Palace says unfair to blame Duterte over death threats to some priests

March 12, 2019

Malacanang said on Tuesday it was unfair to blame President Rodrigo Duterte for the death threats some priests have been receiving.

In a press briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said it was easy to make death threats.

"The most convenient way to send threats is by text message because you cannot trace it," he said.

There were many probabilities as to who could have made the death threats against the Catholic priests, he said.

"It could be coming from pranksters. It could be coming from anti-Duterte trolls. It could be coming from the enemies of the priests. So, we really don't know," he said.

However, Panelo said, "it is unfair to be pointing to the President as behind it."

He noted that Duterte himself has warned not to do something bad against the priests and bishops.

More priests disclosed they received death threats in the form of text messages.

The death threats came after Duterte, in previous speeches, said the bishops should be robbed and killed.

He made the statement as his way of criticizing the Catholic Church which has been critical of his bloody war on drugs. 

Panelo did not see Duterte's statements against the clergymen as an abuse of freedom of speech, saying the President's remarks were made in general.

"He did not pinpoint specific individual, except the one who abused him who already died," he said, referring to a foreign priest who allegedly molested Duterte when he was still a teenager studying in a private school in Davao City. Celerina Monte/DMS