It is truly an age of disbelief. Respect for the values of human life has plunged. The number of people of Christian faith, who declare belief in the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth that upholds the dignity and rights of the human person, stand with the poor and the excluded, share with the refugees and the homeless, is at an all-time low.

The death of two small children caught in the gunfire of the vigilante assassins sent to kill suspected drug users and peddlers is an unfolding tragedy. The shoot-to-kill policy that has claimed at least 2,500 lives in the past few months is a descent into hell. 

Five-year-old Danica Mae Garcia was shot dead when two men on a motorcycle stopped at the house of Maximo Garcia while he was having lunch with his wife Gemma and their two grandchildren in the village of Mayombo, Dagupan City.

The speaker in the House of Representatives, Pantaleon Alvarez, and the member from Capiz, Fredenil Castro, want to put the death penalty back on the Philippine law books claiming that it is a deterrent to crime.

A few weeks ago, 69 Vietnamese victims of human trafficking were found in The Philippines. They had been brought from Vietnam two at a time on tourist visas by a syndicate and made to work for three years, on low wages or none at all, by human traffickers.

The whole group was then abandoned by the gang-masters, declared indigent and deported.

There is a wise saying, “Be careful of what you promise. People might believe it.”

On June 30, Rodrigo Duterte was sworn in as the new president of The Philippines. A politician well-known for his somewhat exaggerated style of speaking and promises to eradicate crime and corruption, this time he promised to do it within three to six months of his inauguration.

The Philippines is moving away from its former ear of compassion and justice to one where the innocent are targets for assassination and imprisonment on false charges.

In recent weeks, dozens of bodies have been found, shot dead, with signs pinned on them, declaring them criminals deserving to die.

But there was no trial, no justice. The killers have contempt for the process of justice. 

Maria Rae was just 13-years-old when she began to have conflict with her aunt. She came from a broken home. She was abandoned when her parents split up.

This is the great injustice and hardship suffered by the children of couples who come together without lasting love. They are driven more by impulse, have an unwanted child and then part ways, abandoning the child.

Young people by the thousands are dropping dead after stuffing chemicals into their bodies to forget their problems or just to get an exciting high to overcome their inhibitions.

A few weeks ago at an open air dance concert in Manila, another five people collapsed on the dancefloor and died, either on the spot or later in hospital from a presumed drug overdose.