MANILA, Philippines – Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David, outgoing president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, rejected a call to revive the death penalty to “kill” corrupt politicians as the country faces a massive corruption scandal.

The proposal was made by Vice Ganda, a popular LGBTQ television host with 19 million followers on Facebook alone.

Vice Ganda, 49, spoke at the Trillion Peso March, a protest against corruption, on September 21. David also delivered a speech at the same anti-corruption rally that drew over 70,000 participants, many of whom carried crucifixes and images of the Virgin Mary.

The protest condemned the theft of billions of pesos in flood control projects, the country’s biggest corruption scandal in over a decade. The Trillion Peso March was one of many Church-backed rallies that took place in different parts of the country on September 21.

“Jail the plunderers!” said Vice Ganda in a protest speech. “For me, in fact, jailing them is not enough. We should kill the corrupt thieves! Reinstate the death penalty for the corrupt! Kill the plunderers! Jail even their families!”

“Pardon me, Father,” the comedian remarked, turning to a priest onstage. “I know you don’t like the death penalty. Just pray for me.”

The death penalty had been implemented in the Philippines for decades until it was abolished on June 24, 2006, through a law signed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, a devout Catholic.

Calls to revive capital punishment have been made through the years, especially during the six-year presidency of Rodrigo Duterte, who blasted Catholic bishops and priests when he was in power. The attempts to reinstate the death penalty have been unsuccessful.

The Catholic Church has long been a staunch opponent of reviving the death penalty in the Philippines, the country with the world’s third-largest number of Catholics. This stance gained a boost after the late Pope Francis, in 2018, revised the Catechism of the Catholic Church to say that “the death penalty is inadmissible.”

A day after the protest where Vice Ganda endorsed the death penalty, the 66-year-old David wrote a Facebook post titled, “Thanks, Vice, but….”

“I understand the outrage and the demand for serious accountability. But the Church’s opposition to capital punishment is rooted in this reality: In practice, it is almost always the poor who end up executed, while the wealthy escape,” said David.

“Those with money can buy the best legal defense, delay trials indefinitely, or manipulate the system. The defenseless and powerless have no such protection,” he added.

A survey by the Free Legal Assistance Group in 2004, when the death penalty was still in place in the Philippines, showed that 73 percent of death row inmates were poor, illiterate Filipinos.

A known defender of Duterte drug war victims, David continued, “History, too, warns us: The law is often weaponized by those in power.”

“Remember how both Saint John the Baptist and Jesus were swiftly condemned to death, while the truly guilty walked away unpunished. That’s why the answer to corruption cannot be more death, but a deeper reform of justice — one that protects the poor and holds the powerful accountable,” the cardinal said.

David, however, shared the call of Vice Ganda and other protesters to hold politicians accountable for the corruption of billions of pesos in flood control projects.

Offering the Church’s protection for whistleblowers, David said during the September 21 protest, “We will open our churches as a sanctuary for those who have the courage to tell the truth.”

“My brothers and sisters, corruption is not only about money that was stolen. It is also about a future that is being stolen until now,” he added. “That is why we are calling on lawmakers: Let us not turn the Senate and the House into a den of thieves!”