Fr. Aquino: Palace claim of Church 'plotters' not conducive to dialogue

MANILA, Philippines — A Catholic priest and university administrator has urged Malacañang to not drag the clergy into a supposed plot against President Rodrigo Duterte.

Fr. Ranhilio Aquino, Cagayan State University vice president and dean of the San Beda Graduate School of Law, said in a radio interview with Radyo Veritas: “If the government wants sincere dialogue with the Church, then [it] should stop that. Characterizing the church as a participant, if not the leader, in the destabilization plot will not prosper dialogue at all.”

Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo on Tuesday called on presidential spokesman Harry Roque to identify leaders of the Catholic Church allegedly plotting to destabilize the government.

READ: Bishop to Roque: Name Church leaders behind destab plot vs Duterte

Pabillo’s statement came on the heels of Roque’s claim that some members of the Catholic Church could back an ouster plot against President Rodrigo Duterte since their preferred candidate—whom he did not name—lost in the elections.

The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines did not endorse a particular presidential candidate in 2016, but reminded Catholics to "cast their votes as an act not only of citizenship but also as a public declaration of faith."

Roque said "it's not far-fetched that some of them will join the CPP-NPA to oust President Duterte."

The Catholic Church has a worldwide history of anti-communism and in its Catechism of the Catholic Church, a compilation of Catholic beliefs, holds that it "has rejected the totalitarian and atheistic ideologies associated in modem times with 'communism' or 'socialism.'"

The palace mouthpiece’s accusation came following the exchange of tirades between Duterte and religious leaders over the chief executive’s remark that God is “stupid.”

On Tuesday, the Malacañang called for a halt to the exchange of hostilities between Duterte and the Catholic Church leaders.

This call for ceasefire came a week before a schedulaed dialogue between the president and Davao Archbishop Romulo Valles, the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines on July 9.

“People should come to the negotiating table with open hearts and open hands,” Aquino said.

Aquino is one of the members of the consultative committee for charter change. – Kristine Joy Patag