Professors for Peace Statement
Photo credit: The Summit Express
Statement Calling for a Senate Investigation Into the Death of Kian Loyd Delos Santos and Overhaul of the Government’s Anti-Drugs Campaign
We, the undersigned academics, teachers, analysts and researchers are issuing this joint statement to call on the Senate to open an investigation into the death of seventeen-year-old Grade 11 student Kian Loyd Delos Santos.
Kian Loyd is among a growing number of children and youth who have been killed as a result of the government’s anti-drugs campaign. The long and still growing list includes 4-year-old Althea Barbon of Negros Occidental, and two 5-year-old children–Danica May Garcia, an honor student from Pangasinan, as well as Francisco Manosca, who was gunned down with his father in Pasay City.
Whether killed by police, or murdered, allegedly, by unknown assailants, the senseless deaths of so many of our youth and thousands of our citizens are a signal of the worsening environment of violence and lawlessness that now threatens the very communities that the anti-drugs campaign was supposed to protect.
Statement from the Redemptorist Missionaries of the Philippines
Stop Killing the Poor!
Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us; look, and see our disgrace!
(Lamentations, 5: 1)
We, the Redemptorists of the Philippines composed of the Vice-Province Manila and Province of Cebu, express our outrage for the recent spate of killings in line with the government’s war on drugs. As missionaries dedicated to serving the poor and the most abandoned, we condemn the war on drugs as a war on the poor. Most of the victims of extra-judicial killings are poor people. The police have become more relentless as the President himself had on many occasions incited the police to carry out a murderous war on the poor and admitted that the target of his war on drugs is the poor.
On the other hand, rich drug lords and politicians coddlers of drug suppliers are given the full extent of the due process of law. 6.4 billion pesos worth of shabu freely entered the country due to the connections of the rich drug lords to politicians and Custom officials. In all of these, there was no howl from the President and other high ranking government officials.
As Christians, we are appalled by the utter loss of respect for the dignity of life and human rights of the police operations. We are utterly distressed that in a Christian country like ours, the killings is tolerated, even supported. We dread the reality that a split-level kind of faith exists among our people. Such faith sees no connection between the gospel values and the wellspring of Christian faith and the suffering and killings of the people.
As Filipinos we are gravely concerned with the kind of society we have become. What kind of people have we become? After more than a year of the war on drugs, our country has turned into a big killing field. Death is the order of the day. A culture of killing with impunity is the new normality. On the other hand, a culture of silence and a climate of fear prevail. In the midst of the daily killings, many people go on with their lives, show no empathy to the victims and accept the government war on drugs as necessary evil.
Condemning the war on drugs does not undermine our stance against drug. Even before the Duterte government, we have denounced the menace of drug addictions in our proclamations and programs. We did not just denounce, however; we also organized programs and services to victims of drug addiction like counselling, livelihood projects and community support mechanisms.
We call on the government to respect the law and uphold life. We call on the government to stop the killings. The “war on drugs” which in reality is a war on the poor has to end. Now! Continue reading
Keeping Vigil Over Our Nation’s Future
A Call to Radical Mourning For the Loss of Our Vision
21 August 2017
Dear Lasallians,
I am inviting you to raise our voices in silent protest over the deaths that have gone unmourned since our government undertook its efforts to eradicate the menace of illegal drugs from our communities.
We mourn for those who have lost their lives on mere suspicion of being drug addicts and drug pushers. We mourn for those who, because they are too poor and too afraid, cannot fight for their right to life and due process. We mourn for those whose lives have been reduced to statistics and who are now mere proofs to demonstrate the power of those in authority to procure for us, through whatever means, their twisted vision of an orderly society.
We mourn for the loss of our rights when we allow the police to enter our homes without warrants of arrest. We are slowly witnessing an order where we are being seduced to secede to those in authority our basic rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. The promise of peace and order and well-being is a sham for what this usurpation of our rights has obtained for us is nothing but fear.
We mourn for ourselves, when we allow our vision for our nation to grow dim. When, because of our exasperation with the long march to authentic freedom, have allowed ourselves to be seduced by quick results. Authentic transformation cannot be the result of handing over to one entity, our responsibility to create the kinds of communities we long to see. If we truly desire peace and well-being in our communities, we must see ourselves as its principal authors. Let us, in our mourning, re-affirm our right and our responsibility to be the agents of the change we want to see.
I enjoin you all to keep vigil then over our nation’s future. Let us offer a minute of silence every 8:24 pm (or 8:24 am during school days) in our communities as we mourn the many deaths that have befallen our nation. In our communities, let us create a wave of awareness over the need to guard our basic rights and freedoms.
