MANILA, (MILLAT/APP/AFP): Thousands of Catholic faithful gathered in the Philippine capital on Saturday for a “show of force” in the biggest rally yet to stop extrajudicial killings in President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war.
More than 6,000 people have died since Duterte took office seven months ago and ordered an unprecedented crime war that has drawn global criticism for alleged human rights abuses, but is popular with many in the mainly Catholic country.
Members of one of the nation’s oldest and most powerful institutions
chanted prayers and sang hymns as they marched to condemn a “spreading culture of violence”.
“We have to stand up. Somehow this is already a show of force by the
faithful that they don’t like these extrajudicial killings,” Manila bishop
Broderick Pabillo told AFP before addressing the crowd.
“I am alarmed and angry at what’s happening because this is something that is regressive. It does not show our humanity.”