether. 

“Drop shabu and there will be no more deaths. Throw the shabu to the sea. I will tell the police, no more killings. Why? What do you think? I will do the killings myself? So tell the drug lords stop it,” the President said.

He also resumed his attacks against the supposed ills of the Catholic Church, including the large sums of money they would collect from the flock but would even charge to bless the dead with Holy Water for the burial rites. 

“If a dead is to be buried on a Sunday you do not bless them and want the dead (to) be brought the following day, on a Monday and then the corpse would already be smelling foul and you get angry again,” Duterte said in Visayan, his local dialect.

The President also said the rates to bless the dead increased astronomically when it only used to be 25 centavos when he was young.