Missionary Jacqueline Hamill has been on the news and social
media outlets this past week due in part because of an upcoming election in the
Philippines. It has come to light that presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte,
who is currently leading the polls and may very well be the next president,
said some disparaging remarks about how she died.
Jackie passed away back in 1989 when as a missionary, she
visited a Davao City prison with a group of 15 from the Sydney Australia Christian
City Church. Prisons already have a bad reputation for housing the worse of the
worst, but in this prison where inmates are housed under subhuman conditions,
the dangers were higher. From all
reports Jacky knew the risks. But this
is something that she wanted to do. It
made her very happy and she knew that this was God’s calling for her. On August
13 after concluding their worship service, some the prisoners took the visitors as
hostages to protest the prison conditions.
This is one of the few public photos of Jacqueline with enhancements. |
The prisoners had taken some of the guns from the guards. The
standoff lasted for three days. During
the entire ordeal Jacky kept her resolve of a true Christian. She and another female were raped repeatedly
by the prisoners. The prisoners took their turn with each of the two women. Jackie knew that she was going to die. But she did not show it. According to reports she kept signing to God
and preaching to the prisoners who held her hostage. She did this to the very end. It is known
that at least one of the prisoners threw away his weapon and converted to
Christianity right there and then.