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MANILA, Philippines – President Rodrigo Duterte mocked the Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity, calling it “silly” on Saturday, December 29. In a speech in Kidapawan City, Cotabato, the President attacked the doctrine of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit as he once again went into a tirade against priests and the Catholic Church. "You’re already praying at one God, then you’re going to pray at these cursed saints. There’s only one God. There’s only one God, period. You cannot divide God into 3, that’s silly,” said the President. Before attacking the Holy Trinity doctrine,...

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 5) — The President again lashed out at Catholic bishops and called them useless for criticizing his administration. "Itong mga obispo ninyo, patayin ninyo. Walang silbi yang mga g***ng yan. All they do is criticize," President Rodrigo Duterte said in a speech at an event in Malacañang on Wednesday. [Translation: Your bishops, kill them. These b******s serve no purpose. All they do is criticize.] In a later speech during the awarding of the country's top overseas Filipino workers (OFW), Duterte said the Catholic Church was the most hypocritical institution, and that majority of priests are...

President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday expressed his sympathies to families who lost their loved ones during the onslaught of Typhoon Ompong. “I share the grief of those who lost loved ones,” Duterte said in a situation briefing on the effects of "Ompong" in Tuguegarao City. “Those we call in the unforeseen events, in insurance, this is an act of God. I don’t know how it can be an act of God but that is the term used by the insurance,” he added. Presidential Adviser on Political Affairs Francis Tolentino said at least 25 people died at the height of the...

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has rejected an offer by the US defence chief and other top American officials to buy F-16 fighter jets, saying such an acquisition would be “utterly useless” because his country needs lighter combat aircraft to fight insurgents. Duterte scoffed at the offer on Thursday, saying it had been floated in a letter by Defence Secretary James Mattis, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. The offer came after he was slammed by the US for his deadly crackdown on illegal drugs, he said.

President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday lashed out against the Catholic Church again, breaking his promise of not making anti-Church statements. In a speech in Malacañang, Duterte explained his own concept of what God is, as opposed to the belief of Catholics. “It’s only one God, God the Father. He’s not even the father. He's God, period,” he said. The President then asked if there was a bishop in the audience, before threatening to “kick his ass.” “Is there any bishop here? I want to kick your ass, and the priest,” Duterte asked, eliciting laughter from the audience composed of businessmen...

The American soldiers were eating breakfast in Balangiga’s town square when Filipino villagers, including men disguised in dresses, attacked them with bolo knives. Forty-eight Americans died. The year was 1901 and for the United States Army, the massacre in the central Philippines was the worst since Custer and his troops were slaughtered at the Battle of Little Bighorn, 25 years earlier. In retaliation, the United States commander ordered his forces to kill every male older than 10 and turn the central Philippines island of Samar into a “howling wilderness.” American troops killed civilians, burned houses and destroyed food supplies. They...

MANILA, Philippines – As he opened Mindanao's largest drug rehabilitation center, President Rodrigo Duterte said he has asked God to make sure victims of extrajudicial killings (EJKs) go to heaven. "You enjoy your human rights there in heaven kasi (because) God promised you that victims of EJKs go to heaven. 'Yan ang sabi ko sa Diyos (that's what I told God)," he said on Friday, August 3. He was giving a speech after unveiling the marker for the P500-million Northern Mindanao Wellness and Reintegration Center donated by a group of Chinese businessmen. The center is touted as proof that his...

THE government is investigating the source of the tarpaulins that suddenly appeared in several places in Manila proclaiming the Philippines as a Province of China. I don’t think this is a prank but that there are sectors in this country that want to call attention to the possibility that at the rate the Duterte government is handling the West Philippine Sea and Scarborough Shoal issues, this country will truly become a province of China. The idea of the Philippines as a Chinese province should not be seen as an impossibility. Even now the Chinese government is already engaged in clear...

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte sparked outrage last month when he called God "stupid" for allowing Adam and Eve to sin in the Garden of Eden. In a speech, the president asked, "Who is this stupid God? You created something perfect and then you think of an event that would destroy the quality of your work. How can you rationalize that God? How can you believe him? So now we're all born with an original sin. Even in the womb, we already have sin. What kind of religion is that?" Now, Duterte is apologizing for his rant. Local media reports Duterte...

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine president, who recently sparked outrage for calling God stupid, has courted new controversy in his largely Roman Catholic country by saying he will resign if anybody can prove that God exists. President Rodrigo Duterte, who has had a thorny relationship with the church, questioned anew in a speech late Friday some of the basic tenets of the Catholic faith, including the concept of original sin, which he said taints even innocent infants and can only be removed through baptism in a church for a fee. “Where is the logic of God there?” Duterte asked in...

