Category: News

Released on August 15, 2020
Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

We, the Missionary Families of Christ, reject in every way, the proposed re-imposition of the Death Penalty in our country. We are against the Culture of Death and commit to defend faith, family and life. We are against the Death Penalty because:

1. The death penalty disregards the inherent dignity of the human person.

“Where life is involved, the service of charity must be profoundly consistent. It cannot tolerate bias and discrimination, for human life is sacred and inviolable at every stage and in every situation; it is an indivisible good. We need then to show care for all life and for the life of everyone.” (Evangelium Vitae, 87)

2. The death penalty affects those living in poverty.

Based on statistical evidence, the death penalty tilts more against the poor. There is real and imminent danger of convicting the innocent. Our imperfect criminal justice system can put to death innocent persons and as such, is cruel and inhuman. Instead, we should intensify our work to help uplift the lives of the families who live below the poverty line through various moral and life-giving material interventions.

3. The death penalty does not make society safer.

Heinous crimes such as rape and drug-related cases cannot be prevented because of death penalty. In 2015, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty says that death penalty does not solve the world drug problem.

Also in 2015, Stanford University Professor of Law, John J. Donohue III, JD, PhD said in his article dated August 8, 2015 that, “[T]here is not the slightest credible statistical evidence that capital punishment reduces the rate of homicide.” He goes on further to state that “[t]he best econometric studies reach the same conclusion…there is no detectable effect of capital punishment on crime.”

Bloodless methods of deterrence and punishment are preferred as “they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person. (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 405)

It is our individual responsibility to exert effort in transforming society and the collective responsibility of our leaders to create measures and policies that uphold human dignity and promote and protect the quality of life.

As members of the Missionary Families of Christ, we will work together to uphold the beauty and sanctity of life and to encourage families to oppose the legalization of the death penalty in our country. We are in solidarity with the Catholic Church in defending the sacredness and inviolability of human life.

Let us create laws that can save lives.

The new evangelization calls for followers of Christ who are unconditionally pro-life: who will proclaim, celebrate and serve the Gospel of life in every situation. A sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil. . . . I renew the appeal I made . . . for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary.

— Pope John Paul II Papal Mass, St. Louis, Missouri, January 27, 1999

Resources:

– https://catholicsmobilizing.org/catholic-social-teaching-death-penalty

– http://www.worldcoalition.org/media/resourcecenter/2015WD-LeafletEN.pdf

– https://deathpenalty.procon.org/questions/does-the-death-penalty-deter-crime/

– CFC-FFL Position Against the Re-imposition of the Death Penalty (March 2017)

– Upholding the Dignity of the Human Person Today, Live Life Blog (July 2020)

August 12, 2020

To: All Laiko Members: Arch/Diocesan Councils of the Laity & National Lay Organizations

Dear Brothers & Sisters,

We have just released a Statement expressing our strong opposition to the Death Penalty Bill being considered in Congress. A copy of which has been sent to you yesterday. We urge the Heads of member organizations to disseminate this to your respective members and encourage each to make your own statement in support of our united stand for Life.

The following are concrete ways you may consider to make our position be heard:

1.      Make banners with messages to express our stand and place them in our group’s offices/centers or if possible, even in our homes;

2.      Encourage your members to write / visit the Senators and their Congressmen to express our strong opposition to the Death Penalty;

3.      Encourage everyone to participate in fora or other activities where this issue will be discussed;

4.      Watch and share with your constituents / members the webinar on Death Penalty given by CHR Commissioner Karen Dumpit last August 8, 2020 and all the other webinars on societal issues sponsored by LAIKO. They are all posted at the Facebook page of Laiko & CBCP News;

5.      Visit the Sangguniang Laiko ng Pilipinas Website (cbcplaiko.org) and FB page as well as the CBCP News FB page for updates;

6.      Pray! Pray! And Pray!  Let us redouble our prayers so that our legislators will be enlightened and listen to the voice of God and the majority of the Filipino people.

WE MUST MAKE A STAND FOR LIFE!

