I am a voice of the voiceless –
the over 1,400 murdered
in a phony war in Davao
waged by the mayor
and his death squad.
I am a voice of the voiceless –
the over 30,000 and their families all over the country
murdered by death squads and police on
the order of the president who replicated what he did in Davao
I am a voice of the voiceless
whom this murderous tyrant
tried to silence and neutralize.
Now my voice, their voices
have reached the Hague.
I/we will continue to hound
this criminal from Davao
until we meet face to face
in the Hague and see him
and his minions behind bars.
(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Fr. Amado L. Picardal, CSsR is Executive Co-Secretary of the Commission for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation of the Union of Superiors General (USG-UISG) in Rome. A native of Iligan City, Fr. Picx lived and worked in Davao City from 1995 to 2011 and was assigned to Manila where he served as Executive Secretary of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines Basic Ecclesial Communities Committee from 2011 to 2017. He went around the Philippines several times on bike or on foot, for peace and justice. He wrote this poem “after hearing the good news from the Hauge” in June. “At last, our efforts over the last 20 years of speaking out on behalf of the EJK victims in Davao and later the entire country is being heard,” he said).
