Trash Pit Mouth

Editorial | The Falcon Eye 2019

If the Filipinos will forget that the Philippines is a nation under one God, then the country will be one nation gone under a dictator.

President Rodrigo Duterte has been consistent with his blasts and criticisms against the Catholic Church and as the friction lasts longer and longer, the President vowed to continue attacks on Philippine’s dominant religion for its failure to observe the principle of the separation of the Church and the state.

Duterte has called local bishops “sons of whores” and insists that priests are “gay, useless, and corrupt”. He even referred the Catholic Church as “the most hypocritical institution” after former Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) president Archbishop Socrates Villegas released a pastoral letter indirectly referring to Duterte as a wicked candidate and urging Filipino Catholics to not vote for him.

It is undeniable that the President has a lot of supporters, and that’s one of the complicated and burdensome reasons for the country. There are there blinded people with closed minds to the real situation of the country right now. The community serving God is being attacked maliciously by the leader of the nation.

Duterte claimed that his hatred towards the Catholic Church started when he, together with other several boys, was molested by the late Fr. Paul Falvey, S.J., one of the Jesuit priests at Ateneo de Davao University (AdDU) when they were still in their first-year high school.

Looking back, the Catholic church has been instrumental in the People Power Revolutions to oust former dictator Ferdinand Marcos and Joseph Estrada. Now, the Catholic Church is vocal with the Duterte Administration, asserting its influence especially in leading against extra-judicial killings. The President just can’t merely claim that the Church has violated the principle of the separation because the clergy was critical of the disregarded human rights.

In the rule of law, the freedom to live with dignity and human rights shall have an intrinsic relationship. If a person committed a crime, then he or she must face corresponding punishment and cases that will go through the legal process. Any situation wherein a criminal is deprived of his rights as a citizen and a human is clearly an act of human rights violation. Duterte’s way of justice is not appropriate because the due process is not being practiced.

A period of grief for the Catholic Church as Fr. Mark Ventura, Fr. Marcelito Paez, and Fr. Richmond Nilo, who have been condemning the government and extra-judicial killings were three priests killed under the Duterte administration. Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas and Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David also exposed that they are receiving death threats.

The Catholicism has been in the Philippines for centuries and a hateful President claims that the church may end 25 years from now due to allegations of corruption and sexual abuse. As the President of this nation, Duterte should focus more on the real problems that the country is facing and avoid turning the attention of the people to ideas which bring no good to the nation’s current condition.

In the rule of law, the freedom to live with dignity and human rights shall have an intrinsic relationship. If a person committed a crime, then he or she must face corresponding punishment and cases that will go through the legal process. Any situation wherein a criminal is deprived of his rights as a citizen and a human is clearly an act of human rights violation.

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