Duterte, Catholic Church dislike each other — Roque

MANILA, Philippines — The Catholic Church should not be onion-skinned about President Rodrido Duterte's critical remarks as it had also issued scathing statements on the chief executive's actions before, a spokesman for the Philippine leader said on Wednesday.

Speaking on DZMM, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque admitted that Duterte and the Catholic Church had mutual dislike for one another as its leaders supported a different candidate during the 2016 elections.

Roque said that the Catholic Church should also be ready to receive criticisms since it had been slamming the president's words and actions in the two years that he had been in office.

"What I said let's not be onion-skinned. It's not possible for the Catholic Church to be the only one issuing criticisms and then when the president criticizes it seems they are unacceptable," Roque said in Filipino, pointing to the pastoral letters and statements of bishops against the chief executive.

"Just like what I said, let's be frank about this, both sides dislike each other. Let us just accept that the Catholic Church does not like President Duterte. Let's not be coy about it," Roque said.

The presidential spokesman, however, did not mention that Catholic Church's criticisms were directed at his policies and actions as the country's leader while the Duterte's recent remarks, which sparked widespread denunciation, insulted God by calling him "stupid" and questioned the logic behind Christian creation story.

He also questioned the Lord's Supper and falsely claimed that some saints were there.

In an effort to clarify his comments, Duterte said on Monday that he was calling the the God of Catholics "stupid" and not his God who he said had common sense.

Duterte, however, did not clarify who God he was worshipping.

Roque said that the recently-announced group who would hold a dialogue with the Catholic Church would try to look for avenues where the two sides could collaborate and work together.

Roque said that in fact the president and the Catholic Church agreed on many policy questions such as same-sex marriage and divorce.

In the case of the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches, which claims to be the largest network of denominations, churches, mission groups and para-church organizations in the country, it may have misconstrued the president's message that was contrary to a specific teaching of the Catholic Church, Roque said.

Duterte's spokesman also shot down suggestions for the president to apologize, saying no one could demand for the president to say sorry.

He said that critics could answer the president if they wished to.

Duterte's daughter herself, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, urged critics to ignore the chief executive's rants on the Bible as he was not a religious scholar.

"Please do not listen to him interpret the Bible or Quran, he is not a priest, a pastor or an imam. He is the president, listen only when he speaks about his work," she said in a statement on her social media account.

Carpio said that whatever the president said was only his opinion and was protected by the constitutional guarantees on freedom of speech and expression.