Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) president Kalookan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David condemned the series of incidents involving alleged police abuse as a “systematic” problem in policing.
In a CBCP statement released on Tuesday, Aug. 29, Bishop David said that the “string of recent events pertaining to police officers abusing their authority in the past few weeks could be indicative of the fact that the problem is systematic.”
He was referring to a road rage incident involving a dismissed cop who allegedly pulled out a gun and physically assaulted a cyclist following a road altercation in Quezon City, as well as the case of a 17-year-old boy who was tragically killed by police due to a "mistaken identity" situation.
Bishop David reminded the police that their role is to enforce the law and not to consider themselves above it.
“Our dear cops, you are not the law. You are mere enforcers of the law,” he earlier said.
“You were not given uniforms, armed, and being paid from the country's taxes just to kill people, but rather serve as our protector and savior of the nation you are serving,” he added.
Bishop David was also known as a vocal critic of former president Rodrigo Duterte's “ruthless” war on drugs and a known defender of its victims, especially the bloody campaign against narcotics.
It earned his diocese, which covers the three cities of Caloocan, Malabon, and Navotas (CAMANAVA), the reputation of "killing fields" at the height of the drug war.