September 21, 2021

On September 21, the whole world will observe the annual International Day of Peace. This year’s theme for the global observance is “Recovering Better for an Equitable and Sustainable World.”[1] The theme underscores the need for the global community to heal from the COVID-19 pandemic, “to think creatively and collectively about how to help everyone recover better, how to build resilience, and how to transform our world into one that is more equal, more just, equitable, inclusive, sustainable, and healthier.”   The UN also wants us to direct our attention to people caught in conflict-affected areas because they are especially vulnerable as they lack access to healthcare.

The Philippines is one of the countries that are hardest hit by the pandemic. The country is also in the midst of a heightened armed conflict. Unfortunately, September 21 is also the anniversary of the imposition of Martial Law by the late dictator, Ferdinand Marcos. During this time, Marcos grossly trampled on human rights and the  armed conflict between the government and the New People’s Army (NPA) intensified.

Today, the quest for peace to end  the decades-old armed conflict between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) has become elusive again. Since last year, the government of President Rodrigo Duterte has closed its door to the principled peace negotiations with the NDFP. It rejected the results of the backchannel talks that Sec. Silvestre Bello had commenced with his NDFP counterparts in December 2019 to restart the peace negotiations after Duterte unilaterally terminated the peace talks in 2017. Then, it promulgated the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, which became a law that enables the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) to designate the NDFP as a terrorist group. This effectively buried years of laborious and painstaking agreements and gradual steps toward peace. Such actions of the government go against the calls of the International Day of Peace.

With the breakdown of the peace negotiations, record shows there had been significant increases in armed encounters between the AFP and the NPA.   There were many recorded violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, even in the midst of a debilitating health crisis.

Various sectors, even lawmakers are calling on the government to focus its attention and resources on the fight against COVID-19, rather than  further intensifying its counter-insurgency campaign. These calls came on the heels of the proposed 2022 budget where a big chunk goes to the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) while slashing the education and health budget,   including the budget of the University of the Philippines and consequently that of the Philippine General Hospital. This act definitely  goes against our people’s right to peace.

In this light,  the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP) enjoins the Filipino  people to  commemorate the International Day of Peace. Let us call on the government to prioritize the country’s need for transformative healing. Let us also call on the GRP and the NDFP to join the whole world in this important remembrance day by returning to the negotiating table, and together putting an end to further rights violations and the loss of life that result from the conflict.

Let the “…tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.” (Luke 1:78-79 NIV)

[1] All references to this year’s theme about the International Day of Peace can be found at https://www.un.org/en/observances/international-day-peace

Issued and signed on this 21st day of September 2021.

The nation is on vigil for justice and accountability under the Duterte administration

Sept 21,2021

It is the mourning and the wailing following the inhumanity of Herod written in Matthew that plays in our minds vividly as we survey Duterte’s carnage: many mothers crying and keeping watch over their slain loved ones;  mothers in unbearable pain as they cuddle the body of a son killed in the war on drugs; and, mothers and spouses lamenting over their offspring or spouse gunned down in the street whether activist, human rights worker, or peoples’ lawyer in a lawless manner. Voices resound throughout the land demanding justice for the killings of loved ones, indigenous peoples and farmers, development workers, church workers and rights defenders, including the death of a newly born infant of a mother under detention. This violence to life continues to this day.

This grand swell is evident after years of state terror, torture and killing under the insidious “war on drugs,” the Anti-Terror Law and the NTF-ELCAC program. Instead of promoting peace these have bred pain and resentful hearts, orphans and widows. The militarized approach to the pandemic and the corruption now being exposed more than ever have rendered the general population vulnerable twice over. Do we wonder why people are rising not only in protest over state-sanctioned killings but also against the perfidy of government response to a grave medical concern like the pandemic?

President Duterte has failed the citizenry. He will not be able to escape responsibility and accountability. There, too is the ground swell of the “One Voice” for peace and justice. Even the international community has taken notice and joined the demand for accountability and the prosecution.

As we mark Marcos’ declaration of Martial rule and the tyranny and plunder that characterized it, we join the clamor for “Never Again!” and the call for learning the lessons of the past.

The vigil for peace and justice must continue. No more to a despot!

#StopTheKillings #ProsecuteDuterte

Signed  :

Most Rev. Broderick S. Pabillo, D.D,. Apostolic Vicar of Taytay, Palawan
Most Rev. Gerardo Alminaza, D.D. , Bishop, Diocese of San Carlos
Bishop Reuel Norman Marigza, Secretary General, National Council of Churches in the Philippines
Most Revd. Rhee M. Timbang, Obispo Maximo, Iglesia Filipina Independiente
The Rt. Rev. Rex Resurreccion B. Reyes, Jr.,The Episcopal Diocese of Central Philippines (EDCP)
Bp. Emergencio Padillo, United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP)
Br. Armin A. Luistro, FSC, Brother Visitor, Lasallian East Asia District
Sr. Rowena Pineda, MMS, Chairperson, Sisters Association of Mindanao (SAMIN)
Sr. Ma. Lisa Ruedas, DC, Justice Peace and Integrity of Creation

ATM, LILAK and LRC are requesting for solidarity,
Click here to sign –> https://bit.ly/3nHqusI

We are outraged. We are in grief. We mourn the gruesome killing of Atty. Juan Macababbad, a people’s lawyer, a defender of rights of those who have less in life, and even lesser in law.

Atty. Juan Macababbad was killed after he walked his clients out, through the gate of his modest house in Suralla, South Cotabato.  Two unidentified gunmen shot him several times on the head.  He was rushed to the hospital, but was declared dead on arrival.  Atty. Macababbad is the 58th lawyer killed under the Duterte government, according to the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL).

But for the indigenous people, and rural poor, who he had served as their lawyer for free, Atty. Macababbad is more than a statistic. His killing meant a loss to their access to justice. His killing meant them being more vulnerable to manipulation of the legal process of corporations, and even state forces. Atty. Macababbad handled cases of land conflicts, mostly between indigenous people and corporations and land lords; trumped-up charges against community leaders opposing mining, plantations and other mega projects encroaching upon their ancestral domains. For us, human rights, environmental, and IP rights advocate groups, the killing of Atty. Macababbad is a loss of a fellow human rights defender, who committed his services for the poor people.  For his family,  it is a loss of a good father, and a husband.

For all of us, the killing of Atty. Macababbad should be seen as a brazen act of violence, an utter disregard for life,  and a violent form of silencing of those who defend human rights. This is the legacy of the Duterte government – the deepening of the culture of violence; the demonization of human rights; and the lack of accountability, and justice.

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