Response of Bishop Pablo David

Thank you, Ateneo, for this “Bukas Palad” Award.
 

If this award were meant only for me and my achievements as an individual, I would probably have declined it politely. I am accepting it only as a recognition of the pastoral options and directions that we have collectively taken in the Diocese of Kalookan. 
 

It was for our pastoral response to the war against illegal drugs that we have earned the ire of the government. I hope you realize what risks you are taking in giving your Bukas Palad award this year to one who is currently being charged of five criminal offenses by the PNP-CIDG before the Department of Justice: sedition, inciting to sedition, estafa, cyber libel, and obstruction of justice.   
 

I find it ironic that, for asking the government to follow the rule of law, we are now being charged with going against the rule of law. For asking the government to respect our Constitution, we are now being accused of conspiracy to undermine the Constitution and to overthrow  government. I wonder if  I should remind them am just a bishop and a pastor, not a rebel or a political leader.  
 

I have always thought of the Church as the government ‘s closest ally in the work for the common good. If we  sometimes raise a critical voice over some societal concerns, it is precisely because we trust that our democratic system has the capacity to address them, if allowed to function as it should. No doubt, our democracy is far from perfect, but it is a work in progress. I hope they don’t forget that our heroes and martyrs paid a huge price to build our nation on the foundations of freedom and democracy.
 

When we started responding pastorally to the effects of the war against illegal drugs, aside from attending to widows and orphans, and introducing community based rehabilitation programs in our diocese, we felt the need to educate our communities about their basic human rights. To do this, we had to change our vocabulary because we know well that human rights workers are now regarded as enemies of government. And so we called it instead an education in HUMAN DIGNITY. I realize now that it’s actually not a matter of semantics; it is what it really is all about: HUMAN DIGNITY. That each human person possesses innate dignity as a creature in God’s image and likeness.
 

We stood our ground and humbly pleaded to stop the killing and start the healing. In all sincerity, we offered our help so that we could deal with the problem of addiction in a more rational way—that is, to treat it primarily as a mental health issue, than as a crime. We proactively partnered with LGUS in the work of rehabilitating people with SUD: voluntary surrenderers, plea bargainers, CICL. We tried to find allies in the academe—people who could help us prove that there is a more humane way of dealing with addiction and criminality. But we always knew that it was the unpopular way, what I call the redemptive way of Jesus. 
 

You see, even within the Church, it is usually easier to settle for a retributional kind of faith, whose notion of salvation always goes with damnation. Salvation of the good and deserving, damnation of sinners & the undeserving. In this lies the most radical thing about Christianity: the stubborn belief that God intends the salvation of all—not only of the just but of sinners as well. We call it REDEMPTION: salvation that can be won only at a huge price, only at the cost of suffering and death.