Category: News

Sticking up for the voiceless and poor has become an increasingly risky enterprise

Candles and flowers are offered in honor of slain human rights defenders in the Philippines during a protest in Manila. (Photo by Jire Carreon)

UCAN Commentary
Ernesto M. Hilario, Manila, Philippines
November 27, 2018

It was on a Sunday, Nov. 18, when slain human rights lawyer Benjamin Ramos Jr. was buried in the city of Sipalay in Negros Occidental province in central Philippines. Some 700 people, many of them farmers, joined the funeral procession.

Unidentified gunmen shot Ramos dead on Nov. 6. His murder underscores the dangers faced by those who choose to defend the rights and welfare of the disadvantaged and voiceless in the Philippines.

The lawyer had been assisting the families of nine sugarcane workers slain in Sagay, Negros Occidental, in late October. He was a staunch human rights advocate who readily provided legal services to embattled activists, farmers fighting for land rights, and victims of human rights violations.

Ramos was the secretary-general of the provincial branch of the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), a group that provides pro bono legal services to ordinary Filipinos who can ill-afford to engage legal counsel due to poverty. He was one of the founding members of the group in 2007 and also co-founded the nonprofit Paghida-et sa Kauswagan Development Group.

Even before conducting any investigation of note, the police had blamed rebels belonging to the communist New People’s Army for the killing of the nine Sagay farmers.

Those killed were apparently new recruits of the National Federation of Sugarcane Workers, which the police and the military said was a front organization of the NPA.

But police officials could not explain why NPA rebels would kill members of a legal organization that they claimed supported the communists.

A fact-finding mission organized by human rights groups concluded later that the Sagay massacre — the victims of which included two minors — was perpetrated by an armed group linked to landowning politicians in the province.

Ramos was the 34th member of the legal profession killed since President Rodrigo Duterte came to power in 2016.
Another human rights lawyer, Kathy Panguban, is facing what appears to be a baseless charge of kidnapping.

Like Ramos, Panguban provided legal assistance to the families of the slain sugarcane workers in Sagay by facilitating a mother winning back custody of a 14-year-old witness to the killings.

Panguban was also one of the lawyers who assisted Australian missionary Sister Patricia Fox when the 73-year-old nun was ordered deported by the Bureau of Immigration for alleged partisan political activities in the Philippines.

Sister Fox had been in the country for 27 years helping farmers, workers and indigenous people assert their rights but was forced to leave the country in early November after the Bureau of Immigration canceled her missionary visa.

The killing and harassment of human rights lawyers has been roundly condemned by the Philippine government’s Commission on Human Rights, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (the compulsory organization of all lawyers in the country), the European Union, and international human rights groups such as New York-based Human Rights Watch.

Ramos’ family and colleagues believe big landowners and people who vilified him as a communist rebel were behind his murder.
“He told us to fight for our rights because our families have been living on the land for generations. He made us strong and made us understand laws through paralegal training,” said a farmer who joined the funeral procession.

Other farmers recalled that Ramos as a lawyer asked for nothing except for “native coffee without sugar” to go with his favorite cigarettes.

‘Shining a Light on Sexual Violence in Conflict’

NOVEMBER 26, 2018 17:39 | ZENIT STAFF | CONFLICTS, WAR, TERRORISM

November 23, 2018, the Embassies of the United Kingdom and Belgium to the Holy See, jointly with the Jesuit Refugee Service, hosted a panel discussion and film screening: “Shining a Light on Sexual Violence in Conflict.”

The event was aimed at raising awareness of the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war in conflict and drawing attention to the contribution of religious orders in supporting survivors and ending the stigma that often causes further suffering.

During their opening remarks, the Belgian and the British Ambassadors said:
H.E. Jean Cornet d’Elzius, Ambassador of Belgium to the Holy See: “Belgium, like the UK, is very active in the fight against sexual violence used as a weapon in conflicts. The Belgian Government is delighted that the Nobel Prize for Peace was awarded this year to Nadia Murad and to Dr. Mukwege, whose actions have long been supported by Belgium. My country also sees this prize as a recognition for all those – like Father Bernard Ugeux who founded the Nyota House in Bukavu – supporting victims and working to eradicate this phenomenon”.

