The president of De La Salle Philippines was “deeply disturbed” by the spate of killings under the new administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Bro. Jose Mari Jimenez urged the Lasallian educational communities to speak against the extrajudicial killings that are part of the new administration’s campaign against crime and illegal drugs.
More than the alarming number of killings since May, Jimenez said that he was more troubled by the “absence of a significant public outcry against the blatant contempt for the human life and the rule of law that these extra-judicial killings represent.”
Extrajudicial killings mean desperation, he said in a statement published on the De La Salle website on Jul 21.
“We need to remind everyone that if we want a just and peaceful society, our means must partake of our ends. You cannot build a culture that respects life while relying principally on the instruments of death,” he added.
Borrowing from John Paul II’s 1987 encyclical Sollicitudo rei socialis (The social concern), the Lasalian brother explained that a better community only results from the promotion of each one’s ” dignity, rights and responsibilities without exception.”
He called on Lasallian communities to engage authorities “as partners in building communities that reflect the values of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality and peace enshrined in our Constitution.”
Lasallian educators, he said, must focus on using resources and influence “to help create more life-giving conditions for those disadvantaged communities.”
