July 27, 2019
By Visayas Today
All four Catholic bishops of Negros island have ordered “church bells in all parishes, chaplaincies, mission stations, and religious houses every evening at 8 o’clock” starting Sunday, July 28, to protest a wave of violence in Negros Oriental province that has left at least 21 persons dead in little over a week.
The ringing of bells was originally ordered by San Carlos Bishop Gerardo Alminaza, in whose diocese many of the killings have happened.
But he was joined on Saturday, July 27, through a collegial pastoral statement by Bishops Julito Cortes of Dumaguete, Patricio Buzon of Bacolod and Louie Gabines of Kabankalan, who said the tolling of the bells, combined with an “Oratio Imperata,” a prayer for a special intention, in this case to end the killings, is intended “to remind us of the value of life.”
The prayer seeks to “embolden our government officials to speak out against the killings,” to “challenge our police and military personnel to fully embrace their mandate to serve and protect the people,” and to “empower our communities to stand for the sanctity and primacy of life.”
The bells are to be rung “until the killings stop.”
Aside from the recent killings, the prelates also cited the earlier deaths of nine people massacred at a farmers’ protest camp in Sagay City, Negros Occidental last October and of 20 men killed during two massive police operations on December 27 last year and March 30.
“And this is just to cite a few,” they added.
Human rights groups have counted at least 85 extrajudicial killings on Negros since President Rodrigo Duterte.began his term in mid-2016.
“The blood of those killed cries to be heard. It calls out to our basic humanity to be one with those who have been afflicted by this violence,” they said.
“How many more killings will it take for us to be able to hear these cries, and be moved to say, we are our ‘brother’s keeper’?” they added.
