Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO)
Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on Wednesday lashed out at bishops critical of President Rodrigo Duterte and his brutal war on drugs, saying the Church should clean up its ranks of pedophiles first.
Alvarez pointed to the Catholic Bishops鈥� Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) as being one of the sources of 鈥渘oise鈥� that could have pulled down the satisfaction and trust rating of the President, per the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey.
READ: SWS: Duterte鈥檚 net satisfaction rating down from 鈥榲ery good鈥� to 鈥榞ood鈥�
鈥淟ook at the CBCP. They squawk and squawk,鈥� the Speaker told reporters.
鈥淭hey should fix their priests first. They have many scandals. There are many pedophiles (among them). They should fix their ranks first. Why don鈥檛 they scold their own priests?鈥� Alvarez said.
The Speaker said it was possible that the questions asked of the SWS respondents might have been biased against the President.
鈥淟et us look at whether there is no slant here or if it is being used to say the trust in the President has gone down,鈥� Alvarez said.
鈥淔irst, what were the questions? Second, what areas were surveyed? In Mindanao, there was no decline. In fact, it went up one point. But it went down in the Visayas and Mindanao. So let us ask SWS, what are the areas and what questions were asked,鈥� he said.
Told that the SWS questions were uniform every survey period, Alvarez conceded he had not read the reports.
Alvarez also mistakenly attributed to SWS a statement that despite the fall in his popularity 鈥渢here is still love鈥� for the President.
READ: Abella: Despite fall in ratings, 鈥榣ove is still there鈥� for Duterte
He ranted that such a remark was unheard of coming from the pollster.
Told that the statement actually came from presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella, Alvarez joked: 鈥淲ell, for me, it鈥檚 hard to talk about love.鈥� /jpv