Sally Axworthy, British Ambassador to the Holy See: “The scale of sexual violence against civilians in situations of conflict is truly appalling, an estimated 200,000 in DRC alone. The UK is taking action to support survivors and prevent abuses. We have committed over £46 million to fund vital projects, including providing training to the religious networks in DRC and Uganda. The Catholic Church plays a key role in assisting survivors on the ground, giving pastoral assistance and tackling the stigma, so that survivors are able to regain their dignity and rights within their families and communities”.

His Excellency Archbishop Paul R. Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States delivered his keynote remarks. “The urgent need to protect women and children, especially from sexual violence as a weapon in conflict or as a tactic in terrorism, should embolden every effort and States’ political will to bring conflicts to an end and to act together through dialogue and mediation efforts, in order to find coordinated solutions that promote reconciliation and build peace. Protecting and taking care of women in conflicts and post-conflict situations is a critical endeavor in efforts to build peace and, at the same time, bringing peace remains an essential way to overcome sexual violence.”

In their interventions, Sr. Sheila Kinsey FCJM, Executive Co-Secretary of the Justice and Peace and Integrity of Creation Commission, and Fr. Tom Smolich SJ, International Director Jesuit Refugee Service, spoke respectively from a female religious and a refugee-serving organization’s perspectives.

Sr Sheila Kinsey, FCJM: “I was honored to be able to share the spirit of the incredible experience of the women religious who have accompanied victims of violence in areas of conflict. For these women, the victims are the crying face of Christ experiencing isolation and brutality”.

Fr. Tom Smolich SJ: “Those of us who work with refugee women know that they are particularly at risk of sexual violence. When survivors share their stories – and they frequently do, with visitors, government officials, funders, news reporters – they deserve not to be heard in vain. We must commit to making a difference in these women’s lives, and we must commit to lessening the chances of such crimes being committed against someone else. Listening is not enough: we must accompany survivors in their journey towards healing, and we must walk with all who are at risk of suffering similar violence”.

During the panel discussion, a video message from Fr Bernard Ugeux, Missionaries of Africa, who works on the frontline with survivors in Goma was shown:

“I support and finance a shelter and a training center for 250 girls [survivors of sexual violence in conflict]. We try to empower them and provide them with professional skills so they regain their self-esteem and autonomy.” [..] “The main question is how do we stop rape used as a weapon of war. Rape is above all a way of terrorizing and controlling populations [..] and territories”.

Church leaders in Negros region call on government to reject fossil fuel power plant proposals in the area

Climate activists dressed as dinosaurs dramatize their opposition to proposals to build coal-fired power plants in the Philippines. The activists said coal plant operators are dinosaurs who peddle dated fossil fuels like coal. (Photo by Jimmy Domingo)

UCANews Joe Torres, Manila, Philippines
November 23, 2018

Catholic bishops in the central Philippine region of Negros have attacked proposals to build coal-fired power plants in their areas.
Prelates from four dioceses in the island region urged Catholics to “safeguard the gains and successes” achieved so far in improving renewable energy sources.

In a statement released on Nov. 23, the church leaders appealed to the government and to electric companies “not to entertain anymore any proposition to build a coal-fired power plant.”

The bishops from Bacolod, Dumaguete, Kabankalan and San Carlos dioceses said there were already nine solar power plants, eight biomass plants and 10 hydropower plants across the Negros region with a combined capacity of 579.43 megawatts.

The prelates said their dioceses are increasingly demonstrating that “sustainable energy practices work for us and for our communities.”
They cited Pope Francis’ call for ecological conversion and for humanity to reduce the consumption of coal and other fossil fuels that have become major contributors to climate change.

At present, the coal-reliant Philippines has 28 operational coal-fired power plants and another 28 proposed coal projects across the country.

Manila Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle also noted in an earlier statement that the poor suffer greatly from climate change and fossil fuels are among the “main drivers of this injustice.”
In Bacolod and San Carlos dioceses, the bishops said decentralized rooftop solar energy systems show how small-scale distributed renewable energy generation is “climate-friendly, sustainable and affordable.”

