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MANILA, Philippines—Members of the United Methodist Church (UMC) in the United States over the weekend vowed to lobby for human rights compliance to be made a condition for US military aid to the Philippines to compel the latter’s government to act on the extrajudicial killings and climate of fear and violence pervading parts of the country.
Eighteen members of the California-Nevada Conference of the UMC have been in the Philippines since June 25, visiting Negros Occidental, Abra and Nueva Ecija where they noted “a pervasive climate of fear” and “the lack of care and respect by the government and the military towards the Filipino people.”
Speaking at a forum at the National Council of Churches of the Philippines (NCCP) headquarters in Quezon City, they vowed to continue their campaign to help end the extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations in the country.
They said they would lobby the US Congress to “ensure that strict human rights conditionalities are tied to whatever military aid is provided by the US to the Philippines.”
For his part, NCCP secretary general Rev. Rex Reyes Jr. lamented the election of the Philippines as a vice president of the United Nations Human Rights Council despite the “appalling human rights record of the government.”
Reminiscent of martial law
“The government will use this occasion to continue deceiving the international community about its deplorable human rights record,” said Reyes.
In a statement, the UMC delegation said: “We feel that with the government’s counterinsurgency program, Filipinos are again experiencing times reminiscent of the dark days of martial law when summary executions, illegal arrests and detention were common occurrences.”
The delegation observed conditions in Guihulngan, Negros Occidental; Pananuman, Abra, and Pantabangan and Guimba in Nueva Ecija, where they talked to victims and survivors in the militarized communities.
“The testimonies of the people and what we witnessed helped us in drawing this conclusion: The impunity of human rights violations under the present administration continues without let-up,” they said.
They called on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to stop all forms of human rights violations; end the practice of labeling pro-poor organizations and justice advocates as subversives or communists; stop using the military to protect the interests of mining companies and big landlords; revise the government’s military strategy for resolving the insurgency to protect noncombatants, and work for the resumption of the peace talks with the National Democratic Front.
Strong sense of hope
Rev. Ruth Cortez, a member of the delegation, said the Filipino people were “survivors” under the literal meaning of the word taken from the conjoined “sur” and “vivere.”
“Majority of the Filipino people are those who live under the weight of poverty and the oppression of the state,” Cortez said.
She nevertheless noted that the people in the places they visited maintained a “strong sense of hope in a seemingly hopeless situation in their commitment to secure the future of their children.”
It was the second visit of a UMC delegation under a new mechanism initiated by the NCCP for solidarity. The first visit occurred in February last year after which the group lobbied US Sen. Barbara Boxer to conduct a Senate inquiry into the matter.
