Around 500 Filipinos attended the Mass for peace and justice at EDSA Shrine, packing the 300-seater church and wearing peach ribbons to symbolise support for the impeachment.
The shrine was built on the site of the bloodless revolt that ousted the late dictator Ferdinand E Marcos, the incumbent president’s father, in 1986.
The chief celebrant Fr Flavie Villanueva SVD was one of the priests who filed impeachment complaints against Duterte in Congress.
A former drug addict, Villanueva was one of the staunchest critics of the drug war that killed thousands during the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte, the vice president’s father.
Reflecting on the day’s Gospel passage about Jesus healing a leper, Villanueva prayed that God may eradicate and heal the country’s “leprosy”.
The homilist, Fr Angelito Cortez OFM, said impeachment was a “moral obligation” that has led many Catholic priests to take a stand. “Stay with us. Do not abandon us,” Cortez appealed.
Two of the three impeachment complaints against Duterte, 46, involve at least 10 Catholic priests and two religious sisters.
The push for Duterte’s impeachment has come amid growing tensions between her and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, her former ally. The feud has led to deeper political divisions involving religious leaders in the Philippines.
Three days before the Mass for peace at EDSA Shrine, around 1.58 million members of the Filipino Protestant church Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) gathered at Quirino Grandstand to oppose Duterte’s impeachment.
The INC, the biggest and most influential Christian denomination in the Philippines after the Catholic Church, endorsed the Marcos-Duterte ticket in the 2022 elections.
The Catholic Church, on the other hand, has long been critical of the Marcos and the Duterte families.
It was an Archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Jaime Sin, who helped mount the 1986 revolt that ousted the late dictator Marcos. In 2022, more than 1,000 Catholic clergy, including 11 bishops, supported Marcos Jr’s closest rival, Leni Robredo.
Catholic priests planned to increase their protests against Marcos and Duterte, with a massive rally at the EDSA Shrine on 31 January to protest against the Marcos-approved national budget, as well as to push for Duterte’s impeachment.
When asked if Catholics are trying to match the INC’s numbers, Villanueva told reporters: “The Catholic Church is much bigger than the INC, so we do not need to match them.” His answer was met by applause from the Catholic audience.
The Archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan Socrates Villegas, a former private secretary to Cardinal Sin, said the 2025 national budget is a “grave social matter” that has compromised social services.
“In the name of God, do what is right and just!” he told the nation’s leaders. “In the name of God, resist the culture of corruption and graft!”