PRESIDENTIAL bet Rodrigo Duterte will go to Dagupan City to pay a courtesy call on Lingayen Archbishop Socrates Villegas today despite disappointing the Catholic Church after he cursed Pope Francis in a speech.
The Davao City mayor and Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, his running mate, will visit Villegas at the Archbishop’s Residence on Jovellana Street as he steps up his campaign in Luzon after “a highly successful trip to [the] Visayas and Mindanao.”
“A busy schedule awaits Duterte in the Pangasinan sortie which will be highlighted by a public rally and a courtesy call [on] Lingayen Archbishop Soc Villegas,” the Partido Demokratikong Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan said in a statement.
“The PDP-Laban standard bearer will also pay a courtesy call [on] local officials and hold a press conference to wrap up his day.”
Duterte is also scheduled to pay a courtesy call on Pangasinan Gov. Amado Espino Jr. at the provincial capitol early in the afternoon. A public rally at the Plaza de Lingayen follows.
Duterte will also meet the press at the Lyceum Northwestern University gym before holding another rally to be attended by students and residents for his final activity in Dagupan.
“When a revered and loved and admired man like Pope Francis is cursed by a political candidate and the audience laughs, I can only bow my head and grieve in great shame. My countrymen has gone to the dregs,” Villegas said in a statement after Duterte’s speech against the pope.
In his speech after being proclaimed the standard bearer of PDP-Laban, Duterte narrated how he got stuck in a five-hour traffic jam during the papal visit and blamed and cursed Francis.
