There are two things that when discussed almost instantly divide a group of people – politics and religion. President Duterte has effectively used the first to divide the Filipino, knowing that with most of the political base that gave him an overwhelming victory in 2016 following him blindly despite his outrageous actions and remarks, the divide would tilt in his favor.
Families and friends have fought over Duterte’s policies over Facebook and other social media, and in reunions and meetings in the last two years. And for all those years, the cunning former Davao mayor has mostly maintained his political base. But when he recklessly and outrageously dwelt into religion, he may have overstepped his bounds and now face the possibility of losing his advantage in the national schism that he has created.
By asking the rhetorical question that nobody in his right mind would ask in Roman Catholic Philippines, “Who is this stupid God?”, Duterte divided his throng of followers into three: those that would stick with him for better or for worse, and rightly or wrongly; those who would now ask themselves, “Should I continue trusting this man?”; and those who would abide by their faith and their belief and abandon him outright.
Looking at this plain and simple equation, it is easy to see that with just one thoughtless, stupid remark, Duterte is beginning to lose his grip on his supporters, and apparently his grip on his own self. This is a man so overwhelmed by the power and misplaced ego, he is hastening his journey to infamy and notoriety with every action and word that he makes.
This man who enjoys playing God in deciding who has sinned and who deserves to be thrown into the Pasig River and into the Manila Bay to be eaten by sharks, now thinks he is smarter than God and dares question the Church’s teachings.
“Who is this stupid God?” Duterte said in a televised speech in Davao last week. “You created something perfect and then you think of an event that would destroy the quality of your work? How can you rationalize that God? How can you believe him?”
The public reaction, including those of Philippine Catholic Church leaders, ranged from “forgiving” to “fighting.”
Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), asked Filipino Catholics to “choose to love” Duterte and “pray for him with compassion.” “We pray for his healing and for God’s forgiveness, but we must rebuke his errors about our Christian faith,” he added.
Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle called on the faithful to “be at peace” and “read the situation with the eyes of faith.”
Other Catholic and Christian leaders, however, were less forgiving.
Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo urged Catholics to wake up and stand up against evil: “I am happy that many people are now speaking out. Duterte crossed the red line when he insults our God. People have come out of their stupor. I say to all, wake up and stand up. Evil should not be tolerated,” Pabillo said, adding that a person “who has no respect for others and even for God is himself not respectable.”
Activist priest Robert Reyes urged Catholic bishops to adopt a stronger stance on attacks against the Church: “He (Mr. Duterte) has proven himself to be a murderer. There is no more time. He is a murderer. He is a blasphemer. He has declared war against the Catholic Church.”
Sorsogon Bishop Arturo Bastes called President Duterte a “madman” and urged the faithful to pray for an end to his “blasphemous utterances and dictatorial tendencies.”
Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David said` that while Duterte is free to have his own thoughts on religion, “disagreement is not a license to insult,” especially since many of his supporters are Catholic. Philippine Council for Evangelical Churches National Director Noel Pantoja said Duterte’s remark was “completely inappropriate,” since its target was worshipped “not only by a majority of Filipinos but also by a vast number of people all over the world.”
The Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen and Professionals (BCBP) issued a pastoral letter expressing concern about Mr. Duterte’s rants: “These should not be allowed to pass without our community taking a stand for our Lord Jesus Christ and for the Catholic Church to which we belong.”
Brother Eddie Villanueva, leader of the Jesus Is Lord movement and whose son, Sen. Joel Villanueva, is a known Duterte ally, said: “When you are a leader, especially the highest leader of the nation, and you mock, wittingly or unwittingly, the God being acknowledged by your Constitution, you are actually violating the soul of the nation.”
Sen. Panfilo Lacson, another Duterte ally, agreed that Duterte crossed the line when he insulted God. “I believe that he crossed the line. So he should make amends. After all, he is the leader of our country,” he said.
As usual, the President and his apologists in Malacanang are not ready to apologize. Amid the outrage, Duterte insisted: “Your God is not my God because your God is stupid. Mine has a lot of common sense. If I choose not to believe in any God, what’s the fucking thing about it? It’s a freedom to choose one.”
Later, Duterte offered another excuse. He said he just wanted “to test the limits of everything” and he would keep his silence for now because he first wanted to see “how the nation reacts.” He added: “We are not precluded from sometimes being vicious,” he said. “There’s a time to be proper and a time to be a s**t.”
And that’s the problem with the Filipinos remaining passive despite all these “s**t” coming from their leader. This demagogue from Davao will interpret it as a license to continue becoming vicious and churning out “s**t.”
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