Multiple quote cards are circulating on Facebook featuring Fr. Flaviano “Flavie” Villanueva — an outspoken critic of the war on drugs and 2025 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee — in which he speaks about his past drug addiction. This needs context.
Published on Feb. 12, the quote card with a picture of the Catholic priest bears this text:
“Fr. Flavie Villanueva nanawagan sa publiko imbes kamuhian ang mga drug adik dapat awaan sila. Hindi madali ang maging adik, alam ko dahil diyan ako nanggaling
(Fr. Flavie Villanueva calls on the public: instead of hating drug addicts, they should be pitied. It is not easy to be an addict; I know because that is where I came from).”
Other posts with varying quote cards began circulating the following day: Each post bore a title:
”HINDI MADALI ANG MAGING ADIK,
ALAM KO DAHIL DIYAN AKO GALING.
— Fr. Flavie Villanueva
(It is not easy to be an addict; I know because that is where I came from — Fr. Flavie Villanueva)”
In an interview with VERA Files, Fr. Flavie disputed the authenticity of the quote card, noting that while he has openly shared his history of substance abuse, he does not recall ever saying such words.
He added that he won’t give “oxygen” to any disinformation and focus instead on his mission of empowering lives. Fr. Flavie set up in 2015 a center that serves as shelter for street dwellers, ex-convicts and former addicts. A year later, he founded Project Paghilom, which assists families of victims of the drug war.
The circulating quote is often presented without context to discredit his current human rights advocacy.
In a December 2016 interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the 55-year-old Villanueva detailed his 11-year struggle with drugs that began at age 14. He described hitting “rock bottom” before entering a retreat house and eventually, the seminary.
Years later, on Nov. 7, 2025, while receiving the 67th Ramon Magsaysay Award, he recalled this journey, saying he was “once lost” to addiction but found healing from the darkness.
The misleading quote card surfaced after the Lakbay Museo ng Paghilom was inaugurated at the Senate late last month. As the museum garnered national attention for documenting the stories of EJK victims, social media pages began resharing the manipulated quote to shift the public discourse from the quest for justice for the victims to the priest’s personal history of substance abuse.
As of writing, the fictitious post is published by FB pages Sunny Philippines (created July 14, 2017), Pinoy Celebrity News (created June 21, 2017), Tropang Solid (created Sept. 5, 2023), and users walaiibryt (created Dec. 24, 2025) and Elmer B. Jugalbot (created Jan. 5, 2024), collectively garnering 77,175 reactions; 21,497 comments; and 2,966 shares.
