Duterte Claims Divine Guidance . . . and A Lethal Threat

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte seems to be on a campaign to prove to the world that he is demonstrably insane. In his latest news grabbing headline, Duterte claims God spoke to him during a flight from Japan on Thursday and warned him the plane would crash if he kept using bad language. That’s right. The Almighty will not kill Duterte for ordering the murdering of thousands of criminal suspects, but he would not only kill Duterte but everyone on his plane because he really, really, really does not like swearing.

You may recall that he called the Pope and U.S. President Barack Obama a “son of a bitch” and told Obama to “go to hell.” He has told diplomats raising human rights concerns “fuck you” twice to the European Union, while raising his middle finger.

In Tokyo on Tuesday, Duterte used the same language when speaking about his anger with foreign criticism of his drug war.

It was not the first time Duterte has spoken of his connection with God, whom he said had made him president.

Alan Peter Cayetano, Duterte’s vice-presidential running mate and now his foreign affairs adviser, said Duterte was tired and appeared pensive during the flight back from Japan.
Duterte describes the moment of divine truth: “I was looking at the skies while I was coming over here … everybody was asleep, snoring, but a voice said that, ‘you know, if you don’t stop epithets, I will bring this plane down now.’ . . And I said, ‘who is this?’ So, of course, it’s God. OK.”

That all makes perfect sense in Duterte’s world of course and he announced “So, I promise God … not to express slang, cuss words and everything.”