For two months now, Divine Word missionary priest Flaviano “Flavie” Villanueva has been leading the exhumation of the remains of victims of the Philippine government’s “war on drugs” as part of a program dubbed “Paghilom” or healing.
Five years into Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” families of the victims are literally picking the remains of their loved ones from public cemeteries in the national capital after their five-year “burial contract” expired this year.
Human rights groups estimate that close to 30,000 people have died since Duterte ordered police to go after drug addicts and dealers in a widely condemned campaign that has largely targeted urban poor settlers.
Father Villanueva earlier told LiCAS.news that as a priest “I have the sacred duty to recognize, live with what is right, and denounce what is wrong.” (Photos by Vincent Go for LiCAS.news)