Let us courageously re-affirm our conviction in our identity as a people of power – as a people who can create and will what is good for our country. Let us stand side-by-side again so that we will not have to live in fear. Let us refuse to bequeath to our children a nation deprived of a vision of its better self.
Fraternally,
(Sgd.)
Br. Jose Mari Jimenez FSC
Auxiliary Visitor, LEAD
Seventeen. Kian was just seventeen.
Posted on August 20, 2017 by Joel Tabora, S.J.
I was seventeen when I decided to join the Jesuits. Some today may think that that was much too early to make a radical life decision, that there were too many other possibilities in life that I ought first to have explored before deciding for a life involving the evangelical counsels, poverty, chastity and obedience.
For a while, my father felt that way too. I’d actually wanted to become a priest very early on, when serving Masses regularly in our parish church at 8 years of age introduced me to a love for the altar and a youthful admiration for the diocesan priests of the parish. When I got to the Ateneo de Manila High School, my class moderator in first year, Fr. Ernesto Javier, noted my desire. He told me to join Challenge House, which I did. For two years, during my second and third year high school days, I’d left home to explore the challenge now of becoming a Jesuit priest. It was a good experience. But I left Challenge House because my father felt it was unhealthy for me to be thinking only about the priesthood at that age. He wanted me to get out, explore the world, interact more with other-thinking people, and “get a girlfriend.” So that’s what I did. But after a retreat under Fr. Raymund Gough during my first year of college, I discerned the call to the priesthood undeniable. Fr. Horacio de la Costa, then Provincial of the Jesuits in the Philippines, concurred. On July 16, 1965, I entered Sacred Heart Novitiate.
I have since lived more than three times those seventeen years as a Jesuit in the Philippines. After my ordination to the priesthood in 1983, I began my priestly service in the Resettlement Area of San Pedro, Laguna. Yesterday, I returned there for the first time in some forty years to preside over the renewal of marriage vows of a couple, Jojo Eduque and Sonny Castro, whose marriage I’d witnessed in that church 40 years ago yesterday. Jojo and Sonny remembered the dirt floor and the few rough wooden benches that were part of the luxurious setting of their marriage. The church I’d built in 1988 had meanwhile been totally replaced. But the kamagong crucifix was still there. Happily, there were some elderly women who peered into my face and remembered a youthful priest forty years and forty kilos earlier who’d served the urban poor community of San Pedro Resettlement. One declared that she was part of a livelihood project called “Lovers’ Own” which my father in Beautifont had helped me run for the people. Awesome.
So much has unfolded in my life because of a decision I made when I was seventeen. Or, from a possibly more accurate perspective, so much has happened because of a decision God made manifest to me when I was seventeen. I was only in first year college, but life had already unfolded so richly, and in its further unfolding would take me to doctoral studies in Germany and Austria, teaching at Ateneo de Manila, service of the urban poor community of Kristong Hari, Commonwealth, the rectorship of San Jose Seminary, the presidency of Loyola School of Theology, Ateneo de Naga University, and currently Ateneo de Davao University.
So for me, it is a very personal thing. At seventeen I was still in first year college. That today is the equivalent of eleventh grade. At seventeen, when I was pondering the differences between marriage and the priesthood, between management engineering and joining the Society of Jesus, I was the age of Kian de los Santos on the same academic level as he. That Kian was framed, shot and killed in a police action gone rogue, at a time when his life was yet unfolding, is a matter of deep personal pain for me. It could have been me at seventeen. It could have ended all. In the case of Kian, it did end all.
It has been stated that this is an isolated case. But even if it were isolated, it is one case too many. The President has just signed the Universal Access to Tertiary Education Act into law providing real hope for quality education to all Filipino learners such as Kian. But where are we if the State on the one hand undertakes to promote their welfare through higher education, but on the other hand kills them in senior high? Where are we if the State on the one hand undertakes at great material and human expense to fight a war against drugs for their sake, but on the other hand kills them. When a life is taken, describing it as an isolated case rings hollow, if not cynical. When a life is taken even as genuine collateral damage in a police operation nothing can replace that life. When a life is taken through abominable police action that frames an innocent person as a criminal and shoots him to increase the statistics of “progress” in the war against drugs, this is a crime that cries to the heavens for justice.
The war on drugs must be fought. The drug menace is international evil, driven by powerful forces of evil. This is still the case. It has for too long victimized our people with impunity.
