President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte spoke out against transgenders and same-sex marriage in a speech in Myanmar on Sunday

“There is the civil code, which states you can only marry a woman for me, and for a woman to marry a man. That’s the law in the Philippines,” he said gathered members of the Filipino community in Myanmar.

He said that although he had gay brother-in-laws and cousins he stressed “Wherever God has placed you, stay there” and said that no one had the power to “erase the great divide between a woman and a man.”

Mr. Duterte presented the country as Asia’s bastion of Roman Catholicism, a religion that steadfastly opposes same-sex marriage.

In reference to a copy of TIME magazine featuring transgender issues he said:

“There's no gender, because you can be or she... that's their culture. That's only for them. That can't be applied to us, we're Catholics. And there is the Civil Code, which is you can only marry a woman for me, and for woman to marry a man. That's the law in the Philippines”

These latest statements are at odds with comments made during his 2016 campaign in which he said “the gays were created by God.”