Kalookan’s Catholic bishop has once again called on the public not to accept violence as normal following recent incidents of killings in his diocese.
Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, who is also the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, said that killing is “cruel, abnormal and inhuman”.
“Let us not allow our humanity to continue to be diminished by accepting these acts of violence as normal,” David said in a statement titled, “For heaven’s sake, stop the killings!”
The bishop made the call after two unidentified assailants killed Jamarie Flores, a 30-year-old father, and his nine-year old son, Jaycee, in Navotas City on October 15.
The killings inside a small retail store occurred in one of the diocese’s mission stations in the village of Tangos South.
Reports reaching the bishop, who is currently in Thailand for an Asian bishops’ meeting, said the child got hit by the bullets that had been fired at his father.
Flores’ mother also got hurt in the incident, but survived.
A third victim identified as Gerardo Garcia was also shot and killed because he stood up after the gunmen had ordered the people to clear the area or lie prostrate on the ground, the prelate added.
David said the latest violence adds to the hundreds of unresolved cases of killings “that remain unresolved up to now, and, like most others, uninvestigated”.
“May Jomarie, Jaycee and Gregorio not end up as a mere addition to the very long list,” he said.
