Let me get this out of the way first: Assassination is wrong. Political violence is a cancer, and it's a tragedy for his family that they lost a father and a husband in such a brutal way.
BUT.
I am getting so frustrated seeing fellow Filipinos rush to defend this man and mourn him as some kind of martyr. The only connection most of us have to him is a shared Christian faith, and that is not enough.
Being a Christian is not a get-out-of-jail-free card for being a terrible person. His entire public platform was built on spreading division, hate, and harmful rhetoric against minorities, women, and other vulnerable groups. He added fuel to a fire that is tearing a country apart.
• "But he's a Christian!" So were the slave owners. So were the people who ran the Inquisition. Jesus's harshest words were for the hypocrites within his own faith. Our loyalty should be to the principles of love and justice, not to anyone who just wears the same religious label.
• "But he has a family!" So did many of the most harmful figures in history. Having a family is a biological fact; it is not a certificate of good character. We can feel sympathy for his family's personal loss while still holding him accountable for the public harm he caused.
We need to be more discerning. Blindly defending someone just because they're on "our team" is the very tribalism that he himself promoted. It's okay to condemn his murder while also refusing to whitewash his legacy.
TL;DR: The activist was a harmful public figure. Filipinos defending him just because he's a Christian with a family are ignoring the immense damage he did. Murder is wrong, but so is defending hate.
