By Arjay L. Balinbin, Reporter
PRESIDENT Rodrigo R. Duterte has formed a committee that would arrange a dialogue between the government and the Catholic Church and other religious groups, Malacañang announced on Tuesday.
In his press briefing in Davao City on Tuesday morning, June 26, Presidential Spokesperson Harry L. Roque, Jr. said Mr. Duterte has assigned him to work with EDSA People Power Commission member Pastor “Boy” Saycon and Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Ernesto C. Abella in arranging talks between religious leaders and the government.
“Kahapon lang po ito nadesisyunan ni Presidente, at ngayong araw po nakipag-ugnayan po ako kay Mr. Boy Saycon na simulan na ang proseso para magkaroon na ng dayalogo. Siyempre po, unahin natin sa Simbahang Katolika bagama’t bukas din po ang pinto para sa mga Born Again churches,” Mr. Roque said.
(The President made the decision yesterday, and today I communicated to Mr. Saycon for us to begin the process for the dialogue. Of course, we will start with the Catholic Church, although the door is also open to Born Again churches.)
On June 14, Mr. Roque said the Palace is open to a dialogue with the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to amend the bickering between the President and the Catholic Church. “If they want a dialogue, then the President and the Palace are always open,” he said.
Davao Archbishop and CBCP president Romulo G. Valles, in a phone message to Radio Veritas as reported by the network on Tuesday, said: “That is a most welcome development. To dialogue, to listen to one another, is always good.”
Mr. Duterte’s recent tirades against the Catholic Church and even God were triggered by criticisms of his war on crimes and illegal drugs, the recent killings of priests, and the case of Australian nun Patricia Fox with the Bureau of Immigration (BI).
“Sabi nung nabasa ko sa ano (The [paper] I read said), ‘Stop persecuting priests.’ Wala naman akong sinabi (I never said) and I did not…,” he said in a speech on June 13, during the oath taking ceremony for newly promoted personnel of the Philippine National Police, Bureau of Fire Protection, and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.
In a speech in Cagayan de Oro on Monday, Mr. Duterte said, referring to Sister Fox: “I can take the insult of a garbage collector or a general or a mayor or anybody else for that matter. What I am asking is that when you do it, you [should be] a Filipino. Why? Because you pay my salary.”
For his part, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador S. Panelo said in an interview with ANC on Tuesday that “it is part of [Mr. Duterte’s] job as President… to articulate his views and his beliefs.”
He also said the President was not “attacking” the Catholic Church.
“That is not attacking…. I beg to disagree, that is not attacking. When you question one’s theory or a particular group, you do not attack — you’re just questioning the logic. He needs explanation. Then it’s for that religion to explain [its] concept,” Mr. Panelo said.

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