01 August 2016

The Philippine Government and the entire Filipino nation mourns and strongly condemns the barbaric attack by Islamic State militants on Saint-Etienne du Rouvray Parish Church in Normandy, France, that forcibly ended the life of Catholic Priest, Father Jacques Hamel, and terrorized his congregation on July 26. The utter disrespect to a place of worship of these terrorist elements makes the attack even more horrific.

There is no justification for the horror and brutality perpetrated by these terrorist elements and considers this act as a perversion of religion and a product of a warped ideology, which are incompatible with the democratic and humanitarian traditions upon which the Philippines and France are founded.

The Philippines continues to stand in resolute solidarity with the French Republic in its efforts against these nefarious elements that persistently attempt to degrade humanity, ridicule our shared values of democracy, respect for religious beliefs and peaceful co-existence, and the systems of criminality and violence that perpetuate it. END