Archbishop Du endorses Church, state dialogue
TACLOBAN CITY — Citing the continuing rise in the number of killings in the government's war on drugs, Palo Archbishop John Du underscored the need for a dialogue between the Catholic church and the state.
While affirming the stand of the Catholic Church against extrajudicial killing (EJK), Du said, in reference to the government, "We respect each other's ways and means but it is a matter of agreement."
Du said there is no need for the local church to come up with its own statement condemning the killings. "No need for statement, they (government) know what is the stand of the Catholic (church) and it is their own responsibility because the church and the state are not really to compete but are side-by-side."
In an unofficial media tally, a total of 3,509 persons were killed since President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs started on July 1. Of this number, 1,276 drug personalities died in police operations, as of September 29; and 2,233 were victims of extrajudicial or vigilante-style killings, as of September 27.
During the Senate probe on EJKs, PNP Chief Director General Ronald "Bato" de la Rosa disclosed that the actual figure–validated by the PNP Directorate for Operations–was only 1,105 as of last week.
The spate of killings whether in legitimate police operations or by unknown perpetrators has spurred concern from powerful foreign states such as the United States, the European Union, and the United Nations.
The Catholic Church, particularly in general terms the bishops, even caught the ire of Duterte for criticizing his stance and the manner of executing the "Oplan Double Barrel" and "Oplan Tokhang" (Toktok Hangyo) flagship program of his administration. This sparked misunderstanding between him and the leadership of the Catholic Church in the country.
Du clarified also that there has been no gag order on the clergy in the Archdiocese of Palo that will restrain them from speaking about this issue in their homilies. "They can say something about (the EJKs) but the general principle is not to be very personalized because we have to respect the stand if that is the president's way of really trying to put things in order, well that is his way."
The archbishop however stood firm on the Church's way as different, thus it is now time that "we (church and state) have to come to what we call the dialogue, which is needed for us to meet in middle ground. We cannot just go on world affair, but we also have to put the spiritual as a part of the solution so that is where dialogue would come in."
Although the general impression is that the Catholic Church in the country is against President Duterte, Du expressed a varied view. "We are not disappointed because he is also got some good points especially that his intention is peace and order. It is only in the means and the process that we could not agree on," he said.
The PNP reported that, as of September 28 there were 19,907 drug personalities arrested and 725,791 surrenderers–53,879 of them pushers and the rest users.
Various parishes and vicariates in the Archdiocese of Palo are now in the process of finalizing its formation module which will be part of the total package for the rehabilitation of drug surrenderers in their respective jurisdiction, Du said as he emphasized the need for church-state partnership in rehabilitating drug personalities.