President Rodrigo Duterte guested on preacher Apollo Quiboloy’s television show “Give Us This Day” on Tuesday, for the second time in as many months.

Duterte himself offered the reason he preferred interviews with Quiboloy on the latter’s Sonshine Media Network International.

“There’s one thing that you may have noticed, pastor, I do not give interviews using other facilities private or – not even the government-owned TV, seldom if at all,” the president said.

“I like it here because I – God is so near and I tend to control my mouth and out of respect to you and the public. It seems that there is such an aura of holiness in this hall and I count numbers before I make some epithets, curses and all,” he said.

Mas behave ako dito (I am more behaved here).”

Quiboloy, a close friend of the president and a major campaign donor, is the head of the “Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name” sect based in Duterte’s home city Davao.

The controversial Quiboloy, who calls himself the “Appointed Son of God,” was briefly detained in Honolulu last year after federal agents found $350,000 in cash and firearms in his private jet, which was barred by authorities from leaving.

Duterte said Quiboloy could testify that he was “religious,” even as he had quarreled with Catholic clergymen.

“I am a deeply religious person, sa totoo lang (truly). And my guiding life, alam ni pastor ‘yan (the pastor knows this), is the Bible. And if you can memorize by heart and understand Ecclesiastes 3, you can face any problem. You might not be able to solve it but you can understand why,” Duterte said. (PressONE.ph)