The apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Manila said that like the government’s war against illegal drugs, its counterinsurgency campaign is doomed to fail.
In his homily on Sunday at the St. Pius X parish, Bishop Broderick Pabillo of Manila said the fight against insurgents in the country will only be “an utter failure.”
“How many thousands were killed? How many were the collateral damages? Was the number of drug users in the country reduced?” asked the prelate.
“[The anti-insurgency war] will suffer the same fate …. It will also be a failure because these are acts done in the dark,” he said.
Bishop Pabillo said “works of darkness will not prosper.” He cited the recent killings of activists in simultaneous police-military operations outside the Philippine capital.
The prelate denounced what he described the seeming pattern in the killing and arrest of activists, wherein police serve search warrants in the wee hours and allegedly plant evidence.
“Haven’t our police and the government learned that falsely accusing, lying, and killing will never work?” said the bishop.
Nine activists were killed and six others were arrested in simultaneous raids on March 7.
On December 30, nine “red-tagged” indigenous peoples from remote villages of Panay Island were also killed in separate raids by police and soldiers.
