There have been many concerned people from around the world who expressed their anguish, shock, and are deeply angry at the injustice committed against the children and youth of Davao* city and elsewhere that has been revealed by the Philippine Commission on Human Rights (CHR). The courageous chairperson of the commission, Leila De Lima, who led the public enquiry last week said the majority of victims are very young, mostly youth, terribly poor, semi-illiterate street children. Few if any had been arrested, charged and found guilty of any crime. Their living presence is the embarrassing evidence of gross social inequality and injustice.

The chairperson of the CHR calls this "selective vigilantism", it is not the rich and wealthy drug pushers, traffickers, dealers, and powerful criminals that are assassinated but hundreds of the throwaway  children. "I share the view that no big-time criminals, like drug lords or rich drug pushers and drug users, appear among the victims of the so-called "Davao Death Squad", De Lima told journalists.

Fear can be the poison of the human spirit but there are those in Davao City who are brave and courageous and took a stand against the  Death Squad. Some have been killed.  When I  was charged with libel by Mayor De Guzman in 1999  because I had called on good-hearted defenders of human rights around the world to speak out and write to him to end the killings, he claimed that I blamed him for the killings.

When I was to be arraigned before the court, I flew in to Davao city expecting the worst, a shooter on a motor bike could to be waiting for me. As I stepped out of the airport, what a shock awaited me, there was a group of fifty or more street children waiting with banners, home-made drums and welcome placards. They burst into a cheering noisy mob of well wishers and surrounded me with a protective shied of their own bodies. No shooter was going to get me.

They expected me to be shot, it is what happened to many of their  friends and their courage and dedication brought a lump to my throat. They escorted me, led by the brave Davao Human Rights Workers, to the car park where several hired jeepnies were waiting and I was whisked off to the safety of the Maryknoll Fathers’ house.

When I stood in the courtroom waiting to be arraigned, the Mayor send a message to the court to say he was withdrawing the charges and would busy himself caring for the citizens. The case was dropped with much jubilation from the supporters. The Davao Diocesan Social Action directors had listened to the mounting concern of the true Christians and persuaded the Mayor, who was coming up for re-election, to drop the case. That was my dangerous brush with the Davao Death Squad.

Months later, the  Department of Justice decided positively on my petition to dismiss the charges. It was too late to be of any help other than to prove I was innocent and that there was no evidence that I had libelled the mayor.

It just shows how important it is for us to take a stand for the most important thing there is - the dignity and rights of every human person no matter how poor and powerless they are. Jesus taught us that. "Blessed are the poor, the Kingdom of God is for them", that's why the politicians arrested Jesus, tortured and executed him like a criminal without a fair trial. That's why he is risen and alive today - to inspire us to take a stand for the downtrodden and lift them up to a new life.

*Davao City is the largest city on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines