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[av_heading heading=’Church stresses: Crime suspects have right to life’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”][/av_heading]
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SAN JOSE, Antique – A community-based anticrime program is good, but the government must also protect even the suspects’ right to life, a local church leader said.
Bishop Romeo Lazo of the Diocese of San Jose de Antique has expressed support to the government’s MASA-Masid (Mamamayang Ayaw sa Anomaliya, Mamamayang Ayaw sa Ilegal na Droga) program.
MASA-Masid entails the creation of volunteer groups in the barangays to:
* intensify advocacy and education campaigns in the community level
* mobilize the community in gathering information by installing a reporting mechanism on illegal drug activities
* mobilize support and encourage sharing of available local resources to hasten the implementation of a community-based rehabilitation program
* create an enabling environment to encourage collaboration among community partners to effectively implement the community-based program
Anomalies and illegal drugs “derail development in the family, workplace, and provincial and national governments,” Lazo said, adding that the church supports the rehabilitation of drug dependents.
But Lazo said they cannot make compromises on their stand against extrajudicial killing and death penalty. “We value life,” he stressed. “It’s God’s gift to people.”
The bishop was reacting to reports that the authorities were allegedly behind the deaths of some drug suspects. (PNA)
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