Davao bishop affirms importance of accountability, but extends pastoral support, prayers to Duterte

While Catholic bishops across the country urged unity among the divided Filipinos regarding the arrest and impending trial of former President Rodrigo Duterte in The Hague, the Archdiocese of Davao, where Duterte hails from, has called for a more nuanced approach during these tumultuous times.

In his pastoral message on Monday, Davao Archbishop Romulo Valles, a known close friend of Duterte, asked for “fairness and dignity” for the former president’s family.

“While we affirm the importance of accountability, we also extend our pastoral support and prayers to the former President and his family; he being a son of this local Church, so beloved by a vast number of our faithful,” he said.

“Justice, however, must be pursued with fairness and integrity. It must remain free from partisan political motivations or personal vendettas,” the prelate added.

Valles, who was the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) from 2017 to 2021 during the Duterte administration, urged the government to uphold due process, adhere to the rule of law, and respect the fundamental principle of the presumption of innocence.

“Only through such commitment to justice can true peace be achieved,” he noted.

Valles has had close ties with Duterte, his friend, for years. Valles has served in Mindanao since the 1970s.

from priest based in Tagum, to being bishop of Kidapawan, archbishop of Zamboanga and archbishop of Davao, a title he has held since 2012.

Valles led the opening prayer at Duterte’s presidential inauguration in 2016, and even baptized Duterte’s youngest grandson, Stonefish Carpio, in 2017.

According to Valles, Duterte’s arrest and detention at a foreign country has “strained relationships and now challenge(s) our unity as people.”

The archbishop also told the faithful “to reject hatred and division, choosing instead the path of dialogue over discord, and reconciliation over conflict.”

The Archdiocese of Davao, which covers Davao City, Samal, Talaingod and Davao del Norte, has the most number of Filipino Catholics in Mindanao.

Out of the 1.8 million population in the areas under the archdiocese, about 82 percent or around 1.5 million are Catholics, according to latest data from the Vatican.

Valles’ pastoral message is the first time that a ranking official of the Catholic Church in the country would be sympathetic with Duterte and his family following the arrest of the former president last week.

Duterte is set to stand trial before the International Criminal Court at the Hague for a case of crimes against humanity

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In relation to the extrajudicial killings as part of his war on drugs during his time as mayor of Davao City and later as president from 2011 to 2019.

Church leaders critical of drug war

The Catholic Church has been among the most vocal in denouncing Duterte’s bloody campaign against drugs as a state-sanctioned war against the poor and violating the fundamental right to life.

When Duterte was arrested, Caritas Philippines, the social action arm of the CBCP, called for the former president to submit himself to the legal process and face the consequences of his actions.

Another bishop from Mindanao, Kidapawan Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo, president of Caritas Philippines, as well as San Carlos Bishop Gerardo Alminaza, stressed that the families of those killed in Duterte’s drug war deserve justice and reparations.

Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David, Kalookan bishop and incumbent CBCP president, did not issue a statement, but was reposting his previous homilies and commentaries at the height of the war on drugs, coupled with the wakes, burials and crime scenes of those murdered in his diocese.

Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, Valles’ predecessor as head of the CBCP, called for sobriety and reflection among all Filipinos regardless of their ethnic roots, languages, politics, economics, faith, and religion.

He lamented how his countrymen have succumbed to what he called a “decay of morality and the loss of rationality in our society” because of “drinking water from many polluted wells of fake news, blind sentimentalism, vulgarity, violence, and mob rule.”