Presidential Spokesman and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo. (RTVM)

Recent remarks of President Rodrigo Duterte about the Catholic faith were meant to shake long-held religious tenets and beliefs and not to attack the religion nor God, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said yesterday.

Mr. Duterte’s remarks against the Catholic Church were meant to initiate an “intellectual discussion” for the faithful’s enlightenment, Panelo added.

The Palace official made the statement after the President, in a speech in Kidapawan City last Saturday, asked clergymen to stop criticizing his drug war anew while pointing out that they too had their own share of wrongdoings.

The President unleashed a barrage of verbal attacks against the Catholic Church, this time taking aim at the faithful’s belief in the Holy Trinity, where God is present in three holy entities: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He called the religious concept “silly.”

“The latest controversial remarks of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte on the Church are his way of giving his voice on beliefs that, instead of molding the faithful into being righteous individuals, make them cling to religion as an opium,” Panelo said.

In doing so, the President “puts to a test the validity of the religious rituals bordering (on) fanaticism as against the practice of genuine spirituality,” he added.

The Palace official said Mr. Duterte’s calling out the Church anew was not meant to mock the Christian faith, but was more of “putting it to a test.”

Instead of taking offense, Filipino Catholics should take it as an opportunity to “strengthen their faith,” according to Panelo.

“Rather than the Church and its believers being offended by such unorthodox narratives, they should welcome it as a process to strengthen further their faith or enlighten those who seek the truth of what they have embraced,” he furthered.

Mr. Duterte also claimed that countries highly influenced by religion failed to prosper and even threatened to continue his “attack” on the Church if it will not cease in using “the platform of religion” to criticize him.

The spokesman also justified Mr. Duterte’s “creative” means of expressing his thoughts as part of his right to free speech just like everyone else.

“The President at the same time sets the limits of the freedom of expression to a notch higher than its common use,” Panelo said.

“In fulfilling his constitutional duty to serve and to protect the people, the President endeavors to be creative, using means that may be unnerving to the conservatives unused to his ways of governance but effective in putting across the message he wants to convey to the majority of the people who, surveys show, approve of his maverick methods,” he added.