THE Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines on Monday appealed to law enforcers to uphold “reason and humanity” in their campaign against criminals, and particularly those involved in illegal drugs.
CBCP president Pangasinan Archbishop Socrates Villegas praised the police’s intensified campaign against crime but voiced alarm over the increasing incidents of suspects being killed because they were resisting arrest.
“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 have been shot supposedly because they resist arrest,” Villegas said.
“It is equally disturbing that vigilantism seems to be on the rise. Media have carried reports of bodies, apparently of homicide or murder victims, showing up on whom placards announcing their supposed crimes are writ large!”
Villegas urged the police not to resort to summary executions in addressing the problem of criminality.
With incoming President Rodrigo Duterte’s endorsement for the people to exercise warrant-less arrest, the CBCP called on the people to abhor vigilantism or participate in vigilante movements.
Villegas said that while the Church recognized the difficulties that the law enforcers faced, it appealed to them to always uphold the rule of law in going after lawless elements in the country.
