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Cristina Chi - Philstar.com
November 7, 2025 | 2:12pm
MANILA, Philippines — Cardinal Pablo Virgilio “Ambo” David has urged President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to create a "truth commission" that would review unresolved cases of drug war killings under Duterte, saying the bloodshed was an "organized criminal activity funded by government" that was never thoroughly examined.
The bishop of Caloocan — whose diocese covers cities that were "epicenters" of extrajudicial killings under Rodrigo Duterte — shared with the media his formal petition to the president on Friday, November 7. He was flanked by at least three relatives and widows of those killed during Duterte's drug war, and the priests and nuns who provided pastoral care to the families of victims.
The diocese of Caloocan covers the cities of Caloocan, Malabon and Navotas.
David's appeal challenges Marcos to expand his anti-corruption campaign beyond flood control projects to address what he called "the most rampant killing brought about by corruption" in recent Philippine history. The cardinal said last year's QuadComm hearings — where a key witness had confirmed there was an actual rewards system for killings — did not lead to prosecutions or a "meaningful resolution" as they were merely in aid of legislation.
“I made a humble petition addressed to the President of the Philippines,” David said in mixed English and Filipino. “In recent weeks our attention has been focused on corruption. But there is an aspect of corruption that has not been investigated enough — the connection between corruption and killing.”
David stressed he was speaking not as president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines but as bishop of a diocese that bore the brunt of the violence. "We're too focused on infrastructure corruption," he said. "There are many kinds of corruption, and the corruption that kills people — we experienced it during the previous administration in what they called the war on drugs, and I call the war on the poor."
The Department of Justice made a rare admission in March — shortly after Duterte's arrest and transfer to the International Criminal Court's custody — that the system “failed” drug war victims’ families due to incomplete or unreliable police reports and the lack of standard investigatory procedures.
Legal counsel representing the families has said that filing a case is often impossible due to missing documents, altered death certificates, the absence of CCTV footage and reluctance from authorities to cooperate.
Thousands of cases remain unresolved
The call for a truth commission comes as thousands of drug war killings remain classified as "deaths under unvestigation." This label, David said, allowed hired killers to hide behind anonymity while pursuing individuals whose names appeared on drug watch lists.
In Caloocan alone, police files were destroyed in a "mysterious fire," David said, making the reopening of unresolved cases more difficult.
"How obvious that they were destroying everything," David said. "I wouldn't be surprised if in many instances, some evidence is already destroyed."
The cardinal said a truth commission — modeled on bodies created in other countries emerging from periods of systemic violence — would serve multiple purposes: provide a safe venue for victims and witnesses to be heard, encourage disclosure from law enforcers under legal safeguards, review unresolved cases, recommend reparations and psychosocial support for families, and propose reforms to prevent future abuses.
What would concrete reconciliation look like? David said there are three requirements: admission of wrongdoing by those responsible, genuine remorse, and acts of reparation. "There can be no reconciliation if there is no remorse," he said. "If there is no regret for what the families of victims went through."
While lamenting the violence that ravaged the country at the time, David also acknowledged that many police officers may have participated under pressure. "It was difficult to say no. It was almost taken for granted that we should cooperate," he said. "If they admit that, that's already a first big step."
Beyond police operations, David wants the investigation to capture the whole "system" of killings that is alleged to be government-funded.
When people were no longer buying the "nanlaban (fought back)" narrative, David said they “gradually switched to paid assassins, death squads, hired killers who needed to be rewarded with money to carry out the crime.
“So all of it was really an organized criminal activity funded by government. ’Yan po ang ibig kong sana ay mabigyan din ng pansin. Masyado tayong nakatutok lang sa infrastructure corruption (That's what I would like to be investigated. We too focused on infrastructure corruption)," he said.
Everyone who was "complicit" and who "enabled the system" must be subject to investigation regardless of police rank or position, David said, adding that this would be the only way to bring "closure" to families, many of whom have found no recourse in the justice system.
Call for civilian-led investigation
The commission, David said, should be led by civilian authorities, specifically the National Police Commission, which has constitutional authority over the Philippine National Police. While police cooperation would be necessary to access files, he said civilian leadership was essential to restore public trust.
"You can say the same thing about the PNP as you would about Congress investigating flood control — how can we believe your investigation when many of you are involved?" David said. "I'm not making a blanket judgment of the whole PNP. There are many good police officers. But the institution got tainted during the past administration."
Still, he argued that participation in such an inquiry would also help “rehabilitate the reputation of the Philippine National Police.”
National healing
In his letter, David wrote that the church continues to encounter “mothers who were widowed and children who were orphaned, often overnight,” and that their grief “is carried daily in silent tears, empty chairs at the dinner table, and the trauma that lingers in the hearts of young children who still ask, ‘Why did this happen to my father?’ ”
Establishing the truth through proper investigation was crucial for the country to move forward, David said. "Truth-telling is not an act of reopening wounds — it is the only path by which wounds can finally heal," he wrote in his letter to the president. "Silence breeds resentment and fear. Truth restores dignity, trust, and moral coherence to our democracy."
The cardinal believes the commission should be a fact-finding body that could recommend criminal charges where warranted, but its primary purpose would be establishing truth and providing closure to families who have lived in fear and uncertainty for years.
He stressed that calls to create the commission would not be an act of vengeance but a path to the country's healing. “As a priest, I always presume that no one is inherently evil,” he said. “But when wrongdoing becomes a system, even good people begin to justify it."
