Philippine Catholic leaders say they are powerless to stop a growing number of extrajudicial killings that have come with President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.
“What I predicted is happening, and the Church is powerless to stop the killings,” said Fr Amado Picardal, head of the Philippine Bishops’ Commission for Basic Ecclesial Communities.
He said the killings were “already unstoppable”, adding that some Church leaders were losing hope.
Fr Picardal, who has linked Duterte to a death squad allegedly responsible for the killings of more than 1,400 people, warned of “dark prospects” for the Philippines.
During his campaign for the presidency, Duterte vowed to stop criminality, especially the illegal drugs trade, and corruption, warning that his administration would be a “bloody” one. Ucanews.com reported estimates of more than 600 people killed since Duterte was elected in May; 211 of those were murdered by unidentified gunmen. Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan, bishops’ conference president, said he was “in utter disbelief”.
