Duterte breaks moratorium promise about Church

July 11, 2018

President Rodrigo Duterte has broken his promise to have a moratorium on talking about the Church, saying it should not use God to attack his administration.

In a speech in Pampanga, Duterte insisted on the separation of the Church and State.

"There is a separation of power between any church and state. Don't include God in the platform of your criticism on your attack because when I answer, if you include in the issue, you include God, f*** y***, I will kill you. I have tried to answer. There is a separation of powers, why are you f***ing the name of the Lord against me?," he said.

"And then when you use God to say that I'd go to hell, you know my God never created hell because if he created hell, he must be stupid God. My God is not stupid to create man just to burn him in hell...I do not believe in heaven because if I do, only a fraction of you in this crowd will ever enter in heaven. All of us we will see each other, especially those who have two, three spouses, the playboys, will see in hell. But that is fiction," he added.

In an interview after the event, Duterte explained that he was not attacking the Church and he was honoring his promise about moratorium from issuing statement against the Church.

"Yeah, I am not attacking the Church. What I said that if you use religion as a format, and I was --- I was not referring to any religion," Duterte said.

He reiterated that he would not apologize for what he uttered before, like calling God "stupid."

"But if it's a matter of me asking forgiveness, forget it. As a matter of principle, I will not. And I can burn in hell if it is true," he said. Celerina Monte/DMS