PANA Takes on Human Rights Abuses in the Philippines

By Richard Lindsay. Article first appeared in PSR Bulletin, Fall 2007.

PSR’s Institute for Leadership Development and Study of Pacific and Asian North American Religion (PANA Institute) has taken an international role in raising awareness about recent human rights abuses in the Philippines.

In the last five years, Philippines human rights groups have reported that hundreds of unarmed citizens have been killed or have disappeared under the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. This level of killing and kidnapping of political enemies is higher than at any point during the Marcos era. Twenty-seven Christian clergy and church workers of the United Church of Christ Philippines, United Methodist Church, and Philippine Independent Church (IFI) have been killed. Most notably, IFI Bishop Alberto Ramento was stabbed to death in his rectory in October 2006. Human Rights Watch has issued a report accusing Philippines armed forces of carrying out some of the killings in response to left-wing challenges to the Arroyo government’s authority. A U.N. investigator has echoed this conclusion.

Numerous American church bodies, including the General Synod of the United Church of Christ, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., the Northern California- Nevada Conference of the United Methodist Church, and the National Council of Churches USA, have issued resolutions or statements condemning the killings and calling for investigations.

PANA’s involvement in speaking out against these acts of violence and repression began with co-sponsorship of a Pagsambang Bayan, or “People's Worship,” a “Service and Candlelight Vigil for the Disappeared and Killed Religious and Community Leaders in the Philippines.” The service was held at Daly City United Methodist Church on December 10, 2006 in conjunction with International Human Rights Day. (Daly City is home to the largest concentration of Filipinos in the United States.)

The effort is part of PANA Institute’s Civil Liberty and Faith Project, now in its second year, sponsored by the Luce Foundation. The goal of the project is to amplify the voices of progressive Asian American and Pacific Islander (API) religious leaders and communities engaged in the work of increasing civil liberties and bringing about greater inter-ethnic and inter-religious understanding. According to PANA Program Director Deborah Lee, “One of the important objectives of this project has been to experiment and create authentic forms of API public witness and model a new way of doing faith-based political expression that is rooted in API culture and spirituality.” Speaking of the People’s Worship, Lee said, “These and other liturgical forms have created sacred containers for people to gather, to advocate and to be spiritually renewed.”

On February 13, 2007, PANA Institute hosted an event at PSR with Bishop Eliezer Pascua, General Secretary of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP), who reported on political killings of clergy, journalists, human rights workers, and activists. The UCCP has been the hardest hit denomination in the purge; Bishop Pascua told personal stories of 16 clergy and religious workers killed as a consequence of their ministries.

On March 2, 2007, PANA co-sponsored ecumenical vigils on World Day of Prayer, in Sacramento and at the Philippine Consulate in Washington, D.C., focusing on the human rights abuses in the Philippines.

Efforts of PANA and other organizations led California Senator Barbara Boxer to hold a Senate hearing on human rights and “extrajudicial killings” in the Philippines, which took place on March 14th, 2007. Moved by the testimony of human rights organizations about the murdered and “disappeared” individuals, Senator Boxer stated the need for the U.S. government to act. “We don’t want another El Salvador here,” Boxer said. “We don’t want blood on our hands.”
On June 10th, 2007, PANA co-sponsored another Pagsambang Bayan at Pinole United Methodist Church in commemoration of Philippines Independence Day called, “Narratives of Betrayal, Suffering, Faith and Voice.” The service featured testimony by a 17 member fact-finding team from the California-Nevada Conference of the United Methodist Church, which investigated the current rash of killings and abductions in the Philippines.

“This repression and abuse dates back to the Marcos era, and when the Philippines were dominated by U.S. colonial and military rule,” Lee said. “Today the U.S. war on terror is having a chilling effect on our Christian counterparts in the Philippines.” (The U.S. State Department has resisted efforts to hold the Arroyo administration accountable because it is considered an ally in the “war on terror.”)

PANA’s prophetic voice on this issue has received international attention, with mention in several Asian language newspapers in the United States and abroad, including the Manila-based Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Lee said the work of organizations like PANA has made a critical difference. “Our efforts to raise awareness have shown the Philippine military and government that the international community is watching them,” Lee said. “Since March, two pastors have been arrested and are being held on false charges; a year ago, they might have been killed outright.”

-----

For more information, visit PANA's Focus on the Philippines website.