Philippine president questions God’s existence

Oct 07, 2016

By Joe Torres
Even God has not escaped the diatribes of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte (pic) who has cursed the Pope for causing traffic in Manila during his trip to the country in 2015.

Duterte questioned the existence of God while defending his proposed revival of the death penalty in the predominantly Catholic country.

“So, where is ... God when a one-year old baby … is taken from the mother’s arms brought under a jeep and raped and killed. So where is God?” said the president.

Duterte was referring to a murder in August in Manila that shocked the nation.

He also cited atrocities against women and children in Syria and the killings committed by the so-called Islamic State in other parts of the world.

“So where is God? My God, where are you? I believe in God but that is my perpetual question to him. Where were you when we needed you?” said Duterte.

The president lamented that Filipinos no longer observe the law because they are not afraid. He said the death penalty, even before it was abolished, was never imposed because Catholics opposed it by raising the issue of morality.

“I can simply say the death penalty was not effective because it was not imposed,” said Duterte.

“Every president along the way would say: ‘it was because of the Catholic Church’ and ‘because only God can kill’. The problem is, I ask you, what if there’s no God?” he said.
Duterte said it is not enough to say God will come to judge the living and the dead in the midst of “heartaches, sorrow, and agony … inflicted in this world”.

A Catholic priest said Duterte questioning God’s existence was “hypothetical”.

“(He) tries to subliminally convince us that his plans are the best for the country,” said Fr Jerome Secillano of the public affairs office of the bishops’ conference.

The priest said Duterte “implicitly justifies” his intention to govern based on his own rules and designs.

“What if there is a God?” asked Fr Secillano. “Would Mr Duterte be humble enough to realize that we should play our roles based on some established designs that previously existed even before he becomes president?”

Several Philippine Catholic Church leaders have attacked Duterte’s plan to revive the death penalty.

“Only God has power over life. God gives life and God takes life. No one should play God,” said Bishop Ruperto Santos of Balanga.

The prelate, who heads the Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, said life is sacred and should be “promoted, respected, and protected”.
Duterte, however, maintained that reviving capital punishment would instill fear among criminals.

The Philippines placed a moratorium on capital punishment in 2001 and five years later downgraded the sentences of 1,230 death-row inmates to life imprisonment in what Amnesty International described as the “largest ever commutation of death sentences.”--Global Pulse Magazine