“These are strongly indicative of the bright future of renewable energy all throughout the province,” read the bishops’ statement.
Negros Occidental has been called the “renewable energy capital” of the Philippines. The Department of Energy has gone further by saying that with Negros Island’s renewable energy sources, it is poised to become an entirely “green” region by 2030.

The bishops said coal-driven power “will never truly be cheap, especially when we factor in the environmental, social and health costs associated with its use.”

“Let us stand firm together in Negros — with each other and with our civic leaders — to oppose any new coal-fired power plants and to phase out those still in operation,” they said.

Despite the Sino-Vatican bishops deal, Beijing continues to turn the screw on religion 

Father Zhang Guilin (left) and Father Wang Zhong of Xiwanzi Diocese were taken away by the government on Oct. 11 to study religious policy and are still under detention. (Photo supplied)

UCANews Joseph Chan, China
November 21, 2018

The pope’s primacy in the Catholic Church was recognized by the Chinese government for the first time with the signing of the Sino-Vatican provisional agreement on bishop appointments on Sept. 22.
On the surface, the agreement paves the way for the government-sanctioned church and the underground church to reach unity. More optimistic church members hope the government will show more goodwill to the church through this agreement, letting Catholics follow their faith and expanding the “cage” of church life.

However, the actual situation of the mainland church now is exactly the opposite.
S

ince the agreement was signed, the United Front Work Department and the religious affairs bureaus have launched a new round of tough transformation missions for underground clerics, forcing them to participate in religious “education classes” organized by the government. It is an exercise in brainwashing.

According to a priest who has just been “transformed,” clerics must agree to the principles of independence, autonomy and self-governance of the church and accept the leadership of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA). Authorities also forced underground priests to concelebrate Mass and be pictured with government-designated “official bishops.”

This new round of transformation is particularly serious in Hebei province, where the number of Catholics is almost one million.
In addition to the forcible closure of two gathering places in Shadifang and Qujiazhuang parishes of Xuanhua Diocese one month ago, four priests in Zhangjiakou were also taken away and forced to attend classes by the government. Those priests are Father Zhang Guilin and Father Wang Zhong of Xiwanzi and Father Su Guipeng and Father Zhao of Xuanhua.

Since 2009, Father Zhang has been serving in Chongli, a large parish in Xiwanzi with nearly 4,000 Catholics. He has not joined the CCPA or registered with the government. He has been in a semi-overt state.
Father Zhang has developed the parish by building churches and helping Catholics in all aspects of culture and faith. He teaches the illiterate how to read, organizes foreign language classes for the educated youth, and teaches Catholics the etiquette of getting along with people with half an eye on welcoming visitors to the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022.

They Show us our Poverty…to Lead us to a Holy Humiliation

November 21, 2018 14:31 Jim Fair General Audience

“The whole journey undertaken in the Decalogue would be of no use if it didn’t arrive at touching this level: man’s heart…we must let ourselves be unmasked by these Commandments on desire because they show us our poverty, in order to lead us to a holy humiliation.”
Pope Francis come to the end of the Ten Commandments during his General Audience on November 21, 2018, and explained their depth and significance beyond a list of what to do and not do. They give us our boundaries, the boundaries that make our hearts pure and prevent self-destruction. And commandments nine and ten are significant, although they seem to echo earlier prohibitions on adultery and theft.

“These are not only the last words of the text but much more: they are the fulfillment of the journey through the Decalogue, touching the heart of all that has been given to us in it.,” Francis explained. “In fact, in hindsight, they don’t add a new content: the indications ‘do not covet the wife [. . . ] or anything that belongs to your neighbor’ is at least latent in the Commandments on adultery and on theft; what, then, is the function of these words?

“Let us keep very present that all the Commandments have the task to indicate the boundary of life, the limit beyond which man destroys himself and his neighbor, spoiling his relationship with God. If you go beyond, you destroy yourself; you also destroy the relationship with God and the relationship with others. The Commandments point this out.”

