Philippines ‘losing’ its soul due to killings, say bishops

The Philippines is slowly losing its soul due to the spate of killings, especially of activists who were wrongfully vilified, the Ecumenical Bishops Forum said Thursday.

The bishops lamented that the killing of human rights paralegal Zara Alvarez “is reflective of a political order of intolerance and hate where disagreements and criticisms are equated to being disagreeable and the interpretation of the rule of law becomes the monopoly of those who wield power.”

“The taking away of human life is to be condemned because it is a way of losing the soul of our country. Killers are ultimately accountable to the Author of life and they lose their souls by their own doing,” Bishops Rex Reyes Jr. and Joel Tendero said in a statement.

The bishops called on the public to turn the grief, sadness, and outrage over Alvarez’s death into fuel for calls for peace and justice.

“Those who are unjustly killed are the sowers of the seeds of a caring and loving society that even now can be experienced amidst the efforts of those who wish to weed it out,” the bishops said.

Days before Alvarez was shot dead in Bacolod City, peasant leader and peace consultant Randy Echanis was found dead in his Quezon City home. 

Malacañang earlier rejected speculations that state forces were behind the killings of the two activists as Makabayan solons said the Duterte administration was intensifying its attacks on critics. -- BAP, GMA News