Philippines: Bishop Attacks Duterte In New Year Homily
By UCA News
Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the Philippine bishops’ conference, has attacked President Rodrigo Duterte for supporting the proposed revival of the death penalty and for the spate of drug-related killings in the country.
“If the law for the re-imposition of death penalty is approved by Congress, the president of the Philippines will kill people, mostly indigents who cannot afford to pay lawyers in their judicial fight specially those accused in drug pushing and other crimes,” he said
In his New Year’s Eve homily, the Lingayen-Dagupan archbishop urged Catholics to help the country’s bishops in opposing the re-imposition of the death penalty and condemn the government’s war on drugs which he said has victimized innocent people.
Archbishop Villegas urged Catholics in his archdiocese to ask their congressmen not to vote for the re-imposition of the death penalty, saying that most of those who made mistakes and violated the law are victims of injustice and poverty.