The Holy Father pointed out that all sin springs from “evil desires…all sins are born from a wicked desire — all. The heart begins to move there, and one enters that wave and ends up in a transgression.”

The danger in the resulting transgression isn’t just that it may be a “legal” violation. It harms oneself and others. The commandments are designed to free the heart.

“This is the challenge: to free the heart from all these wicked and awful things,” Francis said. “God’s precepts can be reduced to being only the beautiful facade of a life, which in any case remains an existence of slaves and not of children. Often, behind the Pharisaic mask of asphyxiating correctness, something awful and unresolved hides.

“Instead, we must let ourselves be unmasked by these Commandments on desire because they show us our poverty, in order to lead us to a holy humiliation. Each one of us can ask him/herself: but what ugly desires come often to me? Envy, greed, gossip? — all these things that come to me from within. Each one can ask him/herself and it will do him/her good.

“Man is in need of this blessed humiliation, that humiliation by which he discovers that he cannot free himself on his own; that humiliation by which he cries to God to be saved. Saint Paul explains it in an insuperable way, precisely in referring to the Commandment not to covet (Cf. Romans 7:7-24).”

The Pope emphasized that the purpose of the Law is not to force man into “literal obedience” but to lead many to truth. For this, we need an open heart.

“The task of the Law is to lead man to his truth, namely, to his poverty, which becomes a genuine opening and personal opening to God’s mercy, which transforms us and renews us,” Francis concluded. “God is the only one able to renew our heart, on the condition that we open our heart to Him: it’s the only condition. He does everything, but we must open our heart to Him.”

The Holy Father’s Full Commentary
November 21, 2018 14:31 General Audience

Church marks second observance of World Day of the Poor

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila addresses residents of urban poor communities and members of the clergy during the observance of the World Day of the Poor on Nov. 17. (Photo by Mark Saludes)

Mark Saludes, Manila, Philippines
November 19, 2018

Church leaders in Manila Archdiocese marked World Day of the Poor on Nov. 17 by sharing a meal with residents from the city’s urban poor communities.

At least 300 people attended the “lunch and sharing with the poor” event at the University of Santo Tomas following a Mass officiated by Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila.

In his homily, the Manila prelate called on Catholics not only to listen to the “cries of the poor” but also “to shoulder their struggle in our everyday lives.”

The cardinal said “acts of mercy and compassion” to those in need are the reasons why the church observes the Day of the Poor.

Pope Francis declared the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time of the church calendar — Nov. 18 this year — as World Day of the Poor for Catholics to “reflect on how poverty is at the very heart of the Gospel.

Cardinal Tagle in his message said “there will be no celebration if we do not care for [the poor].”

The prelate called on Filipinos to “admit to our own state of destitution,” and “to dare listen to the poor and associate ourselves with them.”

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority show that an estimated 22 million Filipinos or about one-fifth of the population live below the national poverty line.

Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo called on the clergy and the religious to “live the life of the poor and become one of them.”
The bishop said efforts to help the poor “can only be strengthened if the church would continue its encounter with them.”

At the Vatican, Pope Francis railed against social inequality during this year’s observance, saying that “the din of the rich few” was drowning out the voice of the needy.

At a Mass attended by about 6,000 poor people at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the pope noted that, “injustice is the perverse root of poverty.”

Special year will be the seventh in a series of nine annual celebrations to mark 500 years of Christianity in country

Filipino delegates pose for a picture during the World Youth Day in Poland in 2016. (Photo by Roy Lagarde)

UCANews.com Reporter, Manila, Philippines
November 16, 2018

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines has announced that it will dedicate 2019 as the “Year of the Youth”.

The year-long celebration, which will start on the first Sunday of Advent on Dec. 2, will carry the theme “Filipino Youth in Mission: Beloved, Gifted, Empowered.”

It’s observance, which the bishops described as part of the “nine-year journey for New Evangelization,” will end on Nov. 24, 2019, the Feast of Christ the King.

In 2013, the bishops’ conference launched a “nine-year journey” to 2021, the fifth centenary of the arrival of Christianity in the Philippines, with a different theme each year.

