Abella says bishop's comment on drug war irked Duterte

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte gestures during a speech after leading a mass oath-taking of newly promoted officials of the Philippine National Police (PNP) at the Malacanang presidential palace in Metro Manila, Philippines January 19, 2017. Romeo Ranoco, Reuters

MANILA - Malacanang is now seeking a dialogue with Church authorities, days after President Rodrigo Duterte lambasted Catholic officials for criticizing his war on drugs.

Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said it will be better if Malacanang and Church officials will get together to solve the country's ills.

"Basically, let’s go beyond the batikos (criticisms). Let’s try to reach out to one another and have a real dialogue and real conversation. Let’s try to go beyond this. The Church comes from the aspect of humility and knows how to deal with secular, and knows how to deal with powers that be," he said in an interview with radio dzMM.

"I would encourage the good bishops to have a dialogue. Mag-usap po tayo (Let's talk)," he added.

Abella said Duterte's recent tirades against the Catholic Church was just triggered by a comment by a bishop regarding his administration's war on drugs.

Asked if the President would be willing to speak with the clergy, the former pastor from Davao simply quoted a Filipino saying: “Walang matigas na tinapay sa mainit na kape."

He cited tycoons who were initially apprehensive having dinner with Duterte, but according to presidential consultant for entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion, "they left the place really extremely happy."

"I’m not speaking [for the President], but we can all try. If we don’t try, we lose,” said Abella, adding that he is willing to act as an emissary.

BACANI'S COMMENTS BRISTLED DUTERTE

Abella revealed that it was the comment of retired Bishop Teodoro Bacani regarding the drug war and the Philippine National Police that drew Duterte's ire.

"I traced back the root of this recent response of the President, and apparently, it was triggered by a comment by Bishop Bacani on January 18 when he criticized the PNP and he denounced the anti-drug campaign as a bringer of death," he said.

"He apparently also commented that ‘what kind of police force do we have that cannot catch the killers of 4,000 people?'," he added.

Duterte in a speech Thursday slammed the Catholic Church, calling priests corrupt and even bringing up allegations of child molestation against members of the clergy.

But Abella asserted, in his opinion, Duterte's remarks should not be read as him being anti-Catholic, but him "addressing a situation where people seem to be highly moral and speak [sic] as if having moral ascendancy when actually, we could actually be working on all of these together."

"Where I’m coming from and this is not policy, in a sense I am giving my opinion, but what the President is really expecting is not an adversarial approach," he said.

"The President is quite open to listening to other opinions, pero siguro what triggered him is the fact that it seemed to him perhaps that the comment was coming from a moral high horse na pare-pareho naman tayong may mga pagkukulang," he added.

Abella said that while different stakeholders can be critical of one another, it should not come from "a place of moral ascendancy and moral high horse na parang sinasabi kayo masama, kami hindi."

"Kumbaga, if we could be more collegial, and I really believe that we can all build together, build together a nation that is worthy of the Filipino and Filipinos that are worthy of the nation," he said.