Bishop rails against ‘killing fields’ as govt scrambles to calm outcry
Young Filipinos at the forefront of protests demanding an end to police operations that have snuffed out thousands of lives. (Photo by Mark Saludes)
Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Caloocan condemns Duterte’s bloody war on drugs
Vincent Go and Mark Saludes, UCAN Manila Philippines
August 24, 2017
A Philippine bishop likened a northern Manila suburb to Cambodia’s “killing fields” Aug. 23 as he encouraged grieving families to file cases against abusive police implementing President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.
Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Caloocan’s latest denunciation of the bloody campaign came as Duterte’s aides tried to defuse a public outcry over the Aug. 16 killing — caught on camera — of 17-year-old student Kian de los Santos in a community in Bishop David’s diocese.
At a press conference, Bishop David said the killing of de los Santos was not an isolated case, contrary to the government’s claim.
The bishop said he has heard from many families of people who died because they allegedly resisted arrest. Many witnesses have also seen police shoot people begging for their lives, he added.
Bishop David also questioned the lack of official response to roaming teams of killers in black clothing.
The bishop hinted at tacit government approval of vigilante groups.
“They roam our streets, especially in the informal settler communities, every night,” Bishop David said. “And I don’t know why they are invisible.”
There has been little official action on what police call “deaths under investigation,” which make up two-thirds of the 12,000 killings related to drugs in the past year.
Duterte on Aug. 22 said he would not attend De los Santos’ wake because he did not want to judge police involved until after a Justice Department probe.
He said Aug. 21 that any police found guilty by the courts would be jailed and not granted a presidential pardon he often promises for those implementing his drug war.
On Aug. 23, representatives of foreign governments called for an impartial probe into the killing.
Forensic experts from the public attorney’s office have said De los Santos was shot three times, twice in the head, while he lay prone on the ground.
Police suspects have also admitted they were holding De los Santos as per the footage caught by village street cameras.
Even Duterte’s popular ally, boxer and pro-death penalty senator, Manny Pacquiao, condemned the “excessive and unnecessary deaths” in the year-old campaign.
National defense chief Delfin Lorenza urged Filipinos to stay calm as he criticized the conduct of the police who killed De los Santos in Caloocan City.
“Whether or not he was involved in the use or trafficking of illegal drugs, he did not deserve to die in the manner that he did,” Lorenzana said in a statement.
National police chief Ronald de la Rosa has removed the police district commander who earlier claimed the video showed another suspect.
Despite the outcry, Duterte vowed to step up his anti-drug campaign and challenged his critics.
Military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla downplayed a statement by an anonymous group called Patriotic and Democratic Movement (PADEM), which urged soldiers and police to oppose Duterte.
“The entire [military] along with all the men and women of the uniformed services and all our civilian personnel stand by the constitutionally mandated government and unequivocally supports the commander-in-chief,” Padilla said.
The PADEM statement accused Duterte of treating the security services as private armies, inciting police to engage in extra-judicial killings and having family and friends among top drug lords.
World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2018
photo credit: Rome Reports
“Welcoming, protecting, promoting and integrating migrants and refugees”
Dear brothers and sisters!
“You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 19:34).
Throughout the first years of my pontificate, I have repeatedly expressed my particular concern for the lamentable situation of many migrants and refugees fleeing from war, persecution, natural disasters and poverty. This situation is undoubtedly a “sign of the times” which I have tried to interpret, with the helpof the Holy Spirit, ever since my visit to Lampedusa on 8 July 2013. When I instituted the new Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, I wanted a particular section – under my personal direction for the time being – to express the Church’s concern for migrants, displaced people, refugees and victims of human trafficking.
Every stranger who knocks at our door is an opportunity for an encounter with Jesus Christ, who identifies with the welcomed and rejected strangers of every age (Matthew 25:35-43). The Lord entrusts to the Church’s motherly love every person forced to leave their homeland in search of a better future.[1] This solidarity must be concretely expressed at every stage of the migratory experience – from departure through journey to arrival and return. This is a great responsibility, which the Church intends to share with all believers and men and women of good will, who are called to respond to the many challenges of contemporary migration with generosity, promptness, wisdom and foresight, each according to their own abilities.
