Flavie Villanueva, a priest who is leading Project Paghilom, lamented the lack of opportunity provided to the families of the victims of extrajudicial killings during the Senate probe on the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.
‘Paghilom’ is an initiative which helps families whose relatives were killed in the drug war to rebuild their lives.
Villanueva presented some of the stories of the EJK victims, including showing a list of over 300 people killed during the drug war.
“So merong mapaglaya, magaang na pakiramdam dahil nakapagpahayag. Ang sabihin nating misgiving or pwede ko sabihin kulang doon ay unang-unang nilimitahan kami sa oras,” said Villanueva in an interview with NewsWatch Plus.
The priest added that only two family members were able to share their stories during the bloody drug war.
“Kasi ang alam lang natin, nanlaban. Di ba? Nanlaban. Pero the circumstances behind kung paano, kung totoo ba yung nanlaban, kung ano ang katotohanan from the victim’s side, we, it’s either we give them, we give a very fraction of platform and very pressured limited time,” said Villanueva.
“Listen to them. Give them ample time. Huwag natin iru-rush. Tapos at the end, we will be the ones ranting,” he added.
The priest also slammed those who laughed and even clapped when former President Rodrigo Duterte was taking the issues lightly.
“Madami pa rin may mata at kamay na pumapalakpak kapag merong kabastusan at patayan. That is for me, I suppose, not I suppose, that is for me the most painful thing that happened yesterday,” said Villanueva.
He also echoed the sentiments of Senator Risa Hontiveros that ‘life is sacred.’
“Yung issue ng droga, hindi naman dapat usapin yun eh. Dahil lahat tayo galit. Lalo higit kapag droga. But obviously, they’re diverting the issue and making a laughing stock simply of his candor which is not only offensive but ako, my post a while ago or yesterday was there was a re-emergence of evil,” he added.
