MANILA, Philippines – Missionary priest Father Flavie Villanueva said the arrest of former president Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday, March 11, should serve as a lesson to Filipinos not to elect similar leaders in the May 12 elections.
“Mag-isip naman sana (Please think),” Villanueva said in a Rappler live broadcast on Tuesday evening. “Let us think of who would be the next people we would be entrusting to lead us.”
“Let us learn from the Dutertes,” the priest said.
Duterte, 79, was arrested on Tuesday morning after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant over a crimes against humanity case. Human rights groups said Duterte’s drug war killed close to 30,000 people.
Villanueva, a priest of the Society of the Divine Word, was among the Catholic priests who received death threats and even faced a sedition case for taking a critical stance against Duterte’s government.
A former drug addict himself, Villanueva said Duterte’s arrest came because of “the people who fought and the victims who bravely stood against and said no to the killings — media, the widows and orphans, a fraction of the Church, and the rest of the people who believe that any killing and all forms of killing is wrong.”
Caritas Philippines, the social action arm of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, appealed to Duterte supporters and political allies “to set aside personal loyalty and choose to stand with the rule of law.”
“True justice is not about political allegiance or personal loyalty. It is about accountability, transparency, and protection of human dignity,” said Kidapawan Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo, president of Caritas Philippines, in a statement on Tuesday.
“We urge Duterte to uphold his own words and submit himself to the legal process,” Bagaforo said.
The People’s Impeachment Movement, a coalition of religious personalities backing Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment, welcomed the arrest warrant against Duterte.
Duterte’s arrest is the chapter “long-awaited” by families of Duterte drug war victims, said Father Bong Sarabia, a member of the People’s Impeachment Movement and one of the priests who filed impeachment complaints against the Vice President.
“Patunay na rin ito na walang sinasanto ang batas, kahit dati ka pang pangulo ng bansa (This is proof that the law has no sacred cows, even if you are the country’s former president),” Sarabia said. – Rappler.com