PHILIPPINES
Crux
By Crux Staff
April 17, 2016
For most Filipinos, the interesting thing about Rodrigo Duterte, the seven-term mayor of Davao City, as a presidential candidate is that he comes off as their country’s version of Rudy Giuliani, known as “the punisher” for his get-tough policies on crime.
Duterte, famed for turning Davao City from the “crime capital” of the Philippines into one of Asia’s most secure cities, recently surged to the top of opinion polls in a tight five-way race for the country’s presidency ahead of national elections May 9.
Yet seen through Catholic eyes, there’s another compelling fact about Duterte’s life story: If he does prevail, he may well become the first survivor of clerical sexual abuse in the Church ever to become a national head of state.
Duterte never went public with the charge he’d been abused by a priest until last year, when he found himself under fire for allegedly publicly “cursing” Pope Francis for his January 2015 trip to the Philippines.
Duterte insisted his irritation wasn’t directed at the pontiff, but at the “incompetence” of government officials who, he charged, failed to manage the traffic gridlock and other headaches created by Francis’ trip, which drew a crowd estimated at six million people to the streets of downtown Manila.
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