For human rights defenders, Cardinal-elect Ambo David is good news

‘We pray that his role as cardinal would further promote the interest of citizens, especially victims of injustice and the war on drugs,’ Methodist deaconess Rubilyn Litao tells Rappler

MANILA, Philippines – Human rights defenders, including those from Protestant churches, hailed the appointment of Kalookan Bishop Pablo Virgilio “Ambo” David as one of 21 new cardinals of the Catholic Church. 

United Methodist deaconess Rubilyn Litao, coordinator of the ecumenical human rights group Rise Up for Life and for Rights, hopes David will wield heavier influence in speaking out for human rights victims.

“We pray that his role as cardinal would further promote the interest of citizens, especially victims of injustice and the war on drugs,” Litao told Rappler in Filipino on Wednesday, October 9. “His stand for justice is a big thing for us who push for justice for the poor.”

The Church People Workers Solidarity, a Christian labor group, also “welcomes the appointment” of David as cardinal, reported church-run Radio Veritas. The group said the cardinal-elect embodies being a “church of the poor.”

In a separate statement, the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) said they hope David’s appointment will “serve as a powerful representation of the God of justice and compassion and as an inspiration all people.” The NCCP is the largest alliance of mainline Protestant and non-Roman Catholic churches in the country.

David, 65, is an internationally trained Bible scholar and human rights defender who has led the Diocese of Kalookan since 2016. In his role as bishop of Kalookan, he is the shepherd of around 1.3 million Catholics — many of whom are poor — in the cities of Caloocan, Malabon, and Navotas. 

During the Duterte administration, the Diocese of Kalookan was a hot spot of killings in the war on drugs. In 2017, after the killing of 17-year-old Kian delos Santos in Caloocan City, David said his diocese has turned into a “killing field,”

‘We waited for that moment’

With his appointment as cardinal, David can “offer even greater service to the Church and to the world,” said the Diocese of Kalookan in a statement on Tuesday, October 8. 

Sister Maria May Cano, executive secretary of Caritas Kalookan, said on Thursday, October 10, that David as a cardinal will be “an instrument in proclaiming the good news in the universal Church.”

She described David as “a man of prayer, a man of faith, a man of action, and a man of love.”

“I know and I believe that he has the capacity,” she told Rappler. “I believe that he is God-sent.”

Cano, who has worked with David since 2014, added that cardinal-elect has a big role in transforming the universal Church. In the same way, he can help in implementing the fruits of the Synod on Synodality, a three-year process of dialogues and consultations to chart the future of the Catholic Church.

Even as early as 2016, when David moved to the Diocese of Kalookan from the Archdiocese of San Fernando in Pampanga, Cano said she knew he would be a cardinal one day.

The Dominican sister also said she spoke to Archbishop Emeritus Paciano Aniceto of San Fernando, Pampanga — David’s former superior — about David and his potential to be a cardinal.

“I was on the verge of tears when I learned he was named a cardinal, because we really waited for that moment,” Cano said in Filipino. – Christelle Velasquez/Rappler.com