The first five years were dedicated to “integral faith formation” (2013), the laity (2014), the poor (2015), the Eucharist and the Family (2016), and the parish as a communion of communities (2017).

The year 2018 was dedicated to the clergy and consecrated persons, while the remaining two years of the preparation will be dedicated to ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue in 2020 and missio ad gentes, or bringing the Gospel to all people, in 2021.

Activities next year are aimed at “youth in formation, youth in communities, church and society, youth in mission, and youth ministry and youth ministers.”

“The Year of the Youth is a journey of encounter with Jesus, accompanied by Mary,” read a statement from the bishops’ Commission on Youth.

“In this journey, we tell the story of the Filipino youth with our Risen Lord … [and] as we are blessed and gifted during this journey, we are empowered to witness to and share our faith,” it added.

The “Year of the Youth” observance comes after the Synod of Bishops on young people last month.

The final document of the meeting stressed the concrete aspects of the lives of the youth, the role of schools and parishes and the need for the laity to be trained to accompany young people.

The SIKAD or Sining Kadamay, an artists’ organization for urban poor rights and welfare, will be conducting a fundraising performance “Sa Digma ng Halimaw,” a documentary theater production about the war on drugs, as told by loved ones of the victims of Extra-Judicial Killings (EJK) under the said war and others affected by it. It is a series of monologues that use interview transcripts, news articles, incident reports, photos and video footage and other relevant documents to bring the featured stories in public performance.

This will be on November 22-23, 2018, 7pm onwards at Pardec A, CHR, Diliman. Quezon City.

PRODUCTION BRIEF

“Sa Digma ng Halimaw” is a series of monologues that use interview transcripts, news articles, incident reports, photos and video footage and other relevant documents to bring the featured stories in public performance.

The production is a mobile theatre project that will travel to different communities, schools and churches, and will be performed in open and public places. The performance will take various versions of staging: one, as stand-alone monologues; or two, as two monologues in one performance; and three, number of monologues woven into a full-length play.
All performances will have an actor-audience dialogue at the end to generate discourse and understanding on various issues attending the drug war.

(Guest Editorial written by Bishop Broderick Pabillo) ; CBCP News

WHEREVER there is massive poverty there is injustice. People are made poor! Their rights are stepped upon and they are even oppressed! This reality has again come to the fore with the massacre of the farmers in Hacienda Nene, Purok Fire Tree, Barangay Bulanon in Sagay City of Negros Occidental last October 20. Nine farmers, three of whom were women and two minors, were gunned down in their makeshift camp after they had taken their dinner around 9:30 pm by unknown assailants. After this brutal killing gasoline was poured over their bodies and they were set on fire.

Massacre of farmers is not new. We still remember the Escalante massacre in 1985, the Hacienda Luisita Massacre in 2002, and the KidapawanMassacre in 2016. Under Duterte’s watch in the last two years, 45 farmers have already been killed in Negros.

The reason for all these killings? Land! The farmers are denied their right to the land. Our Constitution of 1987 clearly stipulates that land reform is to be implemented to bring about social justice in the countryside. This mandate has been haphazardly executed because of the vested interests of our politicians who mostly come from the landed elite. Instead, the farmers who fight for their right to the land are tagged as “rebels” by the authorities. Hence many of them are mercilessly abused and even killed. The Sagay Massacre is the most recent incident.

Many farmers’ groups resort to “Bungkalan” because the implementation of the constitutional mandate of Land Reform is very lame and slow. Not a few blame the farmers for forcible entry, but how many would blame the government and the landowners for non-implementation of the Basic Law of the land? But even if the bungkalan is “illegal,” would this be enough reason to kill them mercilessly?

Some officials in the government is “softening” this brutality by tagging the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) to which the farmers belong as leftist. Do they mean that “leftists” are fair game, that they can just be killed?

The government seems not to be able to put their acts together. While some officials claim that the NFSW is leftist, other officials in the same administration, without any evidence at all, already tag the NPA as the perpetrators. This is already a sign that the killers will not be brought in. Can they bring in the NPA?

