The Liberal Party (LP) condemned on Monday President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, which the once ruling party described as “a worse evil than the one it set out to fight.”
“The Duterte administration’s war on drugs has turned out to be a worse evil than the one it set out to fight,” the LP said in a statement read during the commemoration of the death anniversary of former Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr.’s and the Plaza Miranda bombing.
“The daily horror of the murder scenes—pavements littered with blood, dead bodies, including children and teenagers, weeping loved ones—these should not desensitize us to the sufferings of our fellow Filipinos,” the party added.
Around 20 LP members, holding yellow streamers showing condemnation on the recent drug-related killings, gathered at the Plaza Miranda on Monday.
A short program was also conducted to remember the nine individuals killed during the Plaza Miranda bombing in 1971. The bombing also injured around a hundred people, including then senatorial candidates Jovito Salonga, John Osmena, Eddie Ilarde, Ramon Mitra and Eva Estrada Kalaw, the LP said.
A representative of LP’s youth sector, David Santos, meanwhile, lamented that the violence during former President Ferdinand Marcos’ martial law is being repeated by the Duterte administration through the government’s drug war.
“Nalagpasan na natin yang martial law. Nalagpasan na natin yang panahon kung saan maraming namamatay, nawawala. Ngayon, unti-unti itong nauulit kung saan ang gobyerno, sa pamamagitan ng war on drugs, mas maraming namamatay (We have overcome martial law. We have also overcome those years when a lot of people had been killed or disappeared. Now, it is slowly creeping back in a government wherein a lot of people are being killed through war on drugs),” Santos said.
The LP also called on the people not to “turn a blind eye” and instead be outraged by the recent killings.
“We have a duty as human beings not to turn a blind eye or look the other way. Let us be outraged when the situations call for it,” the LP said.
“Let us speak up amid threats and fear, especially for the voiceless. Let us care and hope, so that other may not give up,” it added. “The time calls for courage and commitment.”
The LP members gathered at the Plaza Miranda also said they will join the protest actions at the People Power Monument in Quezon City. JPV