Peace advocate Redemptorist Fr. Amado Picardal, who fought the drug killings in Davao City, died on Wednesday, his congregation announced on Wednesday evening.
The priest died on the 47th anniversary of his religious profession. He was 69.
Fr. Edilberto Cepe, the provincial superior of the Redemptorist Province of Cebu described Picardal as a “brilliant and courageous missionary”.
“He was a passionate advocate of peace and social justice and a professor of theology who has touched and transformed the lives of many,” Cepe said in a statement.
The congregation did not provide other details about his death.
Picardal helped document the killings in Davao when former president Rodrigo Duterte was still mayor.
In 2017, the priest wrote a detailed report on the so-called Davao Death Squad (DDS) from 1998 to 2015, which he said became part of the information submitted to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“This nearly cost my life as I became a target of assassination and forced me to leave my hermitage and go into exile,” Picardal said in 2021 in Rome.
The ICC has been investigating Duterte over the killings that took place under his bloody war on drugs.
Picardal was also dubbed the “biking priest” for his penchant to take long distance bicycle rides to highlight his advocacies.
“Please join us in praying for his eternal repose as he now finally joins our Redeemer,” Cepe said.
“May the light and joy that he left this world radiate through us as we continue to become beacons of truth and social transformation,” he added.
Picardal served as former executive secretary of the Episcopal Commission on Basic Ecclesial Communities of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.
He was also a columnist at CBCP Monitor, the official publication of the bishops’ conference.
