Were it not for the courageous few Philippine bishops and priests and human rights defenders, among them some brave senators, there would have been likely more disappearances and crimes against children under the Duterte war on drugs. Some estimates put the number of innocent people killed by police during the so-called war on drugs” at thirty thousand, including a 17-year-old teenager executed by three police in an alleyway.
It caused outrage in the Philippines when public anger boiled over at the alleged executions of innocent suspects by government sanctioned “death squads.” The murder of the boy Kian delos Santos was witnessed by his brothers. When they were brought into the care and protection of opposition Senator Risa Hontiveros who headed the Senate Committee that was tasked to investigate the killing of the minor, government agencies demanded that the child witnesses be taken by them. Senator Hontiveros courageously refused and protected the children from the claws of the government agents who would silence them. That testimony would expose the murderous “shoot to kill” policy of the regime. Their testimony had to be stopped from coming out.
Bravely, Bishop Pablo David of the Diocese of Caloocan stood by the children and gave them sanctuary and protection despite the pressures and threats from government authorities. He and his priests and parishioners stood strong against the regime and the demands of the Secretary of Justice. Bishop David documented the violations of human rights and unlawful killings. He held processions that protected the victims’ families and protested the human rights violations. Eventually, the call of the few more brave bishops and priests brought enough pressure that the three police were convicted of murder. But hundreds of police killers went unpunished.
Not many of the 85 Filipino bishops have the Real Faith, fewer have the spiritual commitment or strength to have “faith in action” and live out the spirituality or have a prophetic voice. To be a real bishop, one has to stand and risk all and have the unshakable conviction that goodness, truth and love of neighbor will overcome evil and wrongdoing. Faith is having that conviction because that is the true faith of Jesus of Nazareth, a faith that will move mountains of evil.
He stood with the victims, defended the weak and vulnerable and showed that doing good, standing for the truth and opposing evil, is the way to proclaim the truth that will set us free from the corruption and violations of the dignity and rights of the vulnerable and the poor. There is much reform to be done in the institutional church to inspire leaders to have real faith and actively defend human rights.
The courageous bishops and priests that stood against the tyranny of the tyrant include Archbishop Socrates Villegas, Bishop Honesto Ongtioco, retired Bishop Teodoro Bacani, Father Robert Reyes, La Salle Brother Armin Luistro, Jesuit priest Albert Alejo and Divine Word priest Flaviano Villanueva, besides many others.
The first act of justice the bishops could do is to put aside the love of golden robes and bring the clerical child sex abusers to justice, believe and act on the words of Jesus and stop coddling the abusers that commit heinous crimes against children. They suffer greatly. Watch the screaming and anger release of victims and you will see the pain they endure when they let it out in therapy.
To coddle and protect abusers is being an accessory to crimes against children by arranging payoff to parents to prevent testimony in court. Housing pedophile priests in luxury rest houses is a contradiction of the words of Jesus of Nazareth who said in Matthew 18: 6-7), “Let a millstone be tied around their neck and they be thrown into the depth of the sea.” Accountability is needed in every case with protection, support, therapy and help for the child victims.
The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination has declared the Philippines a hotbed of rights violations and human dignity. Gross racism and discrimination is perpetrated against the poor in the Philippines and we must challenge more bishops and priests to stand and protest against it. Strong action is needed, not just blah blah statements, but mobilization of the communities to act for justice because as Saint James has written in the Gospel, “Faith without action is dead.”
The report made it clear that there were many violations. “Reports of enforced disappearances, killings, violence, threats, intimidation, harassment, reprisals and in particular “red-tagging” faced by human rights defenders and leaders of ethno-religious, ethno-linguistic and indigenous communities…”.
There is a challenge from a world body for the church leaders if they have the faith and find a prophetic voice to campaign for the enactment of the Human Rights Defenders Bill that is before congress, that would be a significant evangelical “Faith in Action” movement. Every parish could have all true Christians sign a petition for their congressional representatives to pass that law. As I have written previously, more than 114 of the total 270 defenders of land and environment, who were murdered between 2012 and 2020, were indigenous leaders trying to protect their way of life and lands.
Some brave bishops have spoken out to condemn the killings and the “systematic abductions” of defenders of the ecology and lands.
Bishop Gerardo Alminaza of San Carlos said in a courageous statement on Sept. 24 that the abductions “point to state forces as the culprits.” He demanded that the “perpetrators, including military and police officers, as well as officials of state institutions… involved in abductions and kidnappings, must be held accountable.” We need more to be true Christians and be ready to give themselves in defending the rights of all victims and oppressed people.
END
This column was previously published in The Sunday Times (www.manilatimes.net) on 25 August 2024.
