According to a report by Human Rights Watch last year, they looked at the administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III, Duterte’s predecessor, and his record with extrajudicial killings.
“Since his election, President Aquino held out the promise of a rights-respecting Philippines for which he has sadly been unable to deliver,” said Human Rights Watch Deputy Asia Director Phelim Kine. “Ongoing killings of prominent activists and the lack of successful prosecutions mean there’s nothing to prevent an upsurge of abuses in the future.”
Earlier, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Director General Isidro Lapeña testified before congress where he said the number of killings between the two administrations is similar.
“If you compare this number and compare those who were killed during previous administration, they are practically the same,” he stated.
TV5 cited a report by the US State Department in a 2014 report, showing “extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances undertaken by security forces as the most significant human rights problems in the Philippines.” They also quoted then-US Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg saying, “It’s clear to me that extrajudicial killings remain foremost among the human rights challenges in the Philippines.”
Cannot recall a time the church took it upon itself to stand up against the Aquino administration on allegedly committing similar sins as the current one. Hearing the pulpit speaking on behalf of the political opposition was not very apparent before the May 2016 election.
In all reality, it is not a surprise, considering the local church thinks Aquino’s mother, former President Corazon Aquino, is a viable candidate for sainthood that they would be more than willing to manipulate the scripture they claim to be so devoted to into political propaganda. However, it is the arrogance in trying to make parishioners believe their political shtick is equivalent to Gospel.
The assumption of guilt by this administration and the dismissal of guilt of their predecessor puts the church’s political position out in the open.
While the church has been involved in politics in other nations, for example, standing up for pro-life issues in the United States, it is a different beast when the church demands its leaders echo their political beliefs from the pulpit.
According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), they describe the homily as when “the preacher focuses on the scripture texts or some other texts from the liturgy, drawing from them lessons that may help us to live better lives, more faithful to Christ’s call to grow in holiness.” However, in a report by The Philippine Daily Inquirer, last year, Villegas demanded priests read a statement he wrote in opposition to the war on illegal drugs in place of the Sunday homily.
The report read: “The statement, titled ‘Let Humanity in Us Speak,’ will be read in place of the Sunday homily in all churches in the archdiocese today.”
Essentially, the CBCP president replaced what is supposed to be scripture with his own words – trying to draw an equivalent between the word of God and his own personal political pronouncements.
More recently, Villegas took the same approach when it came to the church’s opposition to the death penalty.
In another article from The Philippine Daily Inquirer, the CBCP released a letter requesting senators reject the reintroduction of capital punishment.
The article noted, “The pastoral letter has been read as homily for Sunday masses.”
The Catholic organization even took a jab at Senator Manny Pacquiao, who often quotes the Bible as the basis for the policies he supports.
“To the people who use the Bible to defend death penalty,” the letter stated. “Need we point out how many other crimes against humanity have been justified, using the same Bible?”
In their transparent opposition to the Duterte administration, Villegas declared in his letter, last month, “We will help drug addicts.” One has to wonder, if the president took a stance where he ignored drug personalities or dismissed the scourge the illegal substances if creating on the local community, would the church have the same vigor in denouncing the president for ignoring the problem – it looks like the church, with their history of supporting candidates that sport a yellow ribbon on their chest, will constantly be looking for places to announce their opposition to the current administration; even if it forces them to say “We will help drug addicts.”
Given their position, when the CBCP president writes, “We in the Church will continue to speak against evil,” who is he referring to? A president that he (in his own mind) has already been found guilty for the murders of thousands, or maybe, as the vice president put it in her video message to the UN commission, the untrustworthy and trigger-happy police force lurking in neighborhoods across the country./WDJ