“End the culture of fear and silence;
Uphold the human rights of free speech and redress of grievances!”
November 7, 2019
While more than 30 have been freed of the arrested 62 individuals who were either in the offices or are members of advocacy groups in Bacolod City; still, we express our alarm of these unfortunate incidents that aggravate the culture of fear and silence in our island of Negros.
There were reported irregularities in the said arrests. Only one judge from Quezon City has issued numerous search warrants for the advocacy groups’ offices in Luzon and the Visayas, which apparently prompted Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta to remind “court judges to exercise prudence in issuing warrants.”
It is also reported that the individuals and the media were asked to step outside during the search; thus, there were no witnesses during the search. After firearms were found in the areas being searched, all occupants of the offices were arrested. The advocacy groups claimed that the firearms were planted.
We, therefore, join the call for an impartial investigation of these arrests, for due process and the rule of law to be upheld.
These advocacy groups that lead protests against what they perceive as anti-people programs and policies, are incidentally “red-tagged” or are accused to be sympathetic to the New People’s Army.
We are alarmed of these arrests of members of “red-tagged” organizations since most of those summarily killed in the Negros island were also red-tagged. A few months ago, we, the four bishops of the Negros island have made a unified call to stop the killings in our island; to end the culture of fear; and to work for integral and sustainable peace.
The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church has listed as a human right, “the right to assemble and form associations.” Church’s teachings further indicate that the State or the government’s reason for being is “the realization of the common good in the temporal order… It has also the duty to protect the rights of all its people, and particularly of its weaker members, the workers, women and children. (Mater et Magistra, 20)”
In this light, we reiterate our call to all concerned institutions and organizations that we should all work to address the root causes of the unpeace in our midst. A military solution is not the way to peace.
The culture of fear and silence must end. Only Jesus’ commandment of loving God and our neighbor, especially the weakest in our community, is the way to a just and lasting peace.
Most Rev. Gerardo A. Alminaza, D.D.
Bishop of San Carlos
