Palace: Church has right to protest

DAVAO CITY, Philippines—Malacañang yesterday shrugged off a Catholic Church campaign to drum up support for an end to what it called extrajudicial killings in connection with President Duterte’s war against illegal drugs.

“There’s always the separation of Church and State. It’s their right to hold masses, even every day,” Communications Secretary Martin Andanar told reporters. “It’s up to the Church, the same way that there are policies in the government that the Church should not intervene in.”

The Archdiocese of Manila said it would hold a Mass today at the launch of the “Huwag Kang Papatay” (Thou Shall Not Kill) campaign amid the rising number of people being killed in the government’s antidrugs drive.

In Manila, the Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines (AMRSP) issued a statement yesterday supporting the Church campaign against killings during police operations against drug dealers.

“Today we are alarmed at the increasing number of extrajudicial killings seemingly perpetrated in the name of the government’s drive to stop drug trafficking,” said AMRSP.

“The execution of suspects, without due process of law, is a violation of their right to life, the most basic of all human rights,” it said.

Ending its 2016 convention, the AMRSP, which gathers the heads of religious congregations for men and women in the country, expressed its support of the new Duterte administration, particularly its “peace initiatives” and “programs to protect and preserve national sovereignty and patrimony.”

AMRSP added that it was supporting Duterte’s programs of “empowerment” of poor and of protecting the environment.

But the AMRSP said it was opposing Duterte’s policies to “diminish human life and violate the rule of law; perpetuate poverty, corruption and contractualization.”

“After experiencing relief that the problem of illegal drugs is now being confronted head-on, our parishioners are now afraid of being [included on] the list of drug addicts or drug pushers… This could mean arrest, torture or even outright death,” Bishop Bernardino Cortez and the priests of the Prelature of Infanta said in a statement issued yesterday in Lucena City.

Cortez said lists of suspected drug peddlers and users given by barangay officials to the police had created a “martial law atmosphere,” where fear prevails as anyone could be arrested or harmed at anytime.

Cortez urged Mr. Duterte to strengthen the mechanisms that make the government’s antidrug campaign respect the “infinite dignity” of all.

“That ‘infinite dignity’ belongs to all—to the majority who need protection from addicts, to the drug addicts themselves, to the drug lords, together with government protectors,” he said. “A transformed Philippines has to reflect the Father’s compassion for all.” With reports from Lito B. Zulueta in Manila and Delfin T. Mallari, Inquirer Southern Luzon