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President Rodrigo Duterte has claimed that former Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle was removed from his post and is being investigated for his alleged politicking.

Duterte made the statement during the 2020 General Assembly of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines in Pasay City on Tuesday night.

Currently, Duterte said Manila has no bishop because the diocese used its money by "contributing to the yellow," referring to the opposition politicians.

"We don't have the bishop now...he (Tagle) was removed. We were only given a caretaker who is a priest. No bishop in Manila," the President said.

He claimed that Pope Francis became angry because Tagle "meddled in politics."

"That's the truth. That's why we were only given an officer-in-charge. We don't have a bishop. Tagle was out. He was investigated. That's the open secret there," he added.

Tagle went to Vatican last month after his appointment as prefect of the Congregation fot Evangelization of Peoples.

The Pope appointed Bishop Broderick Pabillo as the "Apostolic Administrator" of the Manila archdiocese while there is no permanent bishop. Pabillo is a known critics of the Duterte administration. Celerina Monte/DMS