Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez
KORONADAL CITY—In a move that could thaw icy relations between President Duterte and Catholic Church leaders who irked the President by airing concern over the mounting death toll in the war on drugs, police in Central Mindanao said they are reaching out to priests and other Church leaders to seek their help in the antidrug campaign.
Supt. Romeo Galgo Jr., Central Mindanao police spokesperson, said law enforcers recognize that the antidrug campaign does not start and end with the identification and arrest of suspects.
Police, Galgo said, need the active involvement of Church leaders in the campaign.
Mr. Duterte, reacting to concerns from top Church leaders over extrajudicial killings in relation to the drug war, called bishops “sons of b******” for criticizing his campaign to rid the country of the drug menace.
Galgo said police, however, “are reaching out to all sectors, including Catholic leaders, Muslim religious leaders and leaders of other faiths.”
Galgo said police needed the Church’s help, especially in reforming drug dependents.
‘Lost sheep’
The diocese of Marbel offered to help in this aspect earlier, describing drug addicts and users as “lost sheep.”
Chief Supt. Cedrick Train, Central Mindanao police director, had ordered the regional police chaplain to meet with Church leaders.
Galgo said police had set meetings with Marbel Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez and Kidapawan Bishop Jose Collin Bagaforo and would also talk with Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Cardinal Quevedo.
As of Oct. 19, nearly 33,000 drug users and pushers had surrendered to police in the region where the death toll in the drug war has risen to 64, mostly suspected pushers who allegedly resisted arrest.
Bishop Gutierrez said addicts should not be treated as evil persons who deserve death.
“People addicted to drugs are people with problems,” said Gutierrez. “They should be helped. They should not be killed,” the bishop said at ordination rites for new priests here.
Gutierrez said he acknowledges the shortcomings of Church workers who, as shepherds of their flock, failed to guide the faithful, especially the youth, out of drugs.
Ways to help
He said the Marbel Diocese is looking at many ways to help in the antidrug campaign, like tapping psychologists and doctors to treat addicts and finding sources of livelihood for drug users.
Galgo said police are not celebrating the increase in the number of deaths in the drug war.
“We also sympathize with the family of fallen drug personalities,” said Galgo.
Policemen involved in operations that lead to deaths of drug suspects, said Galgo, “carry out their duties with a heavy heart.”
“We do not intend to really kill these drug personalities but when the lives of our police officers are in danger, sadly, this is the result,” Galgo told the Inquirer.
He said policemen are trained to subdue, not kill, suspects but if policemen’s lives are in danger, “we have to do the hardest part of the operation.”
“It is with a heavy heart on our part that the operation ends up like this,” he said, referring to antidrug operations that result in suspects’ deaths. —EDWIN FERNANDEZ