A Baptist bishop and human rights committee chair in the House of Representatives is pushing back against Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano’s characterization of the Duterte-era drug war as a pro-life campaign, citing scripture and constitutional principles to argue that killing the innocent cannot be framed as a moral imperative.
Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr. invoked Proverbs 6:17 in a statement Monday, pointing to “hands that shed innocent blood” as among the sins condemned in the Bible — a direct counter to Cayetano’s recent remarks defending the anti-drug campaign.
“The irresponsible statement of the SP runs counter even to the Bible that he professes to believe and quote often,” Abante said. “This only tells us that if ever Sara (Duterte) becomes president, she will follow in the footsteps of her father.”
Cayetano had defended the drug war during a Facebook live session Saturday, saying the campaign was fundamentally about saving lives. “It’s a pro-life campaign dahil pumapatay ang drugs. For many of those who are on the side of declaring war on drugs, it was not about EJK, because we don’t excuse that. Ang sinasabi nga natin, we have to do it the right way,” the Senate President said.
He also acknowledged the other side of the debate: “There is the other side, yung nagsasabing it was a front, maraming pinatay na inosente.….. Sasabihin mo, ‘God is on our side kasi ayaw ni Lord ng drugs.'”
Abante, while agreeing that the drug trade itself constitutes a human rights concern, drew a firm line on due process. “Both who are killed because of drugs and the guns, whether they’re vigilantes or police, are human rights violations. What we are after is accountability and due process,” he said.
Official government figures placed the death toll from anti-drug operations at around 6,300, though human rights organizations have long maintained the actual number from extrajudicial killings ranges from 12,000 to 30,000.
Abante’s position carries particular weight given his own political history. He supported the Duterte administration but later said, following hearings of the 19th Congress human rights committee in January 2024, that testimonies from victims’ families had persuaded him the police operations were irregular.
During the quad committee proceedings — composed of the committees on human rights, dangerous drugs, public order and safety, and public accounts — Abante had pressed for human rights issues to be included even as early discussions centered on Philippine offshore gaming operators and their links to anti-drug activities. He disclosed as early as August 2024 that money from Pogo operations was allegedly used to reward police for killing drug suspects.
That claim found corroboration in testimony from former police colonels Edilberto Leonardo and Royina Garma, both of whom confirmed the existence of a rewards system within the drug war apparatus. Garma told the quad committee in October 2024 that then-president Duterte reached out to her in May 2016 to establish a task force modeled on the so-called Davao template — a cash incentive system giving officers between P20,000 and P1 million for killing drug suspects.
Abante stressed Monday that Cayetano, as a lawyer, should know better. “Let me remind SP Cayetano that we are not a socialist nor a communist country. And he should realize no one can escape accountability. We are a nation under God and the Constitution even says that life is sacred. He is supposed to be brilliant, who knows the Constitution,” he said.
