DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 07 January) – At the height of the killings perpetrated by the Davao Death Squad (DDS) here, Davao Archbishop Fernando Capalla wrote “Thou Shall Not Kill” in November 2001, a pastoral letter against “summary killings;” directed his priests in 2005 to display prominently on the façade or fences of all Catholic churches here streamers proclaiming “Thou shall not kill; Respect life,” in protest of the spate of summary executions in the city; and in 2009, issued an Oratio Imperata (obligatory prayer) to be recited for one year, for the city’s healing from “unabated series of summary killings.”
The Oratio Imperata was to be recited on bended knees after the Holy Communion, “personally and as a community,” for one year starting Ash Wednesday, February 25, 2009 until 2010.
During this period — 2001 to 2010 — the mayor of the city was Rodrigo Rodrigo Duterte. In 2016, he would be elected the country’s 16th President and the first Mindanawon to rule the nation.
Assessing the first 100 days of the Duterte Presidency in October 2016, Capalla told MindaNews in a sit-down interview that he felt “sorry for Digong” (Duterte’s nickname) and “worried about him as a friend.”
“I think he has a problem and we need to help him. He is in the course of self-destruction without even knowing that he is ruining himself. I don’t know that he knows that but because he is already there, we need to help him. How? That’s a big question if he can only listen… listen to other people,” Capalla said.
“Listen. Listen. Listen.”
His message to Duterte on his first 100 days as President was: “Listen. Listen. Listen.”
“I will tell him. ‘Digong, ang Ginoo naghatag kanatog duha ka dalunggan, usa ra baba’ (God gave us two ears and only one mouth) which means that we have to listen twice as much as we speak, di ba? But it’s the reverse eh. That’s why we are in trouble… The ears are important. But we should listen not only with the two ears but with the third ear or the heart. Mao na akong message sa iya pero will he accept that? Will he listen to that?” Capalla asked.
“Saludo kita sa iyang maayong gibuhat, iyang decisiveness pero mawala ang imong respeto kung puro ‘I will kill you’ lang sa baba niya. (We salute him for the good things he is doing, for his decisiveness but he will lose respect when he keeps saying ‘I will kill you’), added Capalla.
Capalla died shortly before 2 a.m. on January 6 at his residence at the College Seminary compound here, his remains brought to the San Pedro Cathedral at 3:30 p.m. for the reception rites and the requiem mass. Interment is on January 15 at the cathedral crypt.
Duterte visited Capalla’s wake at the cathedral’s Chapel of the Saints a little past 11 p.m. on January 6 until a little past 12 a.m. on January 7, accompanied by his partner, Honeylet Avancena.
Before proceeding to the wake, Duterte had a press conference, his first with the Davao media since he stepped down as President on June 30, 2022, where he discussed various issues.
His message on the death of Capalla: “He was not only a good friend but I revere him as a religious man. I’ve always acknowledged his ascendancy sa buhay ko as a private person, as a public official. Pinapatawag nya ako (He would call for me) for advice to me from him. Pumpunta talaga ako sa kanya (I really go to him). There were also some occasions na I sought his counsel. He was a good counsellor, adviser, he was a good constituent and I respect him deeply. I am sad sa pagkamatay niyaand I express my utmost profound condolences to the family,” Duterte said.
At the wake, Duterte told MindaNews he could not recall exactly when he and Capalla last talked but “he was already sick then” He maintains that despite their differences, he respected the Archbishop.
Capalla retired as Archbishop in 2009 but continued as the head of the Archdiocese of Davao until Archbishop Romulo Valles took over on May 22, 2012.
When MindaNews interviewed him for the 100-day assessment in 2016, he was Archbishop Emeritus of Davao.
Capalla was Co-adjutor Bishop of Davao from 1994 to 1996 and Archbishop of Davao from 1996 to 2012. Duterte was mayor from 1988 to 1998, 2001 to 2009, and 2013 to 2016, was 1st district Representative from 1998 to 2001 and vice mayor from 2010 to 2013.
“Can you help my son become a religious leader?”
Capalla recalled in the 2016 interview that a day after his installation as Archbishop of Davao in 1996, he received at the Bishop’s residence a visitor with a special request: “can you help my son become a religious leader?”
The visitor was Soledad Roa Duterte and the son she was referring to was Rodrigo, then into his third term as mayor of Davao City.
Capalla, co-convenor of the Mindanao Bishops-Ulama Conference, remembers vividly how during his installation as Archbishop, the son-mayor went up the altar immediately after the mass to greet him. His first impression of the mayor and subsequent encounters with him, gave the Archbishop glimpses into the man who struck him as a “very, very humble, respectful person.”
For a couple of years – Capalla reckons around five – Mayor Duterte would be his special guest every Holy Thursday. “He would let me know that he is coming to see me at 8 o’clock in the evening….Every Holy Thursday he would come and talk about Davao….”
While residents of this predominantly Catholic city spent their Holy Thursdays on Visita Iglesia, “Visita Obispo siya (Duterte),” Capalla said.
Capalla also noted how Duterte would sometimes come out in the media to say “I don’t agree with the Church” on issues like reproductive health, family life, abortion, killings but in their one-on-one conversations, Duterte would say, “Bishop, when you speak as Archbishop of Davao and you teach people about the Church, I really respect you even if I don’t agree with you.” Capalla responded, “Mayor, ako pud. If you speak as Mayor, I respect you but I will not hesitate to criticize you.”
The Archbishop said the Mayor replied, “Basta we remain as friends.”
“I was really appreciative of his sense of right and wrong,” the Archbishop said.
In 2016, Capalla said that if he were given the chance to talk to President Duterte, “I would mention his mother, I would say to him that what you are doing now, your mother may not like it. I’ll say also that this is not the Digong I knew.”
He said the Digong he knew then “was a very, very humble respectful person .. I know he would really respect his mother and respect the church pero karon what he says about the church, it is as if he does not know what the church is all about.”
Capalla wrote the Pastoral Letter “Thou Shall Not Kill” in November 2001, a month after Duterte read in his Sunday TV program a list of 500 persons whom he said could help the city in its campaign against illegal drugs. At least four of those on the list were killed or ended up dead within a few weeks. By November 2001, at least 150 persons had been reported to have been felled since 1995 by the DDS, a shadowy group that has been repeatedly linked to Duterte but which he has repeatedly denied.
The DDS issue, however, would continue to hound Duterte all the way to his Presidency and beyond. (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)
READ:
Q and A with Davao Archbishop Emeritus Fernando Capalla: “He could be the greatest President of the Philippines if….”
November 2001 Pastoral Letter: Thou Shall Not Kill