Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David has criticized President Rodrigo Duterte for pitting human rights against human lives in his third State of the Nation Address as he promised to continue a “chilling” anti-drug campaign.
“Such a statement implies that the victims of drug-related killings are not human lives!” David said in a Facebook post late Monday night.
In other developments:
• “Thousands of people in the Philippines have died as a direct result of President Duterte’s murderous policies, which have mostly targeted the country’s poorest people,” Amnesty International said Tuesday.
“Duterte’s claim to be a defender of human life is an insult to the families of these victims, especially coming after his public vow to continue the killings.”
• Respect for human rights and respect for human lives are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, one reinforces the other,” Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.
“President Duterte is seeking to perpetuate a dangerous deception by asserting that those who criticize the murderous excesses of his “drug war” are unconcerned about the toll that drug addiction inflicts on individuals and families.”
“Is not the right to life the most basic human right?” said David, vice president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.
He made this statement after Duterte said: “Your concern is human rights, mine is human lives.”
Duterte earlier asked if drug addicts could be considered human beings.
“Are they humans? What is your definition of a human being? Tell me. Human rights. Use it properly in the right context, if you have the brains,” Duterte said in August 2016.
On Monday, David said he wondered if any civilized nation would agree “that addicts are ‘not human.’” He said the Catholic Church “can never agree with such a statement.”
He said “what people with substance-use disorder need is rehabilitation,” and the Catholic Church is “willing to help out in this endeavor.”
“Yes, use the full force of the law, file charges against violators, jail the pushers and the suppliers, but save the users; do not kill them! Besides, we cannot rehabilitate dead people anymore, can we?” David said.