Philippine president-elect rebukes Catholic Church

President-elect Rodrigo Duterte's popularity is facing an early test after he sharply criticised the Catholic Church and insisted he would allow the remains of dictator Ferdinand Marcos to be interred at a cemetery for war heroes.

Mr Duterte, nicknamed The Punisher for his tough approach to crime, has yet to be officially declared the winner of the May 9th election, but tallies show him six million votes ahead of his closest rival. He is due to assume office on June 30th.

After what looks like a landslide win, his recent remarks have oozed confidence.

He has set himself on a collision course with the powerful Catholic Church by saying he wants a limit of three children per family and calling some senior clerics “sons of whores” for enriching themselves at the expense of the poor.

And this week he said he would make good on an election promise to allow Marcos to be buried in a cemetery in Manila where some of the country's leaders are buried.

Marcos fled to Hawaii in 1986 after the People Power revolution that followed 20 years of dictatorship during which he and his family stole an estimated €9 billion from the public coffers. He died in 1989.

"That can be arranged immediately. I will allow Marcos's burial in Libingan ng Mga Bayani, not because he was a hero but because he was a Filipino soldier. Period," Mr Duterte said in Davao City.

Mr Duterte said he believed that allowing Marcos’s burial would initiate “healing” among the Filipino people.

Although many victims of human rights abuses under his rule and their families are sure to complain, Mr Duterte said: “The compensation is there. You can claim the money.”

Supported by Catholics

The People Power movement that ousted Marcos was supported by the Catholic Church. About 80 per cent of the Philippines’ 100 million inhabitants are Catholics, which is the highest percentage in

Asia

and the third largest concentration of Catholics in the world.

In a speech at the weekend, Mr Duterte described the Catholic Church as a “most hypocritical institution”, meddling in government policies, and accusing some bishops of benefiting from public funding while the poor could not afford food and medicine.

“You sons of whores, aren’t you ashamed? You ask so many favours, even from me. I can show you the letters,” Mr Duterte said in a TV interview. He described the election as a referendum between himself and the church.

“If I start to name the bishops who got married or have women in their lives, the Catholic Church will explode,” he said.

Mr Duterte won the election on a strong-arm platform in a campaign peppered with outrageous remarks, including an offensive rape remark in connection with a murdered Australian missionary, calling Pope Francis a "son of a bitch", and pledges to kill criminals and throw their bodies into the Bay of Manila.

Death penalty

Since his win, he has said he wants to reintroduce the death penalty, something opposed by the church, and has said that repeat offenders should be hanged more than once. He has also espoused the legalisation of divorce and the distribution of contraception, but his remarks do not seem to have deterred Catholic voters.

He also looks set for friction over the issue of family planning.

“I only want three children for every family,” Mr Duterte said on Sunday in Davao City, his southern city power base where he ruled as mayor for 22 years before his election as president this month.

According to the Enquirer newspaper, Mr Duterte attacked the church after he learned that a woman who lived in a squatter camp just across from his favourite bar, After Dark, had given birth to her 10th child.