Duterte pushing 3-child policy

He is also open to freeing GMA and burying Marcos at ‘Libingan’

Incoming President Rodrigo Duterte said Sunday he will defy the Roman Catholic Church and seek to impose a three-child policy, putting him on a new collision course with the bishops a day after he called them “sons of whores.”

Later in the day, Duterte announced during a press conference that he was open to releasing former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo from detention, and burying former President Ferdinand E. Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

The Davao City mayor has yet to be declared the May 9 poll winner, but an unofficial vote count by an election commission-accredited watchdog showed him ahead over his four

rivals, three of whom conceded defeat. Duterte assumes office on June 30.

Duterte’s often outrageous comments have won him huge support and his tirades about killing criminals and a joke about a murdered rape victim do not appear to have dented his popularity in the largely Catholic country.

“I only want three children for every family,” Duterte said on Sunday in Davao City. “I’m a Christian, but I’m a realist so we have to do something with our overpopulation. I will defy the opinion or the belief of the Church.”

About 80 percent of the Philippines’ 100 million population are Catholics, the largest concentration of any Asian country, who oppose abortion and contraception.

In a press conference late yesterday, Duterte said Arroyo should be freed on bail as all her co-accused in the plunder case involving the use of the 1366million Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) intelligence funds from 2008 to 2010 were already released from detention.

The incoming President said he had offered to pardon Arroyo but the former President declined the offer as this would mean she has to admit the crime before any clemency is granted.

Likewise, Duterte said will allow the burial of Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani as a Filipino soldier and not necessarily because he is a hero.

Last Saturday, Duterte criticized the Church as the “most hypocritical institution,” meddling in government policies and said some bishops were enriching themselves at the expense of the poor.

“You sons of whores, aren’t you ashamed? You ask so many favors, even from me,” Duterte said in an interview broadcast by TV station GMA.

Monsignor Oliver Mendoza, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Lingayen, whose head is the president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, said the Church respected Duterte’s opinion but that it would continue to speak against government policies that are contrary to Church teaching.

“Because if we fail to do that, if we close our eyes, if we close our lips, we close our ears, what will be the role of the Church?” he said.

Political analysts said they were not surprised at Duterte’s statements because some bishops spoke out against him during the election campaign.

“Like most liberal, secular politicians, Duterte is a deist,” said Joselito Zulueta of the University of Santo Tomas. “This in itself is a self-serving position conceived out of human conceit. He will do as he pleases except when he’s stopped by public criticism.”

He said Duterte’s government was expected to clash more with the Catholic Church not only on population issues, but on the restoration of death penalty, legalization of divorce and planned distribution of contraceptives.

Ernesto Pernia, the incoming chief of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said Duterte will aggressively implement the country’s family planning law to push his economic growth agenda.

In December, 2012, Congress passed a law despite opposition from church leaders, allowing public health centers to hand out contraceptives such as condoms and pills and teach sex education in schools.

Duterte is pushing for “rapid and sustained implementation” of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act, said Pernia.

The past six years saw the Philippine economy’s average annual economic growth topping 6 percent, but critics say the improvement has not translated into jobs or better livelihoods for millions of poor.

About a quarter of the country’s population of around 101 million remains poor, official data show.

“If you enable families to limit and phase their children to what they can afford and what they can provide for, then that’s going to have an effect on poverty and inequality,” Pernia said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel.

Pernia, a former university lecturer and economist at the Asian Development Bank, will form part of an economic team headed by Carlos Dominguez, who has been named Finance secretary.

Pernia’s comments followed Duterte’s remarks in Davao City on Sunday saying he would defy the Catholic Church’s opinion on family planning.