‘Show of force’ for life

Church leads protest vs drug killings, death penalty

MANILA, Philippines - It was a “show of force” when over 10,000 people joined a prayer rally yesterday dubbed “Walk for Life” to protest proposals to revive the death penalty and the mounting extrajudicial killings (EJKs) linked to the government’s drug war.

Donning white shirts and carrying placards, the rallyists started to gather at the Quirino Grandstand inside Rizal Park in Manila as early as 4 a.m.

By 8 a.m., the crowd had grown significantly and began praying the rosary together – something “unexpected,” according to Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP)-Episcopal Commission on the Laity chairman Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo, considering the rally was “hastily” organized, done early in the morning and the participants came from around 15 dioceses nationwide.

“This only shows that they want to express themselves,” Pabillo said, stressing those who joined were not forced to attend.

The message, he said, is “that the people are standing up for life and they are against these methods of death, such as death penalty and EJK.”

“So I hope that the government will listen to the people,” Pabillo added.

At the same time, in Bacolod, the giant tarpaulins that the local diocese put up during the 2013 senatorial elections listing candidates of “Team patay (death)” and “Team buhay (life)” were back, this time, condemning the death penalty.

“No, no, no sa berdugo (executioner)! Yes, yes, yes kay Kristo (Christ)!” was the message on a tarpaulin in front of the Bacolod San Sebastian Church yesterday, together with another tarpaulin bearing the biblical passage from John 10:10: “I came that they might have life and have it to the full.”

Like the rest of the Catholic dioceses nationwide, the Diocese of Bacolod has stepped up its drive against the proposed restoration of the death penalty, as the so-called super-majority in Congress seemed bent on pushing for its approval.

Bacolod church rector Fr. Felix Pasquin said criminal offenders need to be punished, but not by death.

They should be given a chance to reform and be rehabilitated, he said.

Pasquin called on the Negros lawmakers yesterday to support the Catholic Church’s position against the death penalty.

Filipinos inherently pro-life, pro-God

“This is standing up for the godly tradition that is truly Filipino because a real Filipino is pro-God, pro-life,” Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the CBCP, said before the crowd gathered at Rizal Park yesterday. “This is mentioned in our Constitution. This means that if the Filipino people would break away from God and if the Filipino would not respect life, then he or she would be less of a Filipino because it is inherent in us as Filipinos to be pro-God and pro-life.”

When asked if he was hoping President Duterte would listen to the prayer rally’s message, the Catholic bishops’ leader said: “What I believe is that God will listen to our prayers. If God listens to our requests, what is there to fear?”

Villegas also called the “Walk for Life” prayer rally “Walk for God.”

Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle also joined the rally, urging the faithful to use non-violent means to solve criminality amid a seemingly growing culture of violence.

The Cardinal said the “Walk for Life” rally was intended to “save lives, such as of pregnant women and the unborn child, those who are hungry,” and the youth on the street, who must be freed from the influence of illegal drugs, abuse, prostitution, pornography, gambling and other vices.

Calling war as also “anti-life,” Caloocan Bishop Pablo David added yesterday’s prayer rally was meant to campaign against environmental abuse, war in Mindanao and for the resumption of peace talks between the government and the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA).

The “Walk for Life” prayer rally was the first one organized by the Council of the Laity of the Philippines under the Duterte government. Seven bishops, including Villegas, attended the event. – GILBERT BAYORAN