Duterte 'not serious' when he blamed priest for Benguet church collapse — Palace
MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte was joking, yet again, when he blamed a priest for the collapse of a church in Benguet during the height of Typhoon Ompong, which killed over 60 people.
"Ang tingin ko naman po, hindi naman po seryoso ang presidente. Let's not take his words always literally," presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a briefing on Monday.
In defending the chief executive, Roque even said that the destroyed church was being occupied by the United Church of Christ of the Philippines and not the Roman Catholic religion.
Yet even before this assertion from Roque, Duterte last Sunday did not mince words in blaming an unnamed priest for the incident, even without details on how and why it occurred.
"There is an evolving story sa Itogon, Barangay Ucab... 43 persons doon, nag-collapse 'yung church... Kaya nga ito eh, alam mo sir sa totoo lang, kung pinalitan niyo 'yung pari diyan, 'di magbagsak 'yan," Duterte said.
"Bobo kasi itong mga pari, p*tang*na," he added.
It was unclear which priest Duterte was talking about, and whether he meant that the priest did not take care of church maintenance, causing to fall due to torrential rains.
That said, Duterte has criticized the Catholic Church publicly in the past even after assuring the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines that he would stop doing so.
In August, the chief executive even branded the Catholic Church as the "most hypocritical institution." About eight in 10 Filipinos are Catholic, making the Philippines Asia's biggest Catholic nation.
Last June, Duterte even called God "stupid."
For his part, Roque, as the president's mouthpiece, has downplayed numerous controversial and inappropriate statements by Duterte as a joke, including that on rape.
On the flip side, priest Father Noel Gatchalian was also slammed recently by the Palace after he joked in a mass that he hopes for Duterte to get sick. The president shot back, saying he hopes Gatchalian dies of a sexually transmitted disease.
The Church has drawn the ire of Duterte after the former has criticized the government's drug war, which has killed thousands.
Benguet was one of the areas hardest hit by Typhoon Ompong over the weekend. In a separate incident in the region, at least 32 were pronounced dead as of last Sunday from a landslide that hit a privately owned bunkhouse used by small-scale miners.
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