Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma
CEBU CITY—It is the Catholic Church’s mandate to speak out against the continuing gangland-style street executions of drug suspects resulting from the Duterte administration’s war on drugs, the head of the Cebu archdiocese, the country’s biggest in terms of population, said.
“If the President believes that killing people is the way to solve the drug problem in the country, we in the Church believe otherwise,” said Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, who heads a flock of at least two million Catholics.
“We will not stop talking about what we believe is right and true because that’s our mandate,” he said.
Palma made the statements when asked to react to President Rodrigo Duterte’s latest invectives-laden rant against the Church’s continuing criticism of his brutal war on drugs, which has already claimed the lives of 7,000 men and women from urban poor communities.
In a speech in Cagayan de Oro City, Mr. Duterte blasted the Church anew, accusing it again of hypocrisy and obstructing his vision of a drug-free Philippines instead of helping.
“We forgive him,” said Palma of the President’s insults against the Church.
“Why should we get hurt?” Palma said in an interview after celebrating Mass for the 103rd birthday of Teofilo Camomot, a Cebuano bishop who is candidate for sainthood.
Palma urged the faithful to pray for the President instead.
But contrary to the President’s accusation that the Church is an obstructionist in the war on drugs, Palma said the Church was active in fighting the drug menace not by killing people but by giving them hope.
“A lot of things are being done by the Church long before he (Mr. Duterte) assumed the presidency,” said Palma.
He said these activities were not publicized, which was being used to justify accusations that the Church was doing nothing to fight the drug menace.
“We don’t let our left hand know what the right hand is doing,” said Palma.
“Deep in our hearts, we know we have done quite a number of things for the good of the people,” he said.
He did not elaborate on Church programs related to the fight against drugs, but on Friday, Palma led graduation rites for the sixth batch of drug users who finished a rehabilitation program, known as “Surrender to God,” in the town of Liloan, northern Cebu.
Since July, at least 100 drug users had gone through rehabilitation under Surrender to God and another Church-initiated program, Lahat Labang, in Liloan.
Two weeks ago, Palma launched the Cebu Archdiocesan Program for Drug Dependents to expand the Church’s campaign to save drug users.
Palma said the Church was not opposed to Mr. Duterte’s war on drugs, but on how it was being carried out. —ADOR VINCENT MAYOL