Duterte swears to God he’ll stop cursing

DAVAO CITY – No more cuss words or curses. It was a promise President Duterte said he made to God after reportedly hearing His voice on his flight back to the Philippines from Japan.

“I was looking at the skies as I was coming over here. And I... everybody was asleep snoring. A voice said that you know ‘If you don’t stop, I will bring this plane down now.’ And I said, who is this? Of course, it’s God. Oh, OK. So, I promised God not to express slang, cuss words,” the President said upon his arrival at the Davao City International Airport. The President was returning from Japan after a three-day state visit.

Duterte is known for lacing his public remarks with expletives and cuss words directed at his critics.

“You guys hear me right always because a promise to God is

a promise to the Filipino people,” the President said of what he called was a moment of epiphany.

At the airport, he asked the crowd not to clap too much or give him a rousing welcome as this might force him to break his promise. “Huwag masyadong palakpak,

baka mapalpak pa tuloy ( Don’t clap too much. It might ruin everything),” he quipped.

While professing belief in God, Duterte said he is not attached to any specific religion.

One of his favorite expressions is, “In the fullness of God’s time, In-Shallah.”

And one of his best reads is “Conversations with God” series by Neale Donald Walsch.

“Conversations with God” is in dialogue form – an imaginary question and answer exchange between Walsch and God.

But even a promise made to the Almighty can be set aside depending on circumstances, the President said.

“There is always a time, a time to be foul-mouthed. I don’t like anybody reading my mind. It’s all calibrated, it’s always timing,” he pointed out.

“Watch out for one thing, that’s what I’ve learned, miscalculation,” he said when asked if he would no longer rain expletives on the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and even Sen. Leila de Lima.

“There is always a time. Actually, kung kilala mo ako, magtanong ka sa mga

kababata ko. Matagal kaming magkasama (If you know me, ask my childhood friends). Superman, I can read your mind, ika nga (so to speak),” he said.

Meanwhile, Jesus is Lord chief pastor Eddie Villanueva said his prayer is for Duterte not to experience King Saul’s misfortune.

“My prayer is that our President may not experience what King Saul experienced,” Villanueva told reporters at JIL’s 38th anniversary celebration last night at the Quirino Grandstand. In the Bible, Saul became sinful and stubborn and lost his crown to David.

“Our present leadership – from the President, Vice President, senators, congressmen, and also the Supreme Court justices – should realize that their position of authority comes from God, and that it should be properly managed according to biblical and constitutional principles of leadership,” Villanueva said.

“They should realize that authority emanates from the people, and that public office is a public trust,” he said.