In this regard, I wish to reaffirm that “our shared response may be articulated by four verbs: to welcome, to protect, to promote and to integrate”.[2]
Considering the current situation, welcoming means, above all, offering broader options for migrants and refugees to enter destination countries safely and legally. This calls for a concrete commitment to increase and simplify the process for granting humanitarian visas and for reunifying families. At the same time, I hope that a greater number of countries will adopt private and community sponsorship programmes, and open humanitarian corridors for particularly vulnerable refugees. Furthermore, special temporary visas should be granted to people fleeing conflicts in neighbouring countries. Collective and arbitrary expulsions of migrants and refugees are not suitable solutions, particularly where people are returned to countries which cannot guarantee respect for human dignity and fundamental rights.[3] Once again, I want to emphasise the importance of offering migrants and refugees adequate and dignified initial accommodation. “More widespread programmes of welcome, already initiated in different places, seem to favour a personal encounter and allow for greater quality of service and increased guarantees of success”.[4] The principle of the centrality of the human person, firmly stated by my beloved Predecessor, Benedict XVI,[5] obliges us to always prioritise personal safety over national security. It is necessary, therefore, to ensure that agents in charge of border control areproperly trained. The situation of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees requires that they be guaranteed personal safety and access to basic services. For the sake of the fundamental dignity of every human person, we must strive to find alternative solutions to detention for those who enter a country without authorisation.[6]
The second verb – protecting – may be understood as a series of steps intended to defend the rights and dignity of migrants and refugees, independent of their legal status.[7] Such protection begins in the country of origin, and consists in offering reliable and verified information before departure, and in providing safety from illegal recruitment practices.[8] This must be ongoing, as far as possible, in the country of migration, guaranteeing them adequate consular assistance, the right to personally retain their documents of identification at all times, fair access to justice, the possibility of opening a personal bank account, and a minimum sufficient to live on. When duly recognised and valued, the potential and skills of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees are a true resource for the communities that welcome them.[9] This is why I hope that, in countries of arrival, migrants may be offered freedom of movement, work opportunities, and access to means of communication, out of respect for their dignity. For those who decide to return to their homeland, I want to emphasise the need to develop social and professional reintegration programmes. The International Convention on the Rights of the Child provides a universal legal basis for the protection of underage migrants. They must be spared any form of detention related to migratory status, and must be guaranteed regular access to primary and secondary education. Equally, when they come of age they must be guaranteed the right to remain and to enjoy the possibility of continuing their studies. Temporary custody or foster programmes should be provided for unaccompanied minors and minors separated from their families.[10] The universal right to a nationality should be recognised and duly certified for all children at birth. The statelessness which migrants and refugees sometimes fall into can easily be avoided with the adoption of “nationality legislation that is in conformity with the fundamental principles of international law”.[11] Migratory status should not limit access to national healthcare and pension plans, nor affect the transfer of their contributions if repatriated.
Promoting essentially means a determined effort to ensure that all migrants and refugees – as well as the communities which welcome them – are empowered to achieve their potential as human beings, in all the dimensions which constitute the humanity intended by the Creator.[12] Among these, we must recognize the true value of the religious dimension, ensuring to all foreigners in any country the freedom of religious belief and practice. Many migrants and refugees have abilities which must be appropriately recognised and valued. Since “work, by its nature, is meant to unite peoples”,[13] I encourage a determined effort to promote the social and professional inclusion of migrants and refugees, guaranteeing for all – including those seeking asylum – the possibility of employment, language instruction and active citizenship, together with sufficient information provided in their mother tongue. In the case of underage migrants, their involvement in labour must be regulated to prevent exploitation and risks to their normal growth and development. In 2006, Benedict XVI highlighted how, in the context of migration, the family is “a place and resource of the culture of life and a factor for the integration of values”.[14] The family’s integrity must always be promoted, supporting family reunifications – including grandparents, grandchildren and siblings – independent of financial requirements. Migrants, asylum seekers and refugees with disabilities must be granted greater assistance and support. While I recognize the praiseworthy efforts, thus far, of many countries, in terms of international cooperation and humanitarian aid, I hope that the offering of this assistance will take into account the needs (such as medical and social assistance, as well as education) of developing countries which receive a significant influx of migrants and refugees. I also hope that local communities which are vulnerable and facing material hardship, will be included among aid beneficiaries.[15]
The final verb – integrating – concerns the opportunities for intercultural enrichment brought about by the presence of migrants and refugees. Integration is not “an assimilation that leads migrants to suppress or to forget their own cultural identity. Rather, contact with others leads to discovering their ‘secret’, to being open to them in order to welcome their valid aspects and thus contribute to knowing each one better. This is a lengthy process that aims to shape societies and cultures, making them more and more a reflection of the multi-faceted gifts of God to human beings”.[16] This process can be accelerated by granting citizenship free of financial or linguistic requirements, and by offering the possibility of special legalisation to migrants who can claim a long period of residence in the country of arrival. I reiterate the need to foster a culture of encounter in every way possible – by increasing opportunities for intercultural exchange, documenting and disseminating best practices of integration, and developing programmes to prepare local communities for integration processes. I wish to stress the special case of people forced to abandon their country of arrival due to a humanitarian crisis. These people must be ensured adequate assistance for repatriation and effective reintegration programmes in their home countries.
