Sen. Leila M. de Lima's Statement on Duterte's anti-religion rants as a desensitizing and diversionary scheme

Even as LGU officials continue to be assassinated, the latest being Vice Mayor Alex Lubigan of Trece Martires City, Duterte once again challenges the faithful to a debate on God's existence. For a President, Duterte's indifference to the killings and preoccupation with issues on religion is bizarrely stranger than fiction.

The people supposedly elected a President in 2016, not a barber shop pilosopo or a wannabe evangelist for a new religion.

But there might be method in his madness. Duterte is desensitizing us to the every day reality of continued EJKs and assassinations of LGU officials by shocking our senses with his anti-religious rants. He diverts our attention from the crises of peace and order and governance he has created by engaging in senseless and deeply offensive rants on religion.

This is a President whose most inner core is driven by manipulation and deception. He does not provide us leadership. He only gives us insecurity and doubts about our future as a nation.