DUTERTE CRITIC IN HIDING

President Rodrigo Duterte

A Catholic priest, who was one of the earliest critics of President Duterte’s deadly war on drugs, now fears for his life.

Fr. Amado Picardal, a Redemptorist priest based in Cebu, had gone into hiding after motorcycle-riding hit men were targeting him.

Picardal went to a “more secure location” and out of public sight after workers at the Redemptorist monastery in Cebu City that he visited regularly
reported seeing at least thrice, motorcycle-riding men watching the compound, including a pair who asked for his whereabouts.

“Whatever happens to me — whether the order came from him (Mr. Duterte) or not — the blame will be placed on him for under his regime the culture of death has claimed the lives of over 25,000 people,” he wrote in his blog last Sunday.

“All I know is that there is a death squad determined to kill me,” he added.

Senior Supt. Royina Garma, director of the Cebu City Police Office, urged Picardal to file a formal complaint so they could investigate his claims.

“The problem with some people is they claim to be targets of assassination plots and yet they do not file a complaint. Why simply announce it on your blog?” she told Cebu Daily News.

“They better go to the police station, have the threats (recorded in a ) blotter and we can investigate it. If based on our assessment, there really are threats to his life, then we can provide enough security for them,” she added.

Picardal was spokesperson for the Coalition Against Summary Execution, which tracked the extrajudicial killings in Davao City and assisted the Commission on Human Rights in the investigation of the slayings when the agency was headed by Leila de Lima, now a senator who was under detention on drug trading charges.

The priest published a report on 1,500 killings allegedly carried out by the Davao death squad from 1998 to 2015, which was submitted to support a complaint filed against Mr. Duterte and 11 of his officials in the International Criminal Court.

Picardal was also giving sanctuary to former members of the death squad who would testify in the ICC investigation.

In his blog post on Sunday, Picardal said he had been receiving information since last year that the death squad was going to target priests and that he was at the top of the hit list.

“Death squad” refers to the so-called Davao Death Squad, a group of policemen and militiamen in Davao that killed drug users and pushers and petty criminals during Mr. Duterte’s long term as mayor of the city.

Last March, he decided to live the life of a hermit in Mt. Busay, which offers a magnificent view of Cebu City, after biking 1,500 kilometers from Baclaran in Parañaque City in Metropolitan Manila to Iligan City in northern Mindanao to protest extrajudicial killings in Mr. Duterte’s crackdown on illegal drugs.

But twice a month, he would go down to the Redemptorist monastery to bond with other members of his order, get supplies, check his e-mails and Facebook messages, and go to a nearby coffee shop before dinner.

Last August 6, he was at the monastery to attend a recollection and meeting when Picardal was informed by the gardener that four days before, two men on a motorcycle asked if he was inside the church.

“He (gardener) was suspicious because they did not take off their helmets and kept watching the monastery,” Picardal said.

Barely a month before, on July 7, two men on board a motorcycle also inquired about the whereabouts of the priest from the same gardener.

On the evening of Aug. 11, the security guard of the Redemptorist Church also claimed that six men on board three motorcycles waited outside the sanctuary for about an hour.

Had he gone out of the church and monastery, Picardal said he would have been the fourth priest killed during the Duterte administration.

“I recognized their modus operandi. That’s what I learned from a former member of the Davao Death Squad when we were documenting the extrajudicial killings years before,” said the priest.

When asked for comment, Garma said they do not have full details about Picardal’s alleged threats.

“What is there to investigate when we don’t even know the specifics of what he (Picardal) is talking about? Everything should start with a formal complaint,” she said.

Fr. Cris Mostajo, parish priest of the Mother of Perpetual Help-Redemptorist Church in Cebu City, called on authorities to look into the threats received by Picardal.

“Things like these need attention,” he said.

Mostajo said the series of killings, particularly in Cebu, has become very alarming.

Even priests, he added, are concerned about their safety.

“There will always be persecutions. If you’re faithful in following Christ, you ought to be faithful to the cross,” he said,

“Part of our mission is to be ready to die for the Lord. But we also need to take the necessary precautions,” he added.

Fr. Jerome Secillano, executive secretary of the Permanent Committee on Public Affairs of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, on Monday said he hoped to see Picardal continue doing what the priest did best — serving as the voice of conscience in a country that had grown indifferent to the ills afflicting the nation.

“Father (Picardal) has said a lot about the President and this administration,” Secillano said. “Let’s just hope and pray that nothing untoward (happens) to him.”

In 2017, Picardal said he received information that he was on top of the hit list of priests that the death squad was going to target.

“When the three priests were killed, I was certain I could be next,” he said, alluding to Fathers Mark Anthony Ventura, Richmond Nilo, and Marcelito Paez in Luzon who had been gunned down by assailants in separate incidents since December 2017.

Picardal said he also received a message through email, accusing him of being a drug addict.

After his close calls with the alleged death squad, his superiors in the congregation advised him to not return to the hermitage and instead take refuge in a more secure location.

“They (assailants) are determined to complete their ‘project’ otherwise they won’t be paid,” Picardal said.

He said the only explanation why he was targeted by the death squad was because he preached and wrote against the extrajudicial killings for the last 20 years since he was assigned in Davao.

“The media labeled me as one of the fiercest critics of the president but all I intended to do is to be a conscience of society,” he said.

Despite threats to his life, Picardal said he would not stop criticizing the President for encouraging law enforcers to kill drug suspects.

“I always knew that my life would be at risk and I have accepted this as a consequence of fulfilling my prophetic mission. I am not afraid of death. I am ready to accept martyrdom if they catch up with me, but I do not seek it nor do I make myself an easy target,” he said.

“I will continue to speak out against evil in society through my writings and will fast and pray that the Lord will deliver us from evil,” he added.

Picardal urged the people to pray for his safety and the entire country.

“Someday, I hope I will be able to go back to my sacred space in the mountain of Busay where I

intend to spend the remaining years of my life as a hermit,” he said.