16 M voters, not God, made Duterte president, says bishop
“God did not give us (Rodrigo) Duterte to be our President. Rather, the 16 million voters who voted for him did.” This was the response of Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo to the question “Why
did God give us Duterte?” which he received via email.
“God did not give us Duterte to be our president. The 16 million voters chose him to be president and he is now president,” he said in his blogpost.
Pabillo added that in a democracy, leaders are not divinely ordained but are elected by the people.
“We cannot say vox populi, vox Dei, that is, the voice of the people is the voice of God. Not necessarily!” he said.
“Many very bad leaders had been elected by their people. Let us just name (Adolf) Hitler, (Benito) Mussolini and even our (Ferdinand) Marcos. They came to power by election. Duterte was elected by 16 million voters, not even the majority of our 50 million voters in 2016. He is not even a majority president,” Pabillo added.
Make amends Meanwhile, Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson expressed his support for the creation of a four-man panel that would hold dialogues with the President to thresh out his statements on God whom he called “stupid” in one of his speeches.
Because as far as he is concerned, Lacson admitted that his admiration for the President somewhat diminished after the leader made the “stupid” statement and mocked Christianity as a whole.
“Nakakabawas din ng bilib eh, dahil parang sukdulan na, parang lumampas na. Sabi nga ng iba, (The confidence is lost, because it was too much, he went too far. As what the others said) he crossed the line. And I believe so, that he crossed the line,” Lacson said in an interview over Radio DZBB.
“So yun nga dapat he should make amends…or sa kanya na ‘yun, pero dapat ipahayag na niya ito, after all siya naman ang lider ng bansa (So he should make amends…but it’s up to him. But he should do so, after all he is the leader of this country),” the senator said.
Lacson also said the President’s statements against God are reinforcing the belief that his policies and orders to policemen, especially on the campaign against illegal drugs, is such because of his twisted understanding of the Holy One.
But even though he does not agree with the President on his statements against God, the senator said he still supports Duterte for the “sake of the country.”
“I continue to support him kasi alang-alang na rin sa bansa natin (for the sake of our country),” he said.
Lacson reiterated Duterte’s statements on God cannot just be ignored as any pronouncement coming from the President as they mirror his policies and the direction of the government.
“Once you become president, you become the president of the whole country and not just the 16 million Filipinos who voted for you,” he pointed out.
No clinging to power
President Duterte has no ambition to cling to power and will not support any bill or Charter amendment to extend his six-year term, according to a Palace official.
Instead, the President is committed to build on the administration gains in the campaign in addressing corruption and poverty as he marked his second year in office, said his assistant Christopher Go.
“We don’t have ambitions of clinging to power, neither will we push for laws that would result to such,” Go said in a statement.
“The President will always want a clean and graft-free government and he has proven this many times by firing officials he appointed,” he added.
Former Chief Justice Reynato Puno, head of a committee tasked to review the amendments to the Constitution, earlier proposed that President Duterte will lead a 10member transition commission as the nation prepares for a shift to a federal government by 2022.
Under the proposal, the commission will formulate and adopt a transition plan for the shift to the new federal system of government based on the new Constitution.
It will also organize and establish the federal government and the governments of the federated regions. The transition period will take place from 2019 to 2022.