President Rodrigo Duterte 
The incoming president of the Philippines Catholic bishops’ conference has caused a stir after saying fighting the proliferation of drugs should take precedence over narcotic related killings.
The senior prelate’s statement last week was a change in Church dialogue relating to the issue, which has condemned President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.
At a Mass offered to save children from drugs Archbishop Romulo Valles said Filipinos should “push, inspire and not condemn” the country’s police force.
Most of the close to 12,000 killings of suspected drug users and peddlers have been blamed on the national police’s “all-out war” against illegal drugs in the past year.
“We will not forget the killings. That is terrible. But one side of it is we will inspire the police to do their jobs according to the book,” Archbishop Valles told reporters in Davao.
The incoming leader of the country’s Catholic bishops, who is known to be a friend of President Rodrigo Duterte, said: “I think we have to first address the problem of drugs. Drugs kill, not only [extrajudicial killings]. That comes in second,” said the prelate who will take the helm of the bishops’ conference on December 1.
Carmelite priest Gilbert Billena said the statement was not what he expected, adding that the Church should always “side with the poor and victims of the many senseless killings today”.
