Palace calls bishop’s challenge to Duterte to walk without security ‘silly, absurd’
MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Wednesday hit back at a bishop’s challenge to President Rodrigo Duterte to roam the streets without bodyguards, calling it absurd and immature.
“The challenge of Novaliches Bishop Emeritus Teodoro Bacani Jr. to President Rodrigo Duterte to walk around without security not only is outright silly and childish but absurd as well,” presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said.
Bacani, who has been critical of the Duterte administration, issued his “friendly challenge” Tuesday few days after the supposed joke of the chief executive to rob and kill “rich” bishops.
“It’s simple. You know, we bishops walk around, we don’t have bodyguards, bullet-proof vests, we don’t have security aids or with big entourage or guns. We’re like that. My challenge to President Duterte, if he’s really brave, is simple: do what we do,” Bacani said in Filipino in an interview with Radio Veritas.
But Panelo said the chief executive does not need to prove his courage and even accused the retired bishop of making the statement to get publicity.
“PRRD would have loved to accept the challenge but security protocols are observed for his protection as president—a position carrying awesome responsibilities requiring him to attend to the problems of the nation. [It is] a position that the good bishop has never held and might never assume in his lifetime,” the president’s mouthpiece said.
He added: “The president does not have to prove anything about him being a courageous and selfless public servant. Such gutsy reputation precedes him and is one of the reasons which enthralled the Filipino masses who longed for a strong and decisive action man as their country’s top leader which they have not experienced with his predecessor.”
Panelo event went on to say that the then-Davao City mayor patrolled the city alone, disguised as a taxi driver, to go after criminals and that he examined the happenings around his turf while riding a motorcycle alone.
He also claimed that Duterte once substituted himself as a hostage during a hostage-taking incident for the release of the victims. “No person in this country has ever done offering his life in exchange for the freedom of a hostage victim.”
In June 2018, Duterte narrated how he offered himself to be taken hostage in exchange for the freedom of a three-month-old child and the child’s aunt during a hostage-taking at the detention center of the Davao Metropolitan District Command Center in 1989.
The same hostage-taking took center stage following his controversial statement about an Australian woman who was raped and slain.
“Napakaganda, dapat ang mayor ang nauna (she was very beautiful, the mayor should be the first in line),” he said in April 2016, ahead of the 2016 national elections.
“We thus ask the good bishop to be more judicious when it comes to oratories against the president, especially when it comes to challenging the latter in his element so as to avoid being embarrassed,” Panelo advised Bacani.
Panelo earlier called out Balanga, Bataan Bishop Ruperto Santos for his statement calling the presidency of Duterte a “disgrace to the country.”
“What is a disgrace is when a member of the clergy uses unsavory language against President Rodrigo Duterte who only fulfills and complies with his constitutional mandate to lead the government in serving the Filipinos and protecting them from what bedevils our society.”
Attacking the Catholic Church has become a part of almost every public speech of the acid-tongued chief executive. He has accused bishops of living opulent lifestyles, womanizing, corruption, among others.
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