CBCP President to drug users: Surrender to church to avoid getting killed

Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) President and Lingayen-Dapuan Archbishop Socrates Villegas called on drug addicts to surrender to the Church to avoid getting killed.

Villegas' call is part of the Catholic Church's "Huwag Kang Papatay" campaign against extrajudicial killings in the country. 

Father Ranhilio Aquino, dean of San Beda's Graduate School of Law, explained to GMA News that Villegas' "clarified that his call was for those willing to surrender but were afraid to ask for the assistance of the Church that would see to their orderly surrender and at the same time the protection of their rights."

"The Church has always considered substance abuse a vice and will never countenance drug use much less peddling," Aquino said.

Meanwhile, a report on "News To Go" on Thursday said several parishes in Villegas' Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan in Pangasinan have begun posting banners on the Fifth of the Ten Commandments — "Huwag Kang Papatay" (Do not kill) — outside the churches.

NNakasabit sa ilang parokya sa Lingayen, Dagupan Archdiocese ang banner na nakalagay ang ika-limang utos ng diyos na "Huwag kang papatay".

— News To Go (@newstogoGNTV) September 15, 2016

The "News To Go" report said the relatives of the slain suspects in the police's anti-illegal drug operations also joined in a protest action against extrajudicial killings.

A Holy Mass was also celebrated in memory of the slain victims and for the conversion and surrender of the suspects in the extrajudicial killings.

On social media, the Facebook page "Huwag Kang Papatay" posted photos of Villegas celebrating Mass for the victims of extrajudicial killings.

The caption read: "Archbishop Soc Villegas of Lingayen with priests and the failthful celebrating mass of Mercy and Healing for the victims and families of extrajudicial killings. Ringing of bells at 8 in the evening until the 21st will also be done for the whole archdiocese."

'Appeal to Humanity in Us'

Villegas on June 21 issued a pastoral appeal titled “Appeal to Humanity in Us” addressed to law enforcers.

“We commend you, our law enforcers, on your new-found earnestness in enforcing the law and in apprehending malefactors, but we are disturbed by an increasing number of reports that suspected drug-peddlers, pushers and others about whom reports of criminal activity have been received, have been shot, supposedly because they resist arrest,” Villegas' message read. — Joseph Tristan Roxas/VVP, GMA News