Filipino nuns wearing hats with messages against human rights violations join a Feb. 25 demonstration to mark the 31st anniversary of the People Power revolution in Manila. The nonviolent revolution led to the toppling of President Ferdinand Marcos and the restoration of the country's democracy. (CNS photo/Mark R. Cristino, EPA)

Philippine archbishop recalls deceased Cardinal Sin in time of upheaval

1095 0

MANILA, Philippines (CNS) — Expressing concern about thousands of deaths in the nation’s so-called “war on drugs,” the president of the Philippine bishops’ conference has sought courage from a deceased cardinal whose influence helped overthrow a dictator in the mid-1980s.

Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan wrote a public letter to Cardinal Jaime Sin Feb. 25, the 31st anniversary of the peaceful People Power revolution, which led to the ouster of President Ferdinand Marcos.

Archbishop Villegas, who was a newly ordained priest and Cardinal Sin’s personal secretary in 1986, recalled the four “glorious days” when millions of ordinary Filipinos converged on Epifano de los Santos Avenue outside of the country’s military headquarters and toppled Marcos. He had been in power for more than 15 years, implementing an authoritarian style that grew more oppressive the longer he stayed in power.

Marcos had ordered his military to disperse angry crowds that claimed he stole a snap election against opposition leader Corazon Aquino, but soldiers stood down, allowing Aquino to take office and restore democracy to the young nation.

Cardinal Sin, who, with other church leaders, was being pursued by the Marcos government, sent a message on Catholic radio to religious and clergy to drop everything and pray with the crowds on the avenue. The message continued to be broadcast despite government attempts to destroy station transmitters.

Marcos took sanctuary in Hawaii, where he died three years later.

“The glory now flickers in the darkness and fear again,” Archbishop Villegas wrote, “the songs of peace now drowned by the cuss words of hate that invite murder; the bloodless revolt now stained by the blood in our streets and street gutters.”

Since President Rodrigo Duterte took office in June, about 7,000 mostly poor people have died in police raids and killings carried out by unknown assailants. Using explicit language, Duterte campaigned on a promise to rid the country of criminals, threatening to kill them and encouraging the public to do the same.

Archbishop Villegas lamented that under the Duterte administration, Marcos’ body was buried in the country’s Cemetery of Heroes and that history was being “rewritten” and “revised.” He asked the cardinal, who died in 2005, to “shake us (the faithful) up from our timidity.”

“Teach us your faith. Teach us righteous indignation. Wake us up from our pacifism and pull us into the fire of passion and courage again,” he wrote.

In an angry retort, Duterte’s daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, addressed Archbishop Villegas in a Facebook post, saying her father better understood the spirit of the 1986 revolution and called the archbishop’s “group … a bunch of delusional hypocrites.”

The Duterte administration’s official commemoration of the revolution took place Feb. 24, instead of the previously recognized Feb. 25.

Archbishop Villegas also said everyone who faces criminal charges should receive a “fair day in the court of laws,” after government authorities arrested and detained Sen. Leila de Lima, one of Duterte’s harshest critics, Feb. 24.

De Lima, who was ousted as chairwoman of the Senate Justice and Human Rights Committee, had launched an investigation into the drug killings. The current administration said de Lima ran a drug operation out of the country’s national prison when she was justice secretary under Benigno Aquino III’s administration from 2010 to 2015.

The day after the arrest, more than 1,000 people rallied outside national police headquarters near a shrine marking the 1986 revolution, protesting the “war on drugs.” Late in the day, a crowd that organizers said numbered about 6,000 gathered to remember the revolution at the shrine site in support of democracy, calling for respect of human rights and justice.

A far bigger crowd that police estimated at 200,000 assembled at a Manila park across town in a show of support for Duterte. Among that crowd were a group of Marcos supporters.

Related Post

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila, Philippines, celebrates Mass in 2016 at the Manila cathedral. Addressing 8.000 participants July 22 during the last day of the Fifth Philippine Conference on New Evangelization, Cardinal Tagle spoke of innocent people dying in the Philippines. (CNS photo/Mark R. Cristino, EPA)

Cardinal Tagle laments deaths of innocent people in Philippines

Posted by - July 28, 2018 0
MANILA, Philippines (CNS) — A teary-eyed Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila lamented the deaths of innocent people killed since…
A Massive Ordnance Air Blast, also known as MOAB or Mother Of All Bombs, is pictured in this undated handout photo. Pope Francis told Italian students May 6 he was shocked when a massive U.S. bomb used in Afghanistan was referred to as "the mother of all bombs." (CNS photo/handout via Reuters)

Struggle against the ‘culture of destruction,’ pope tells teens

Posted by - May 13, 2017 0
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis told Italian students he was shocked when a massive U.S. bomb used in Afghanistan…
Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, speaks during an interview in his office at the Vatican April 17. Archbishop Paglia said Pope Francis, in his recent exhortation, "Rejoice and Be Glad," was not trying to shift the focus away from abortion to poverty but rather was trying to show they are part of the same battle. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

‘Seamless garment’ revisited: Pope insists all life deserves defense

Posted by - April 21, 2018 0
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — When Pope Francis insisted that the lives of the unborn and of the poor are “equally…
Women pray during a Holy Hour Jan. 22, 2019, at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. The service and Mass that followed it comprised a Prayer Vigil for Life marking the Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children. Jan. 22 is the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 that legalized abortion across the nation. (CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)

N.Y. bishops decry new law signed on Roe anniversary to expand abortion

Posted by - January 27, 2019 0
ALBANY, N.Y. (CNS) — New York state “has become a more dangerous one for women and their unborn babies” with…