“CHOOSE LIFE …THAT YOU AND YOUR DESCENDANTS MAY LIVE.”(Deuteronomy 30:19)

Sincerely yours in the service of the Lord,

Noted by:

+MOST REV. BRODERICK S. PABILLO, D.D.
Chairman, CBCP Episcopal Commission on the Laity

Restorative, Rehabilitative and with Access to Effective Legal Representation

The Sangguniang Laiko ng Pilipinas laments and decries the actuations of our elected lawmakers in calling back from its grave the death penalty proposals. 

We urge you to remove the blinders that prevent you from seeing that death penalty is an offense ‘against the inviolability of life and the dignity of the human person.’ Its reimposition will single out for punishment the most vulnerable sectors of society who have no means to defend themselves. Moreover, as a country, our failure to honor our commitment, with the International Community, not to bring back death penalty, will not only put us in a bad light but lose their respect as well.

We would rather that you focus your attention on:

•          how to combat the effects of COVID-19 through a comprehensive program for the health and safety of your constituents; 

•          the speedy enactment of laws that will reform our judicial and correctional systems and;

•          how to stop the flagrant reality of graft and corruption.  

SHEMA! Listen and heed the words of some of our greatest Presidents:

“Those who have less in life must have more in law” (President Ramon Magsaysay)

“Respect for basic human rights must continue to be one of our prime concerns. We must live up to our pledge to act as guardians of the dignity and worth of the individual.” (President Manuel L. Quezon)

We Must Stand for Life! Let us Choose Life!

For the Laiko Board of Directors, 

The Presidential late-night address did not respond well to the collective cry of our Medical Health Workers—an appeal to declare the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) protocol for the Greater Manila Area to address the growing infections of COVID-19.

This appeal of our Medical Health Workers are for real to fight the virus, for they themselves are on the frontlines of healing and caring our sick Filipinos.

The call for an Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) should not just be dismissed by blabbermouthed propaganda, our Medical Health Workers’ call is a manifestation of telling our government: to address the pandemic with medical solutions! They have seen how not to address it: of how this government spent billions of money on failed priorities, and allow the virus to infect more; of in-effectivity of military responses; and of political minions, military men and business interests advising on COVID crisis.

Indeed, the call of our Medical Health Workers is a revolution from the heart… They want to heal our land, they want us to be free from the virus, and more importantly, they want us to take “time-out” of our fears of the COVID-19.

It is counter-revolutionary for our government, to not heed their call, and still resort to their shadowed hard-headedness at the expense of our health safety and of the plight of our front-liners. It is counter-productive again, presenting other ways to recruit doctors and nurses in a military-way, but failing to assure the guarantee of just compensation and humanitarian assistance to those who are working in hospitals since the start of the pandemic. It is counter-Filipino of not listening and responding well to the cries of our medical front-liners!

As a pastor of the people of God, I am one with our Medical Health Workers in their call and commend their continuing heroic service to the Filipino people; remembering these words in the Bible: “Nevertheless, I will bring health and healing to it; I will heal my people and will let them enjoy abundant peace and security.” (Jeremiah 33:6)

Online Forum sa Anti-Terrorism Act at Epekto nito sa mga Magsasaka

Dear Friends and Peasant Advocates,

Greetings of Peace and Solidarity!

We are inviting you to a webinar forum entitled,

“Magsasaka Hindi Terorista!: Online Forum sa Anti-Terrorism Act at Epekto nito sa mga Magsasaka”

on August 7, 2020 from 2:00-5:00 PM (see attached tentative program flow).

To discuss the salient points of the Terror Law and its implications on peasant organizations and their advocates’ struggle for land, rights and justice, we have invited Atty. Chel Diokno, Chairperson of the Free Legal Assistance Group.

This will be followed by a sharing of peasant organizations and advocate groups who will serve as reactors to tell their own experience of state repression and what they foresee will be the effect of the Terror Law for their sector in the coming days.

