Marcos urged to create body on drug war killings

Cardinal Pablo Virgilio “Ambo” David has urged President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to create a “truth commission” that would review unresolved cases of drug war killings under Duterte, saying the bloodshed was an “organized criminal activity funded by government” that was never thoroughly examined.

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The bishop of Caloocan — whose diocese covers cities that were “epicenters” of extrajudicial killings under Rodrigo Duterte — shared with the media his formal petition to the president on Friday, November 7. He was flanked by at least three relatives and widows of those killed during Duterte’s drug war, and the priests and nuns who provided pastoral care to the families of victims.

The diocese of Caloocan covers the cities of Caloocan, Malabon and Navotas.

David’s appeal challenges Marcos to expand his anti-corruption campaign beyond flood control projects to address what he called “the most rampant killing brought about by corruption” in recent Philippine history.

The cardinal said last year’s QuadComm hearings — where a key witness had confirmed there was an actual rewards system for killings — did not lead to prosecutions or a “meaningful resolution” as they were merely in aid of legislation.

“I made a humble petition addressed to the President of the Philippines,” David said in mixed English and Filipino. “In recent weeks our attention has been focused on corruption. But there is an aspect of corruption that has not been investigated enough — the connection between corruption and killing.”

David stressed he was speaking not as president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines but as bishop of a diocese that bore the brunt of the violence.

“We're too focused on infrastructure corruption,” he said. “There are many kinds of corruption, and the corruption that kills people — we experienced it during the previous administration in what they called the war on drugs, and I call the war on the poor.”

The Department of Justice made a rare admission in March — shortly after Duterte’s arrest and transfer to the International Criminal Court’s custody — that the system “failed” drug war victims’ families due to incomplete or unreliable police reports and the lack of standard investigatory procedures.