Reacting to the violent war on drug traffickers that has been
launched by President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, a missionary
priest has observed the violence, too, can act like a drug, causing
different forms of addictive behavior.Death squads and hyper-aggressive police forces “can become themselves dependent on violence,” Father Peter Geremia, of the Pontifical Foreign Missions, remarked to the Fides news service.
The people involved in extra-judicial killing of drug dealers under Duterte’s leadership “can also experience a deep sense of guilt, often unconscious, leading to various forms of violence, including alcoholism and drug addiction.”
He concluded: “Killers are dangerous to the their own families.”
In an open letter to the Filipino president, Father Geremia said that Duterte should be able to “convice more people to support a clean fight, not a dirty war, against drugs and corruption.”