“It is necessary to intervene where evil spreads, because evil spreads where there are no daring Christians who oppose with good” Pope Francis.

At this juncture of the country’s history where people are being attacked by a tyrant, we can not just remain silent. The Christians for National Liberation strongly condemn the ongoing attacks by the President against church people and almost all who oppose him and his policies. He is the modern Rameses personified, and admitted “My only sin is the extra judicial killings”. He had engineered mass killings of alleged drug suspects, but in essence a counter insurgency tactic. He ordered to bomb the Lumad schools in Mindanao. He is a misogynist and uses theatrics that is disgusting. Just like the leaders we knew from Scriptures, the present Filipino Rameses continue to fiercely attack the Catholic church leaders/bishops and even ordered to “cut off their head”,the series of clergy killings, the expulsion of an Australian missionary who worked for more than three decades- Sr. Patricia Fox hence our CNL position is : he is unworthy of his position and should be ousted.

We salute our brave bishops who dared to speak against the continued tirade against the Catholic church, its practices including his calling “God as stupid”. For them in the bureaucracy, a good Catholic should not meddle in politics, but we at CNL agree with the position of Pope Francis, “That is not true, a good Catholic meddles in politics, offering the best of himself/herself so that those who govern can govern”. This is because it is only the Church who dared to criticize his bloody drug war and have seen thousands killed and the intensifying human rights violations. Of late is the lowering of the age for criminal liability among children to nine(9) years old, is deadly and shameful while allowing those who have clear criminal cases of plunder, just because they are old, are still free.

The Duterte-type electioneering is so shameful as he and his family members endorses candidates that belong to their party . On the other hand party-lists that truly represent the voice of the marginalized such as health workers and the indigenous people were disqualified. The plebiscite result for the Bangsa Moro Organic Law also clearly indicates his manipulative style of votes cast. He is not interested in the peace negotiations but in just scapegoating the CPP and New People’s Army for the purpose of declaring martial law nationwide in his mad drive to establish a fascist dictatorship under the guise of charter change to federalism.

We call on all Christians and faith believers to be daring now to speak against the new Rameses, the tyrant in our midst, to be engaged with the people whom we vowed to serve for we can not remain silent anymore. Oust Duterte !