MANILA — Senator Panfilo Lacson on Wednesday welcomed President Rodrigo Duterte’s apology to God, saying the people can now move on while praying for the President’s “continued enlightenment.”
“I can only thank God for enlightening our president to make that humble apology. It shouldn’t matter much if it was my God or his God he is apologizing to, because there is only one God of the universe anyway,” Lacson said in a statement sent to media.
Lacson said with the apology, “firm God believers” like him, who support Duterte’s presidency, can now get over the dilemma on whether or not to continue supporting his leadership.
He also said Duterte’s apology to God also showed the President’s real character.
“It takes courage and character for a man to openly accept his mistake and apologize. This was how I knew the President in the many times that I was dealing with him when he was still mayor of Davao City,” he said.
“I am glad that at the end of the day, he is still how I’ve known him,” Lacson said.
Duterte issued his apology to God during a dinner meeting with Jesus Is Lord Church Worldwide (JILCW) founder Bro. Eddie Villanueva at the Malago Clubhouse in Malacañang Park on Tuesday night.
“Sorry, God. I said sorry God. If God is taken in a generic term by everybody listening, then that’s well and good,” Duterte said in a video posted by the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) on its Facebook page.
The President maintained that his detractors could criticize anything in his government, but they should “never, never use the name of God as a front to attack government.”
“I only apologize to God, nobody else. If I wronged God, he would be happy to listen to my apology. Why? Because my God is all forgiving. Why? Because God created me to be good and not bad,” Duterte said. (Jose Cielito Reganit/PNA)
