How I was Saved from the Davao Death Squad
May 6, 2011 · By Father Shay Cullen
There have been many concerned people from around the world who expressed their anguish, shock, and are deeply angry at the injustice committed against the children and youth of Davao city and elsewhere that has been revealed by the Philippine Commission on Human Rights (CHR). The courageous chairperson of the commission, Leila De Lima, who led the public enquiry last week said the majority of victims are very young, mostly youth, terribly poor, semi-illiterate street children. Few if any had been arrested, charged and found guilty of any crime. Their living presence is the embarrassing evidence of gross social inequality and injustice.
- At a gathering of families of victims of human rights violations, the human rights group Karapatan expressed outrage over the extrajudicial killing of one of their peasant leader in down South.
The chairperson of the CHR calls this “selective vigilantism”, it is not the rich and wealthy drug pushers, traffickers, dealers, and powerful criminals that are assassinated but hundreds of the throwaway children. “I share the view that no big-time criminals, like drug lords or rich drug pushers and drug users, appear among the victims of the so-called “Davao Death Squad”, De Lima told journalists.
Even when the skulls and bones of women and children we dug up near a police firing range, as earlier reported in this column, there was little or no civic response or alarm. The community believed wrongly, that they were safer because of the Davao Death Squad and so the atrocities continued. Perhaps they were too frightened to take a stand for human rights, the dignity of the human person and the right to life, our Christian duty.
Fear can be the poison of the human spirit but there are those in Davao City who are brave and courageous and took a stand against the Death Squad. Some have been killed. When I was charged with libel by Mayor De Guzman in 1999 because I had called on good-hearted defenders of human rights around the world to speak out and write to him to end the killings, he claimed that I blamed him for the killings.
When I was to be arraigned before the court, I flew in to Davao city expecting the worst, a shooter on a motor bike could to be waiting for me. As I stepped out of the airport, what a shock awaited me, there was a group of fifty or more street children waiting with banners, home-made drums and welcome placards. They burst into a cheering noisy mob of well wishers and surrounded me with a protective shied of their own bodies. No shooter was going to get me. They expected me to be shot, it is what happened to many of their friends and their courage and dedication brought a lump to my throat. They escorted me, led by the brave Davao Human Rights Workers, to the car park where several hired jeepnies were waiting and I was whisked off to the safety of the Maryknoll Father’s house.
When I stood in the courtroom waiting to be arraigned, the Mayor send a message to the court to say he was withdrawing the charges and would busy himself caring for the citizens. The case was dropped with much jubilation from the supporters. The Davao Diocesan Social Action directors had listened to the mounting concern of the true Christians and persuaded the Mayor, who was coming up for reelection, to drop the case. That was my dangerous brush with the Davao Death Squad. Months later, the Department of Justice decided positively on my petition to dismiss the charges. It was too late to be of any help other than to prove I was innocent and that there was no evidence that I had libeled the mayor.
It just shows how important it is for us to take a stand for the most important thing there is – the dignity and rights of every human person no matter how poor and powerless they are. Jesus taught us that. “Blessed are the poor, the Kingdom of God is for them”, that’s why the politicians arrested Jesus, tortured and executed him like a criminal without a fair trial. That’s why he is risen and alive today – to inspire us to take a stand for the downtrodden and lift them up to a new life. END
