The Philippines is an overwhelmingly Catholic country, with about 90 percent of the population identifying as Catholics.
But that hasn’t stopped President Rodrigo Duterte from repeatedly taking aim at the Catholic Church. On Wednesday, news reports quoted Duterte — who is known for his incendiary remarks — as saying: “These bishops that you guys have, kill them. They are useless fools. All they do is criticize.”
The Catholic Church has emerged as a vocal critic of Duterte’s war on drugs, which has resulted in thousands of deaths since 2016. And in the past year, three Catholic priests have been killed in the Philippines.