Standing for Fr. Flavie

By Herman M. Lagon

There are moments when public silence becomes a form of laziness. Not neutrality, not prudence, but the quieter vice of letting noise do the work so one does not have to. This is one of those moments. I am usually critical of institutions, including the Catholic institution I remain part of. I question its reflexes, its power, its history, its “blind spots.” I wrestle with faith more than I perform it. That has not driven me away; it has kept me honest within it. And it is precisely from that place of critical belonging that I choose to say this plainly: standing with Fr. Flaviano “Flavie” Antonio Villanueva today is neither tribal loyalty nor religious posturing. It is a choice rooted in coherence. The present attacks against him are not serious disagreements about ideas or evidence. They are below-the-belt distractions aimed at discrediting a man whose work has become inconvenient to those who prefer that truth remain polite, distant, and harmless.

For readers who may only be encountering his name now, Fr. Flaviano Antonio Villanueva is known less for public statements than for the spaces he has chosen to remain in. Much of his priesthood has unfolded in daily contact with former drug dependents, the homeless, and families learning how to live with loss. The Arnold Janssen Kalinga Center, which he helped establish, grew out of that setting and is remembered by many not for programs or slogans, but for meals served, showers offered, and small acts of order restored to difficult days. Ordained in 2006 and open about his own recovery, he has allowed experience rather than distance to shape how he accompanies others. Any recognition that followed came later, after years of work that rarely seeks attention.

What many trolls and critics keep recycling is a past he has never denied. That alone should already signal the weakness of the attack. In any classroom discussion on ethics or rehabilitation, the first principle is clear: accountability loses meaning if change is forever treated as suspect. Fr. Villanueva’s story is not about erasure; it is about confrontation. He named his addiction long before it became fashionable to weaponize confessions. He did not curate a redemption arc for applause. He built a life around proximity to people whose names rarely appear in policy briefings or press releases. In a country that claims to believe in second chances but quietly withholds them from anyone who dares speak back to power, the hostility toward his past says more about us than about him.

The charge that he is “political” is often delivered with theatrical certainty, as if the word itself were a conviction. Yet it collapses once examined. Speaking against corruption or abuse is not a political stunt; it is basic ethical sense. For priests, it comes with the territory of listening to people who are hurting and being unable to pretend not to hear them. In our own history, this has never been foreign. During Martial Law and again at People Power, many religious figures understood that there are moments when staying close to suffering matters more than staying safe. The expectation that priests should confine themselves to incense and homilies whenever injustice wears a suit misunderstands both history and vocation. Silence in such moments is not unity; it is abdication.

What makes this episode more revealing is the method of attack. When debate slides from policy or evidence to ridicule, slander, and recycled insults, it signals insecurity. Calling someone “adik,” “manyak,” “demonyo,” or a caricature from colonial literature is not critique. It is the language of collapse. Anyone who has moderated a discussion knows the pattern: when arguments run out, volume takes over (argumentum ad baculum), or the exchange collapses into personal attacks (ad hominem). This is not unique to us, but our digital spaces all over the globe have perfected it. The cruelty is often framed as humor, the contempt as patriotism. None of it engages the substance of Fr. Villanueva’s work among the poor, the homeless, and families broken by violence. That omission is not accidental.

Support for Fr. Villanueva has been loud precisely because it has been lived. Many who speak up are not theorists. They are people who remember him being there when funerals blurred into routine, when widows were left staring at forms no one had the patience to explain, when grief itself seemed to run out of words. That is why the 2025 Ramon Magsaysay Award matters here—not as a claim to moral perfection, but as outside confirmation of work sustained long after attention moved elsewhere. Awards of this kind are rarely given for social media performance. They are earned through years of unglamorous consistency. Even critics who dislike his positions must at least concede this: the work is real, and it has cost him safety, comfort, and peace of mind.

The recurring insistence that priests should “unite, not divide” deserves careful handling. Unity is not achieved by anesthetizing conscience. Anyone who has ever taught a values education class knows that real formation involves tension. Students grow not when everything feels agreeable but when questions disturb their assumptions. The same applies to public life. When people say they feel “divided,” it is worth asking what exactly is being threatened. Often it is not unity but convenience. Fr. Villanueva’s presence disrupts narratives that prefer clean villains and quiet victims. That discomfort is not evidence of irresponsibility; it is often proof that something essential has been named.

What troubles me most is how easily rehabilitation is celebrated in abstract but resisted in flesh-and-blood form. We applaud recovery stories until the recovered person speaks with authority. We support redemption until it acquires a voice that questions systems rather than individual failures. This is where many of the attacks lose basic human footing. A society that insists people can change but refuses to trust them once they do is not pro-rehabilitation. It is pro-control. Fr. Villanueva’s life contradicts that impulse simply by existing as a public witness who refuses to stay silent.

None of this requires blind loyalty. Standing with him does not mean suspending judgment or pretending institutions are flawless. I remain critical of the Church’s internal struggles, its selective courage, its occasional allergy to accountability—and it is precisely that space for honest questioning that keeps me within faith rather than outside it. A faith that cannot withstand scrutiny is not belief; it is secondhand conviction. That critical posture is what makes the line visible. It is possible to challenge decisions, question judgment, and debate tone without crossing into personal attack. Once criticism forgets that difference, it stops being useful. That line is not difficult to see; it is difficult to respect when outrage becomes addictive.

At its core, this is not a story about one priest. It is about whether public life still allows space for people who have failed, changed, and then chosen responsibility over comfort. It is about whether speaking against corruption must always come wrapped in personal destruction. Standing with Fr. Flavie, in this moment, is a decision to protect that fragile space. Not because he is beyond criticism, but because much of what passes for critique today asks little thought and carries little moral weight. When redemption is treated as perpetually suspect and conscience becomes a liability, what remains is not accountability, but fear. And fear, as this country has learned too many times, is never a reliable guide.

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Doc H fondly describes himself as a “student of and for life” who, like many others, aspires to a life-giving and why-driven world grounded in social justice and the pursuit of happiness. His views do not necessarily reflect those of the institutions he is employed or connected with.