EDITORIAL:
A rift is widening between Duterte supporters maintaining their unqualified support for the president and those who increasingly question EJK “justice” and mourn the deaths of excons who surrendered to the police but were still killed in cold blood; those who perished due to mistaken identity; and the innocent, including children and minors, who ended up as collateral damage in Tokhang operations and vigilante liquidations.
Festivals, in celebrating the spiritual and the secular, shape not just the way people worship and exult but what they also think and value. In this predominantly Catholic country, a fiesta that marks the feast of a saint or event of religious significance provides an unparalleled opportunity to evangelize devotees and involve them in advocacies deciding their future.
Thus, it is no wonder that two recent fiestas—the Feasts of the Black Nazarene in Manila and the Señor Sto. Niño in Cebu—elevated extrajudicial killings (EJK) to join traditional personal petitions and church advocacies promoting the family and the ecology to be at the center of devotees’ prayers and practice.
Along with civil society, the church faces the challenge of translating the attention of a captive audience of thousands into concrete engagement with and protection of the rights of EJK victims, ex-addicts, drug dependents, and their families. “Stop the killings” The human cost of the drug war left an indelible stamp during the “traslacion (procession)” of the Black Nazarene in Manila last Jan. 9.
Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle warned the faithful against being judgmental of others and killing a person in his homily during the Jan. 8 midnight mass at the Quirino Grandstand.
For supporters of President Rodrigo Duterte, Tagle’s pronouncements may be viewed as the latest attempt of church leaders to meddle in political affairs and manipulate a religious celebration to push a church agenda.
However, based on media interviews with Nazarene devotees, a rift is widening between Duterte supporters maintaining their unqualified support for the president and those who increasingly question EJK “justice” and mourn the deaths of ex-cons who surrendered to the police but were still killed in cold blood; those who perished due to mistaken identity; and the innocent, including children and minors, who ended up as collateral damage in Tokhang operations and vigilante liquidations.
Perhaps this separates this advocacy against EJK from other contemporary causes of the church. Unlike the necessity of pushing the ecological agenda through the exhortations and examples of church leaders, the prominence of the message, “Stop the killings,” emanates not just from the pulpit but also from the people’s personal victimization at the hands of an arbitrary and dubious human justice.
It is crucial that President Duterte listens to the cries rising from Filipinos suffering from the deaths of loved ones and shaken to the core that human life should be treated with so little regard for its sacredness.
Mr. President, the EJK killings precariously threaten the hopes buoying many Filipinos that the Duterte presidency will bring about changes for a better life and a secure future. You may choose not to heed your critics, but will you be deaf and blind to the people you have sworn to serve? Mercy and charity Yet, the War on Drugs’ miasma of despondency and hopelessness tests not just the political leadership but also the church, a term encompassing the faithful, laity, clergy and other religious.
It is the church’s mission to translate messages into action. Respect for the sanctity of human life means not just rejecting the EJK killings but also in not profiting from the exposé and killing of an addict or pusher.
Respect for human life demands that civil society assists the government and other stakeholders in the gargantuan, complex challenge of rehabilitating drug dependents and assisting them to move on, drug-free.
Valuing human life, Filipinos must contribute in any way—as parents, as teachers, as guardians, as teens—to the harder task of bringing back to life those yearning to be free from drug dependence, condemnation, and judgment.