After ranting about the Catholic Church, the President of the Philippines now has a beef with the concept of 'original sin' in the Genesis creation story MANILA, Philippines – After recent tirades against priests and the Church's "hypocrisy," Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte cursed God and called God "stupid" for the concept of "original sin" in the Bible's creation story. Duterte, on Friday, June 22, began with retelling the story of Adam and Eve and how they ate the fruit from the forbidden tree and thus brought original sin upon humankind. "Kinain ni Adam (Adam ate it) then malice was born....

PAGBILAO, Quezon – President Duterte has expressed hope the newfound oil reserve in Cebu province could save the Filipino people from poverty. “I hope that we can tap more oil. And if we really have it in plenty, then maybe, just maybe in the fullest of God’s time we would have to, we will climb higher,” Duterte said in his speech during the inauguration of the 420-megawatt Pagbilao Unit 3 power project by TeaM Energy Corp. and Aboitiz Power Corp. held here Thursday afternoon. Duterte was referring to the Alegria Oil Field in Cebu, which he inaugurated on May 19....

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday said the temporary ban on Filipinos going to work in Kuwait is now permanent, intensifying a diplomatic standoff over the treatment of migrant workers in the Gulf nation. Mr Duterte in February imposed a prohibition on workers heading to Kuwait following the murder of a Filipina maid whose body was found stuffed in a freezer in the Gulf state. The crisis deepened after Kuwaiti authorities last week ordered Manila's envoy to leave the country over videos of Philippine embassy staff helping workers in Kuwait flee allegedly abusive employers. The two nations had been negotiating...

Philippines' Duterte orders female communist fighters shot in the genitals, reports say Feb. 14, 2018 Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte last week bragged that he had ordered troops to shoot female communist fighters in their vaginas, according to multiple reports, triggering a wave of criticism against the strongman when the remark was published Monday. “Tell the soldiers, ‘There’s a new order coming from the mayor,'” Duterte, a former mayor, told an audience of approximately 200 former rebels in Malacañang. “We won’t kill you. We will just shoot your vagina.’” “If there is no vagina, it would be useless,” Duterte added to...

Malacañang said President Duterte has earned the trust of United States (US) President Donald Trump after the White House announced it was pouring in $101.3 million (about P5.1 billion) to support the initiatives of the Duterte administration. In a statement issued Wednesday upon Trump’s return, the White House said the US government pledged the amount to support the rehabilitation of Marawi City, the country’s counter-terrorism efforts, and the administration’s drug war. According to the White House statement, of the $101.3 million, $14.3 million (P750 million) will be for the rehabilitation of Marawi City; $85 million for counter terrorism-related equipments, training...

President Rodrigo Duterte disclosed late Tuesday night that he did not bother to dignify Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s mention of extra judicial killings irritants and related human rights issues at the sidelines of the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit. President Duterte described the brief exchange with Trudeau as “a personal and official insult” to him. “I said that I will not explain. It angers me when you are a foreigner and you do not know exactly what is happening in this country,” the president explained during a press briefing after the ASEAN Summit ended. “You don’t...

U.S. President Donald J. Trump and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte met in Manila, Philippines on November 13, 2017, to discuss a broad range of shared interests and priorities. Both leaders praised the enduring United States-Philippines Alliance, built on a strong foundation of shared values, sacrifices, and history, and bolstered by common interests, people-to-people ties, and full respect for legal and diplomatic processes. They pledged to expand cooperation and reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening the bilateral alliance—a 70-year partnership that has stood the test of time and ensures both countries’ mutual security and contributes to regional peace, stability, and economic prosperity....

Trump and Duterte seem to have warmed to each other after meeting for the first time on Saturday at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group meeting in Vietnam. On Sunday, Duterte crooned hit Filipino love song “Ikaw” (You) at a gala dinner for summit leaders in Manila, saying it was on “the orders” of Trump. One of the song’s verses, translated from Filipino, begins: “You are the light in my world, a half of this heart of mine”. “Ladies and gentlemen, I sang uninvited, upon the orders of the commander in chief of the United States,” Duterte said later, according...

Months before Trump was elected, Rodrigo Duterte proved the strength of anti-establishment populism in the Philippines by taking the presidency in a campaign filled with black-and-white promises to wipe out crime by killing drug pushers. And when his administration did indeed start killing hundreds of suspected drug pushers and alleged addicts, US-Philippine relations – historically one of the strongest alliances in Asia – plummeted. At its lowest point, Duterte called former president Barack Obama a “son of a whore” for criticising his human rights record. For Trump, however, the Philippines is bringing out the red carpet.

When Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte sits down for his first face-to-face bilateral meeting with President Trump on Monday in Manila, he will come to the table with an unusual request. Duterte wants the United States to return war trophies seized more than 100 years ago: three historic church bells that were taken from the Philippine village of Balangiga after a bloody clash during the Philippine-American War. In 1899, fighting broke out between U.S. troops and Filipino nationalists after Spain ceded control of the Philippines to the U.S. following Spain's defeat in the Spanish-American War. The nationalists seized control of the...