CinemaBravo

Dagupan-Lingayen Archbishop Socrates Villegas, fondly known as Father Soc, looked back on a deeply personal moment with the late Pope Francis, remembering how the Holy Father offered him words of encouragement during a difficult time marked by threats and mockery over his vocal opposition to extrajudicial killings (EJKs) under former President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration.

In his statement following the passing of Pope Francis, the Archbishop shared that the Pope had personally consoled him during a meeting in Rome. The encouragement came at a time when Villegas was under immense pressure for releasing pastoral letters denouncing the killings tied to the Duterte government’s war on drugs.

“When I was mocked and ridiculed and threatened by government authorities in my stand against the extrajudicial killings, he assured me and encouraged me personally in Rome to carry on my task of guiding the flock through my pastoral letters,” he recalled.

During the Duterte presidency, Archbishop Villegas stood out as one of the most outspoken leaders of the Catholic Church, firmly criticizing human rights violations and urging moral accountability from those in power.

In his capacity as president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) in 2017 and as Dagupan-Lingayen Archbishop, he issued several strongly worded statements condemning the rampant EJKs.

In one of his pastoral letters, Villegas called on churches to ring their bells for 40 nights as a sign of mourning and protest.

“The relentless and bloody campaign against drugs that shows no sign of abating impels us, your bishops, to declare: In the name of God, stop the killings!” Villegas said in the letter.

The letter drew sharp criticism from then-Philippine National Police (PNP) chief and now Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, who dismissed the bishops’ stance and remarked that he could “communicate with God without passing through them.”

Dela Rosa served as Duterte’s first PNP chief and was the chief implementer of Oplan Double Barrel and Oplan Tokhang as part of the former administration’s campaign promise to end illegal drugs in three to six months.

He also defended Duterte’s drug war numerous times after being elected senator, even remarking “shit happens” when asked about the death of a three-year-old girl in an anti-drug operation.