Two years into the Duterte presidency, many Filipinos have grown used to his often-outrageous rhetoric. From cursing anyone and anything from Barack Obama and Pope Francis to the United Nations and the European Union, a sort of global notoriety today surrounds the former Davao mayor’s rapid-fire, no-holds-barred tongue.
And anyone who has, for one reason or another, found himself or herself listening to the President talk will tell you: He is a candid storyteller, rarely staying on-topic and always digressing, quick to discard prepared speeches for impromptu anecdotes and much-rehashed polemics. Like an adorable, if a little tipsy, uncle, his supporters would say.
But for all the outrageous things Duterte had said—including a comparison of the drug war to the genocidal murder of Jews once—the latest seems to have struck a particular nerve. When he described God as “stupid” in view of the biblical creation story, even some of his ardent support base, typically a very stubborn demographic, expressed their dismay.
“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?”
For the Catholic church leadership, which had long sparred with the president over his war on drugs and misogyny, it was just another day with Duterte, arguably the first president who openly locked horns with the influential institution. The sentiments from church leaders ranged from conciliatory to solid rebuke.
Lingayan-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas called on Filipino Catholics to “choose to love” Duterte and “pray for him with compassion.” He explained: “We pray for his healing and for God’s forgiveness, but we must rebuke his errors about our Christian faith. He is a person in authority and some of you might get confused when you hear him.”
Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle was even more tempered, telling the faithful to “be at peace” and “read the situation with the eyes of faith.”
For his part, 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.”
At least three senators called him out. Senator Antonio Trillanes called it “the height of arrogance” and a sign that Duterte “is one evil man.” Sen. Risa Hontiveros said it was irrelevant, “just stream-of-consciousness ramblings and rantings [that] distract us from burning issues.” Sen. Panfilo Lacson, an administration ally, said Duterte might have finally crossed the line.
As usual, the outrage did little to change Duterte’s position. He defended what he said and sought to clarify it: “Your God is not my God because your God is stupid,” he said. “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.” The Palace, of course, came to his defense, calling it a “personal belief.”
Unfortunately, as with the other outrageous off-the-cuff remarks,. There seems to be value in activist priest Robert Reyes’s call for Catholic bishops to take on a more decisive approach to dealing with Duterte. The “God is stupid” remark, after all, is only the tip of the icebergs when it comes to the president’s rebuke of Christian values.
He said: “He 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.”
But even before the nation recovered from the remark, Duterte issued yet another controversial one. He told the audience at an information and communications technology summit that the “economy is in the doldrums,” citing rising interest rates and a disparity between the developments in the capital and elsewhere.
Some economists were quick to correct the president’s evaluation. While there are fair concerns regarding inflation and wages, numbers point to an overall rosy economic picture, from GDP growth to tax collection. Over the last two years, too, all regions positively contributed to the growth of the economy with some evenness, a far cry from three years ago when the economy of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) actually contracted by 0.4 percent.
Needless to say, any pronouncement from government officials, more so the President, can do untold damage to the economy, something that Duterte should know too well. An incorrect one, in this case, is much worse, leading some people to ask if the President was employing gas-lighting tactics, including the propagation of such blatant lies and wearing his critics down.
Sen. Hontiveros is therefore right. By now some have grown increasingly numb to the president’s shock and scare tactics. Many no longer take him seriously. With the distracting rhetoric out of the way, what Filipinos should thus refocus on are the real problems of the country, from inflation and wages to public transportation and foreign relations.
Duterte trust ratings has so far been durable two years into office. The relentless and unstoppable blabber, however, deliberate or not, may become the tipping point that might well break the trust.
