Church Calls on Philippine President to Modify His War on Drugs
MANILA – Pastor Emil Ybanez painfully described the horrific condition of his son AJ's body on CBN's 700 Club Asia program, broadcast from Manila. His son was the victim of an extrajudicial killing.
"A wire was tied around his neck. Duct tape covered his face. His hands tied at his back and there was a very big slash in his neck. It was so big. That was when I broke down. Why did they treat my son like an animal?" he asked.
Pastor Ybanez admits his son was a drug user, but he says he quit drugs and became a police informant just weeks before his death.
AJ is one of nearly 8,000 people who have died since Philippine President Duterte began his war on drugs seven months ago. Most of the alleged drug users and pushers were denied due process.
A creeping culture of societal impunity prompted the Catholic Church to issue a rare pastoral letter condemning the rising death toll.
Catholic leaders called the government's approach to the drug war a reign of terror, aimed largely at the poor.
"The Catholic Church, believing in the gift of life of every Filipino, directly confronts the incident of what's happening now, how to speak and how to get out of the fear that's being planted because of what's happening in the country," Fr. Nonong Fajardo with the Manila Archdiocese told CBN News.
A woman named Linda says she fears for her life. Five of her drug-dealing friends surrendered to authorities, she said, but they were still killed. Linda says poor people like her friends should also be given a chance to change and have a new life.
Poverty is one of the main reasons these men and women resort to selling drugs as their source of income. And this is why the church and human rights groups are calling out to the government to resort to more humane means of solving the drug problem, which is providing basic needs for these families, such as education and livelihood programs.
Friends in the police and military are helping Pastor Ybanez solve his son's case. He believes God is using his son's death as a wake-up call to all Filipinos.
"We should repent as a nation and come together to put a stop to the extrajudicial killings because this kind of evil only begets evil," Ybanez said. "What has happened to my son has inspired me to be more active in a ministry that teaches values formation to policemen, who in turn teach values to students."
Farjardo said, "Let's give a chance to the users and pushers because we believe that everybody can change and that is the same thing that we believe that the president can do. That's what we've been praying for – that President Duterte would really change his way of running the drug war."
