美国国家公共电台 NPR Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte Has A New Adversary — The Church

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The president of the Philippines has picked yet another fight. Rodrigo Duterte is the president who called for war against drug dealers¹, encouraged killings² and has even boasted of past killings himself. Now, he is fighting a venerated³ institution - the Catholic Church. Michael Sullivan has the story from Manila.

MICHAEL SULLIVAN, BYLINE⁴: The Philippines has more than a hundred million people. And more than 80 percent of them are Catholic. And the Roman Catholic Church, not a fan of the new president.

BRODERICK PABILLO: I think he's a danger. He's really causing a lot of harm to a lot of people.

SULLIVAN: Manila Auxiliary⁵ Bishop⁶ Broderick Pabillo says that's one reason the church decided⁷ to go all in against the extrajudicial killings wrought⁸ by Duterte's war in a pastoral letter last month read at sermons across the country, condemning⁹ what it called the reign¹⁰ of terror.

PABILLO: We are not declaring war on the war on drugs. We're declaring war on the killings, on the extrajudicial killings.

SULLIVAN: More than 7,500 people have been killed since Duterte took office in June. But criticizing Duterte about that war is like waving a cape¹¹ in front of a bull.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT RODRIGO DUTERTE: I challenge you now. I challenge the Catholic Church. You are full of [expletive], corruption¹² and all - hypocrisy¹³.

SULLIVAN: But the church has been a powerful player in Philippine politics and wants to hold onto that power as a self-perceived voice of the people. The question is can it succeed, especially against the man they call The Punisher?

UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR¹⁴: (Singing in foreign language).

SULLIVAN: It's 5 a.m. on a Sunday morning. And the sun's not yet up, but it's standing¹⁵ room only at Manila's Santo Nino de Tondo Church.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Over loudspeaker, foreign language spoken).

SULLIVAN: The church is in one of the city's most densely¹⁶ populated and poorest areas near Manila Bay. And the turnout for Bishop Pabillo's sermon is impressive. But the show of faith belies¹⁷ a larger truth - the church's political influence is on the wane¹⁸.

JAYEEL CORNELIO: That is true, Michael, that Filipino Catholics do not like it when priests use the pulpit for any political message.

SULLIVAN: Jayeel Cornelio is a sociologist¹⁹ of religion at the Ateneo of Manila University. He says today's Philippines isn't the same one where the church in the form of Cardinal²⁰ Jaime Sin helped bring down the dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

CORNELIO: Because at the time, Cardinal Sin was the antithesis²¹ to Ferdinand Marcos. The Catholic Church was the antithesis of the regime. Now the Catholic Church is not seen as that. I think more and more people would like to see the church fulfill²² its spiritual mandate²³ more than its political mandate.

SULLIVAN: And many Filipino Catholics, Cornelio says, want the church out of their bedrooms, too. The Philippines remains²⁴ one of the few countries in the world where divorce is illegal and access to birth control contested, despite a 2012 reproductive health law that was supposed to provide the poor free contraceptive services. But the church and other religious groups have vigorously opposed implementation²⁵ of that law. And that bugs²⁷ Duterte, too.

RICHARD HEYDARIAN: He's a person who has openly challenged the church in terms of interference in the affairs of the state.

SULLIVAN: Political analyst²⁸ Richard Heydarian says an executive order signed by Duterte in January is the most recent example.

HEYDARIAN: The Catholic Church was trying its best to sabotage²⁹ the government's effort to have a much more effective population management program. Now, Duterte comes in and essentially³⁰ tells them to, you know, bug²⁶ off. And he move ahead with the reproductive health policy without any concern as far as the backlash of the church.

SULLIVAN: And he doesn't care about any church backlash about his war on drugs, either. As Duterte and the church square off on this and other issues, polls show a majority of Filipinos siding with the president, even as the church struggles to reassert itself and stay relevant in an increasingly secular³¹ society. For NPR News, I'm Michael Sullivan in Manila.

(SOUNDBITE OF EDAMAME SONG, "THE SILVER LIVING")