THERE ARE some good Filipino bishops and priests who have stood for human rights, especially those of vulnerable and abused children.
One bishop has encouraged people to file criminal charges against clerical child sex abusers. He is Pablo Virgilio Cardinal David of the Diocese of Kalookan.
This brave follower of Jesus of Nazareth has stood in the defense of the poor and taken an unwavering stand for human rights and dignity. He has also risked his life and reputation by challenging the death squads of former president Rodrigo Duterte.
The late Pope Francis has strongly commended and supported him for his stand — something all Filipino Christians should be doing.
Cardinal David was — and is — living out his faith by speaking out and helping the families of victims of extrajudicial killings (EJKs) during Duterte’s presidency as part of the former president’s war on illegal drugs. The cardinal also stands with the victims of clerical sexual abuse, telling them and their families to file charges against the perpetrators.
Born in Pampanga on March 2, 1959, Cardinal David — who is fondly called “Fr. Ambo” or “Bishop Ambo” — has been a human rights advocate since his student days, when he was joining demonstrations during the regime of Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
A Biblical scholar, Cardinal David was made a bishop in 2015 and a cardinal in 2024, both by Pope Francis.
As bishop of Kalookan, the cardinal opened rehabilitation programs for drug users to protect them and held processions and memorial services for EJK victims.
Cardinal David earned the ire of Duterte, who insulted him and his mother with profanities and filed sedition charges against him to keep him from demanding justice for the victims of the Duterte death squads.
Right now, Duterte is in the custody of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, to face charges of crimes against humanity.
The false charges filed by the police against him and three other outspoken bishops — Socrates Villegas, Honesto Ongtioco and Teodoro Bacani — on July 19, 2019, were for “sedition, cyber libel, libel, estafa, harboring a criminal and obstruction of justice.”
Similar charges were also filed against Fr. Robert Reyes and Bro. Armin Luistro, FSC.
“It has been a heartbreaking meeting with the widows, orphans [and] families of the victims of the war against drugs,” Cardinal David once said, expressing his pain for having been “vilified by the government.”
“Our lives have been threatened but I know in my conscience that what I am doing is right, taking a spiritual stance as a pastor,” he said.
In 2020, he and his fellow accused were exonerated, as there was no evidence against them. (To be continued)/PN
