The clash between the Philippines’ new president and the Catholic Church intensified this week after Rodrigo Duterte declared that he wanted to impose a “three-child policy”. The bishops had criticised Mr Duterte, a former city mayor, during a campaign in which he joked about rape and pledged to bring back the death penalty for crimes including car theft. But after his decisive victory in the election – gaining six million votes more than his nearest rival – Mr Duterte taunted the bishops, saying: “Look, were you able to stop me?” He went on to call the Church “the most hypocritical institution”, accusing it of serial corruption. “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,” Mr Duterte said. “Aren’t you ashamed of yourselves?” Mr Duterte said he would spend the next month drawing attention to “the sins of the Catholic Church and whether or not you are still relevant”, but that after his inauguration on June 30 he would be less outspoken. Mr Duterte did not explain how a “three-child policy” would work. As mayor of Davao he implemented family planning programmes, giving cash rewards to citizens who underwent sterilisation. The bishops’ conference has spoken out against the death penalty. Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the bishops’ conference, said he will seek a meeting with Mr Duterte on the subject. Archbishop Ramón Cabrera Argüelles of Lipa said he would “volunteer to be executed in the place of all those the government will hang”, if Mr Duterte does introduce the death penalty.