Manila: The Philippines’ president-elect Rodrigo Duterte has blasted the country’s dominant Catholic Church as “the most hypocritical institution” and accused some bishops of corruption.

The 71-year-old leader also alleged that some bishops had asked favors from politicians, including him. Decrying the Catholic Church as the country’s “most hypocritical institution” Duterte said on May 22 that he was ready to take on senior Filipino bishops to debate their wrongdoings before he takes office next month, report agencies.

The tough-talking politician has yet to be proclaimed the May 9 poll winner, but an unofficial vote count by an election commission-accredited watchdog showed a huge lead over his rivals, three of whom conceded defeat. He is due to take office on June 30.

Duterte’s often outrageous comments and no-nonsense approach have won him huge support and his tirades about killing criminals and even a joke about a murdered rape victim, appear not to have dented his popularity.

“I will lecture until June 29 the sins of the Catholic Church and whether or not you are still relevant,” Duterte told reporters in Davao City, where he is the incumbent mayor.

“The most hypocritical institution is the Catholic Church.”

At the news conference he questioned the relevance of Catholic bishops, citing his overwhelming victory in the election despite efforts by bishops to persuade Filipinos not to vote for him.

Such harsh public condemnation of the influential Church and its bishops by a top politician is rare in the Philippines, Asia’s bastion of Catholicism.

More than 86 percent of the Philippines’s 102 million people are Catholics, making it the third largest Catholic country in the world after Brazil and Mexico.

Relationship between the Catholic Church and the incoming president is headed for a thorny relationship. Duterte shocked bishops in November when he cursed Pope Francis for sparking a traffic jam that trapped him for hours during a visit to Manila.

Duterte apologized after bishops denounced his action.

During the campaign, Duterte said he warned Catholics they may go to hell if they voted for him because bishops have criticized him as immoral partly for advocating the killing of criminals. Millions of Filipinos, however, voted for him in the election, which he said served like a referendum.

“Look, were you able to stop me?” Duterte asked, citing his lead of more than 6 million votes over his closest rival.

The foul-mouthed mayor then turned to the bishops, accusing some of them of violating their vow of celibacy by getting married or keeping women and seeking favors like cars from politicians. Once, he said without elaborating, some church officials forced him to take steps as a mayor so they could obtain a real estate property in a residential enclave.

Those acts amounted to corruption and violated the Philippine constitutional edict of separation of church and state, according to Duterte, who is known for his vulgarity, sex jokes and devil-may-care irreverence.

“Some people here in the Philippines can’t even afford to have food to eat or get medicine while you’re enjoying the money of the goddamn people,” Duterte said. “Aren’t you ashamed of yourselves, you sons of bitches?”

Church officials were not immediately available for comment.

They have, however, criticized Duterte for cursing Pope Francis, his public vows to kill criminals, his publicly acknowledged adultery and vulgarity.

Archbishop Socrates Villegas, who heads the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, said killing people, adultery and vulgarity were all forms of corruption and asked if Duterte deserved the term “honorable” after he cursed the Pope, which sparked laughter among the mayor’s followers.

“When a revered and loved and admired man like Pope Francis is cursed by a political candidate and the audience laughs, I can only bow my head and grieve in great shame,” Archbishop Villegas said last year. “My countrymen have gone to the dregs.”

Last month, after Duterte joked about wanting to be the first in line to rape an Australian missionary who was gang raped and killed by inmates in a 1989 Davao jail riot, the archbishop shared a link of Duterte’s videotaped remarks on his Twitter account. He wrote, “Judge for yourself if this is the right choice. … This video can help.”

Duterte has also openly called for the use of contraceptives, which the Catholic Church staunchly opposes, offering cash to Davao city residents who agree to undergo ligation and vasectomy.

A video recording of Duterte’s comments was carried on several news outlets and posted on the website of ABS-CBN, the country’s biggest broadcaster.

His platform of crushing crime, corruption and drug abuse has won him big support, but his intention to re-impose a death penalty that was repealed in 2006 is expected to be opposed by the church.

A week ago Duterte said killers should get death sentences and those who committed murder and rape together should be hanged.