MANILA, Philippines — A sober President Duterte on Thursday vowed to be quiet for now on his tiff with the Catholic Church as he insisted that he has a "deep and abiding faith" in God.
Alluding to the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible, Duterte said there is a time for everything, including a time to talk, a time to be proper and a time to be a s***.
"I said there is time to talk I will not...shut up na ako. I just shaked the tree," the president said during a gathering of vice mayors in Bohol.
"There will be a time to speak and I will, maybe in the coming days and for now I will just keep my silence for I want to see how the nation reacts," he added.
Duterte, a Roman Catholic, has been receiving blistering criticism over his remark that God may have been stupid for allowing temptation to destroy his Creation. Some critics even questioned Dutetre's faith and asked him to apologize for disrespecting Christianity.
But Duterte, who has chided the Catholic Church for its supposed failure to resolve the sex abuses involving priests, insisted that he believes in God.
"I have this deep and abiding faith in God," he said.
"My God is forgiving." — Alexis Romero with a report from Job Manahan