A top Catholic archbishop yesterday called for Filipinos to choose peace over violence and end a spate of drug-related killings that have divided the nation. 
Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, was speaking as the church launched a new prayer campaign to “heal the nation and stop the killings” in the country.
Philippine Catholic bishops have been stepping up opposition to killings blamed on a government crack down on drugs. They are now asking the faithful to pray for 33 days until December 8, an important Catholic feast of the Immaculate Conception. 
The new campaign follows the 40-day ringing of church bells and lighting of candles for thousands of people killed in President Rodrigo Duterte’s 16-month war on drugs.
More than 3,900 Filipinos have been killed in what the police called self-defence after armed suspects resisted arrest. Critics dispute that and say executions are taking place, with zero accountability, allegations the police reject. In a mass for families of victims of drug-related killings, Villegas said that if the killings continue “a curse awaits a nation that kills its own people”.
Human rights lawyers, politicians, civil society groups and opponents of the president joined the families of victims in a religious procession after the mass to the “People Power” monument, where they held a cultural show.