CBCP warns people vs ‘treating villains like heroes’

MANILA, Philippines — Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) president and Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David warned the Filipino people against a nation going down the drain if its people treat villains as heroes, and heroes as villains, after a statue of the late senator Ninoy Aquino was partially blocked by a tent during UniTeam’s rally in Tarlac City.

“A nation that treats its villains like heroes and its heroes like villains has nowhere to go but down the drain. It will be treated with contempt by the community of nations that used to be inspired by the fabled nobility of its citizens now gone,” David said in a Facebook post.

The UniTeam is led by presidential candidate and former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son and namesake of the late dictator, while Aquino was one of the staunchest critics of the Marcoses during the martial law era. 
Aquino was assassinated at the Manila International Airport, which is now the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), on Aug. 21, 1983 upon his return from exile in the United States.

David’s post, on the other hand, has received more than 4,000 reactions: more than 2,200 with a sad emoji, 953 likes and 739 angry reactions with 286 netizens expressing disgust, while more than 2,100 shared his post on Facebook.

He said that Aquino “was wrong in believing that ‘the Filipino is worth dying for’” if his memory will be treated badly by the people despite what he has done for them during the darkest years of the country under the leadership of Marcos.

“If this is how we treat the memory of a man whose death helped save our country from the long dark years of tyranny and dictatorship, and whose blood watered the seeds of aspiration for the restoration of our freedom and democracy, then it must be said that he was wrong in believing that ‘the Filipino is worth dying for’,” David said.

David, who recently expressed support for the presidency of Vice President Leni Robredo and her running mate Sen. Kiko Pangilinan, earlier said that the Catholic Church would actively participate in politics as he emphasized that they “do not want the dark age of martial law repeated.”

For its part, the Tarlac City government denied allegations that it intended to disrespect the memory of Aquino when his statue was partially blocked by the tent where Marcos and his running mate, Sara Duterte-Carpio, held their campaign sorties.