The webinar will also feature cultural performances by Ms. Mara Marasigan of the Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) and Sining na Naglilingkod sa Bayan (SINAGBAYAN).

The webinar is hosted by Anakpawis, UMA, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, AMIHAN Peasant Federation of Women, PAMALAKAYA National Federation of Fisherfolk Organizations, National Network of Agrarian Reform Advocates-Youth, Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, SINAGBAYAN, Sama-samang Artista para sa Kilusang Agraryo, Rural Women Advocates and Sentro para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo, which have been organizing the Peasant Update Online Forum since the start of President Rodrigo Duterte’s militarist Covid-19 lockdown.

We ask “why?” and “why now?” Do we really need it? With this unprecedented and tumultuous time of Covid-19 pandemic, our priority is to instill hope and foster healing of our people, recovery of our economy and rebuilding of livelihood. We have survived and surpassed many trying years and are now progressing. Why should we decide now to have a feasibility study for the inclusion of nuclear energy in our country? Some Western countries have already shut down their nuclear plants. Why are we now propagating and thinking of nuclear energy for our country?

The potential of a nuclear meltdown, like in Chernobyl and Fukushima, will be detrimental to the environment and the local residents. Also, the amount of nuclear waste it will produce every year will be tremendous and so does the cost to dispose of it.

While nuclear power is cheap to run and produce inexpensive fuel, the cost to build and maintain the facility are exorbitant. It will cost billions of dollars. What most people do not realize is they think they will save a lot of money from their electric bill. But the cost of construction and maintenance will be an added burden to our already deep national debt, which will be paid for by our very own citizens for generations to come.

With the executive order 116, s.2020, we hope that any future study conducted will be transparent, honest, and non-partisan. Neither will it be self-serving nor for the benefit of a particular person or a certain group. The so-called feasibility study will not be geared neither for profit nor for any personal gain.

As a point of reference, take into serious consideration the findings of Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation (Rosatom) about the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. on April04, 2018. His Excellency, the Russian Ambassador Igor Khovaev, declares that its revival is “not possible at all.” He authoritatively concluded that the plant is “absolutely outdated.”

The Diocese of Balanga has issued a pastoral statement dated August 16, 2014 declaring that “Bataan Nuclear Power Plant is not the answer to the present need of our people. No one is safe with BNPP. It will only bring devastation and destruction of lives and of the environment. It is not beneficial to everyone nor a blessing to our country.”

Let us not be hasty, especially when the risk or danger outweighs the benefit. If there should be a feasibility study, it must be the use and application of renewable energy such as solar, water or wind , as we have seen in Ilocos Region, the Bangui Wind Farm, which supplies forty percent of Ilocos Norte’s electricity needs.

And so with the proposal of feasibility of inclusion of nuclear energy to our country, we ask not only “why? or why now?” but more so, “why not renewable energy?”

+Ruperto Cruz Santos, DD
Bishop of Balanga
Chairman, CBCP Episcopal Commission on PCF

You Are Invited Mercy Fabros Learning Session Series – An Urgent Call: A People’s Vaccine Against COVID-19

Warmest greetings!

We hope that you all are keeping healthy and safe during these strange times.

In honor and celebration of the life of a staunch health and human rights activist, our beloved colleague in the advocacy towards sustainable development, Mercedes “Mercy” Lactao Fabros, Social Watch Philippines-Alternative Budget Initiative (SWP-ABI) is launching the “Mercy Fabros Learning Session Series.”

You are all invited to the first episode tackling a timely public health discourse, “An Urgent Call: A People’s Vaccine Against COVID-19″ on August 5, Wednesday, 3:00-5:00PM (via Zoom).

We hope to see you all in this event as we are once again brought together by our dearest friend and mentor, our “Nanay Mercy”. As Mercy would always remind us about, we also hope that we continue to work in the spirit of human solidarity, help each other, and learn from one another as we all grapple to fight for people’s right to health and participation.

Please message us (alternative.budget.initiative@gmail.com) to register! You can also text Christian Payumo (09366367184) to secure your slot.

Social Watch Philippines