Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. AP File Photo
DAVAO CITY — President Duterte on Tuesday said the US and the Catholic Church were only good at criticizing him but have actually never helped in so far as the war on drugs was concerned.
Duterte said the US was only good if the safety of its citizens were concerned, citing as example its invasion of Panama between mid-December 1989 and late January 1990 because the Noriega government was supposedly tolerating drugs.
“Panama was the original drug supplier of the US, not Mexico,” he said.
But Duterte said when it came to the Philippine drug problem – where four million Filipinos have fallen into drug addiction – the US has been short-sighted and has only been focusing on the so-called extrajudicial killings.
He said the Catholic Church has also been like that, always criticizing but not helping address the problem.
“Only good in collection,” he said as he mocked priests about collecting cash donations during mass.
The President then challenged priests to help in addressing the drug problem by preaching in drug-infested areas instead of just criticizing the government’s campaign.
Duterte also repeated his earlier denial that the killings were state-sponsored.
He said in police operations, pushers were getting killed because they had put up a fight.
“I have been telling you (authorities) are outgunned,” the President said in Visayan.
But he added that in the case of big-time pushers, they need not put up a fight anymore.
“I’ll just call a priest to administer the last rites,” Duterte said, adding that he could not tolerate drugs. SFM