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The government should shift more into eliminating the drugs itself and concentrate more towards healing and rehabilitation rather than killing. In fact, eliminating the drug lords, drug pushers, without eliminating the essential which is the drug itself, gives rise to more drug leaders, more corrupt policemen, more violence.
Congressmen want to pass a law that lowers the age of criminal liability of Filipino children from 15 to nine years of age. But how can children under the age of 15, with little education and living a rough life, be made responsible for adult acts that are adult crimes?
The Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines issued a statement expressing their opposition to a bill that will re-impose capital punishment. Human life is sacred, “must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil.”
The “just war” theory was developed to offer criteria, like protecting civilians from attack, that had to be met before war could be morally justified and continued. Most unfortunately, this led to the Catholic Church’s abandonment of total Christ-like nonviolence.
The Church leadership and the People of God in the Philippines are facing the stark moral realities of the government’s violent war on drugs. They are called upon to take a stand and speak out. They are also called to reach out to those drug dependents who are in danger of being shot dead and in need of healing and help.
Working for over twenty years helping drug dependents recover from abuse and addiction in a rehabilitation sanctuary for young people using chemical substances, I learned that they are not criminals but in need of medical help and intervention.
Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and Capiz Rep. Fredenil Castro want to bring back the death penalty in the Philippines as a deterrent to crime. It can be said that the death penalty is already effectively and practically in force daily. As many as ten suspects are killed every day in the war on illegal drugs.
About two months ago, the new speaker of the Philippine House of Representatives filed two bills that will lower the age of criminal liability for children in conflict with the law—from fifteen to nine years old—and reintroduce the death penalty by hanging. It is not likely but the implications are that children and teenagers could, according to the proposed laws, face the death penalty.
The Philippines has a new president, Rodrigo Duterte. Many people have taken his promises seriously and they will be expecting results. We have to help him succeed in fighting corruption and criminality within the law. The killing of suspects is not the way. That will bring down international condemnation and shame and the Philippines will be the pariah of the civilized world. The Secretary General of the United Nations has already spoken against Philippine death squads killing journalists already. If the vigilantes have their way, the presidency will be gravely affected and branded as a killer regime and violator of human rights.
“You are the light of the world.” Don’t take my word for it, that’s Gospel truth from Jesus Himself (Mt 5:14). And it’s a tall order, indeed.