In line with her pastoral tradition, the Church is ready to commit herself to realising all the initiatives proposed above. Yet in order to achieve the desired outcome, the contribution of political communities and civil societies is indispensable, each according to their own responsibilities.
At the United Nations Summit held in New York on 29 September 2016, world leaders clearly expressed their desire to take decisive action in support of migrants and refugees to save their lives and protect their rights, sharing this responsibility on a global level. To this end, the states committed themselves to drafting and approving, before the end of 2018, two Global Compacts, one for refugees and the other for migrants.
Dear brothers and sisters, in light of these processes currently underway, the coming months offer a unique opportunity to advocate and support the concrete actions which I have described with four verbs. I invite you, therefore, to use every occasion to share this message with all political and social actors involved (or who seek to be involved) in the process which will lead to the approval of the two Global Compacts.
Today, 15 August, we celebrate the Feast of the Assumption of Mary. The Holy Mother of God herself experienced the hardship of exile (Matthew 2:13-15), lovingly accompanied her Son’s journey to Calvary, and now shares eternally his glory. To her maternal intercession we entrust the hopes of all the world’s migrants and refugees and the aspirations of the communities which welcome them, so that, responding to the Lord’s supreme commandment, we may all learn to love the other, the stranger, as ourselves.
Vatican City, 15 August 2017
Solemnity of the Assumption of the B.V. Mary
Walk For Creation: World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation
Solemnity of the Queenship of Mary
Diego Velázquez – Coronation of the Virgin
In this feast, particularly cherished by the Popes of modern times, we celebrate Mary as the Queen of Heaven and Earth.
Pope Pius XII in the Papal Encyclical Ad Coeli Reginam proposed the traditional doctrine on the Queenship of Mary and established this feast for the Universal Church.
Pope Pius IX said of Mary’s queenship: “Turning her maternal Heart toward us and dealing with the affair of our salvation, she is concerned with the whole human race. Constituted by the Lord Queen of Heaven and earth, and exalted above all choirs of Angels and the ranks of Saints in Heaven, standing at the right hand of Her only-begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, she petitions most powerfully with Her maternal prayers, and she obtains what she seeks.”
And Pope Pius XII added the following: “We commend that on the festival there be renewed the consecration of the human race to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Upon this there is founded a great hope that there will rejoice in the triumph of religion and in Christian peace…
…Therefore, let all approach with greater confidence now than before, to the throne of mercy and grace of our Queen and Mother to beg help in difficultly, light in darkness and solace in trouble and sorrow…
. . Whoever, therefore, honours the lady ruler of the Angels and of men – and let no one think themselves exempt from the payment of that tribute of a grateful and loving soul – let them call upon her as most truly Queen and as the Queen who brings the blessings of peace, that She may show us all, after this exile, Jesus, who will be our enduring peace and joy.”
Giant Christ statue pulls pilgrims in Mindanao
The statue of Jesus Christ towers from a platform. (Photo by Bong S. Sarmiento)
Site has become a place to pray for peace amid ongoing tensions in southern Philippines
August 21, 2017 UCAN
A giant statue of Jesus Christ in the troubled southern Philippines is drawing pilgrims to a rural town famous for indigenous art.
The Divine Mercy Shrine towers over Lake South town in South Cotabato province, home to the T’boli tribe known for their intricate, geometric T’nalak textiles.
The 10-meter high Christ statue, robed in white and red, is a beacon for travelers at night.
The statue’s height (33 feet) commemorates the age of Jesus when he died, according to Jesus Esquillo, assistant manager of the four-hectare, mountain retreat named for the devotion started by St. Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun.
At least a hundred people gather every Sunday to hear Mass in a chapel at the foot of the statue in Lamdalag village. Many pilgrims sit for vigils on Saturday nights.
Other religious images nestle by man-made pools and fountains, beneath scattered groves or at a nearby lake.
Across the shrine is a facility for visiting families and retreat groups.
A businessman and his wife developed the shrine five years ago. They opened it to the public in 2015 “to bring the people closer to God” and encourage more to pray to Jesus Christ as “the god of Mercy.”
Religious tourism has since brought crowds from across Mindanao, mostly praying for peace amid political upheavals and terrorist attacks. Lent sees thousands of visitors, Esquillo said.
Entrance to the shrine is free and all collections go to the host parish of St. John The Baptist.