Press Release
January 19, 2019

Dispatch from Crame No. 450:
Sen. Leila M. de Lima's statement on the Presidential Spokesperson's accusation of the Catholic Church's interference in State Affairs

1/19/19

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo's call to the Catholic clergy to stop interfering in State affairs can only come from a regime that is blind to the reality of what the drug killings are doing to the moral fabric of Philippine society. Extra-judicial killings, human rights violations, misogyny, and other forms of degradation of human dignity are not purely secular affairs on which the Church ought to be silent.

When the government has made the killing of its own people a policy in its so-called "war on drugs", the Catholic Church is put in a position where it has no choice but to demand that the killings are stopped. And when government does not listen, because it believes that it has the right to kill its own citizens, it cannot expect the Church to stop condemning the killings and the State's implementation of the murderous policy.

Taking the life of a human being is not only against the law of the State, it is also against both natural and divine law. When the State itself chooses to violate this law, which is also one of the most basic commandments of all religions, the Church must protest, or it becomes irrelevant as the representative of Christ on earth.

"Thou shall not kill" is the law of both God and man. The State therefore has no monopoly in assuring that this law is followed, especially when its leadership itself has chosen to violate it with impunity.

When the Church defends the right to life and the right to human dignity, especially of the poor, against a government that treats them as less than human, it is not interference in State affairs. It is protecting the people from the tyranny of its leaders who have already become the very embodiment of evil in this country.

Fighting for what is right transcends any barrier - political, social or spiritual.

News Latest News Feed