“I know Pastor Quiboloy for the longest time,” he said, adding that their friendship dates back to the 1980s when Quiboloy was still a pastor of a chapel in Agdao and he was still a prosecutor having his guns fixed near the chapel.

Duterte said he saw Quiboloy’s rise from pastor of a chapel to having his own huge flock here and abroad and that he has been to places outside the country where Quiboloy has properties.

But he is a “gentle person,” Duterte stressed, adding he cannot believe that the Pastor, who would by now have billions of pesos to his name, would “risk his honor and privilege just for a measly two hectares of land.”

“Let me lay the predicate. Do not misconstrue my statement, my declaration.

I am not saying this was practiced in Manuel Guiangga,” Duterte said, as he narrated a history of how the killings in Cotabato and Davao during the days of the Ilaga (paramilitary elements) started.

“Yuta,” (Land), he said.

“Naay mga tawo diha sa bukid nga ibaligya nila ang yuta. Pagkahuman nakitan nila nag sprout na tanum naa na nitubo, productive na, mubalik na para kuhaon kay ang igsoon daw angnagbaligya… ” (There are people in the mountains who sell their land but when the plants start to sprout and the land now becomes productive, they return and claim it was their brother who sold that land, etc…).

He did not name those who sold the lands and want them back

“I did not say this happened in Guiangga,” he said, although he acknowledged this was “kasagaran” (usual).

“It would do well for every team to go there, to live in the environment there, start to investigate, find out what the truth is. Kanang patay (The killing), there has to be many strong reasons, very powerful motive for another person to kill.

”

“Pastor Quiboloy would risk his honor and prestige for a measly two hectares?” he asked.

He said the public should wait for the investigating bodies to submit their reports.

He urged sectors not to point accusing fingers at the other.[]