Duterte: I will just keep my silence

President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday dropped his incendiary rhetoric against the Catholic Church following his move to mend ties with the influential religious institution.

Duterte took a page from the Bible to explain his decision to keep his silence.

"If there is a page in the Bible which I read almost everyday it's the Ecclesiastes 3. For every season there's always a time under the sun. There's a time to be calm. There's a time to be silent. There's a time to be poignant, a time to be subdued and a time to be vicious. Ganun talaga ang buhay," the President in a speech before a gathering of vice mayors in Panglao, Bohol.

"There would be a time to speak and I will, maybe in the coming days. And for now I will just keep my silence for I want to see how the nation reacts," he added.

The President later told reporters that he is keeping his silence "on all" controversies, "particularly in my rift against the Catholic Church."

Duterte never spoke ill of the Catholic Church during the entire speech, a departure from his previous public addresses where he brought up supposed misdeeds of clergymen in response to the Church's criticism of the war on drugs and killings of priests.

"Sabi dito, 'Mr. President, we are live on TV and on Facebook. Huwag kang magmura. Huwag kang maghanap ng away sa mga pari,'" Duterte quipped at the start of his speech.

Duterte said that he was testing the "limits of everything."

"If you would notice me every now and then, either national or local, ginugulo ko talaga ‘yung puno. It could be quiet and there’s something dark, there’s something bright; and there’s something sinister," he said.

Duterte earlier invoked a freedom to choose whether or not to believe in a God.

He also said that he believed in a “universal being.”

"I have a God. My concept of God is according to my values. My God is my God but I have this deep and abiding faith in God," he said.

Duterte created a four-man committee to talk to the Catholic Church and other Christian groups which have been offended by his remarks on June 22 when he called God "stupid" and slammed the concept of original sin in the Bible.

The President, however, made it clear that he would not apologize for his statements. — RSJ, GMA News