PHILIPPINES
International Business Times
By Ananya Roy
January 21, 2017
Continuing his anti-Catholic Church rhetoric, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte questioned their “ascendancy” to criticise his drug war, a day after he challenged Catholic priests to try crystal meth to understand the problem of narcotic addiction.
In response to criticism by some churches in the country over the drug killings, the self-confessed foul-mouthed leader hurled abuses at them, citing cases of alleged sexual molestation and corruption involving priests.
“You expose me, fine. I expose you. Why? When you commit mistakes, it’s okay but when we do, no? B******t. That’s stupid,” the firebrand leader said during the oath taking of newly promoted police officials at his official residence – the Malacañang Palace – on Thursday (19 January).
The former Davao city mayor, who revealed in 2016 that he was physically molested by a priest when he was young, said: “If you cannot even give justice to the small boys that you have molested in the past, you do not have that moral ascendancy to lecture (me) on what to do. Sanctity of life? You’re enjoying your worth.
“When we were making confessions to you, we were being molested,” the president said. He then raised the issues of homosexual acts allegedly taking place inside seminaries and slammed the churches over their failure to take action.
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