Now some, to ride on the anger of the public, assert that the “full wrath of the law” be fall on the killers? Are they really serious, or is this just plain bravado? Will the perpetrators, and more so, the brains, be ever brought to justice? Has the government the political will and the capability to bring justice for the farmers? Basing on the records of the Escalante massacre, the Hacienda Luisita massacre, the Kidapawan massacre, and the so many killings of farmer leaders, I strong doubt. None of the masterminds of these dastardly deeds have been brought to justice. The strong suspicion is that those involved are among the land owners, the military and/or the politicians.

But justice to the farmers is not just to get the killers of the Sagay massacre. It is to address the root of these killing. Give land to the farmers! Implement the constitutional mandate of land reform! Nothing short of this will bring peace in our troubled countryside.

Has this administration the political will to do this? Will it be a better government than the previous ones, or will it be of the same kind—elitist, corrupt and against the people?

The AFP’s 303rd Brigade Continues to Threaten Survivors of the Sagay Massacre and Members of Progressive Organizations

NFSW-North Negros Statement

Reference: Aldren Aloquina, November 17, 2018

The Armed Forces of the Philippines 303rd Brigade and the 79th Infantry Battalion are not satisfied with the massacre of ordinary farmers in Sagay, farmers who were brutally killed just because they wanted a piece of land to till for food. Until now, justice is elusive and it is clear that the initial investigations only twist the events. The survivors and relatives of the victims are now the suspects in the massacre.

Even survivors of the massacre who suffered severe trauma and are now trying to rebuild their lives and livelihood are continously being surveilled and threatened. The army desperately tries to “establish their links” to the New People’s Army (NPA). For their lies to be believable, and to justify their operations as “legitimate,” the soldiers fired indiscriminately at bamboo trees in Sitio Puting Bato, Barangay Washington, Escalante City, so they can say that there was indeed an “encounter.”

It is obvious that the military desperately wants to make it appear that the Sagay survivors are connected to the NPA. Even the office of the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) in Sagay City is under surveillance, pictures are taken by suspected state intelligence agents. Aside from this, the leaders of NFSW, KARAPATAN and the Northern Negros Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (NNAHRA) and other progressive organizations who are helping in the Sagay 9 case were tailed and surveilled, they received death threats thru text messages, and suspicious persons aboard motorcycles are always posted near or infront of their homes.

Even the legal counsel of Sagay 9 survivors, Atty. Ben Ramos, NUPL Secretary General, was brutally murdered. The killers want to threaten all human rights defenders and advocates and lump them with the CPP-NPA to justify the killings.

Today fresh human rights violations transpired in Sitio Puting Bato, Barangay Washington, Escalante City where the “Bulanon family,” a family of Sagay 9 survivors chose to live with their relatives. But the military tailed the “Bulanon family” and threatened them anew. Early in the morning of November 16, the military barged into house where the “Bulanon family” was staying and forcibly took photos of their companions in the home. The personal belongings, sack of rice and provisions of the “Bulanon family” were confiscated by the military.

Not content with the threats, the military made it appear that an encounter ensued so that they could claim that the “Bulanon family” and other massacre survivors are close to the NPA. Today a picture of their sack of rice and provisions was displayed along with weapons that the military supposedly “recovered” from the fake encounter — an M16 rifle, bullets and two short arms.

The “Bulanon family” already suffered severe trauma but the military shows no mercy. Their own son was killed in the massacre. The military still calls them “fake grandparents” of the 14-year old witness even if authorieties are aware that it is only natural for the “Bulanon family” to claim the child because they were the ones who cared for him since he was small, when the minor’s biological father abandoned him and his mother. The police want the father to take custody even if the child no longer knows his father. The police and military continues to claim in public interviews that the child was “kidnapped” by lawyers and human rights workers of KARAPATAN, even after the mother and child have told the public in a press conference that they voluntarily sought the help of the group and they were NOT KIDNAPPED.

When will they let the massacre survivors have their peace? What is the military trying to do, intimidate and force the survivors to attest that the NPA was behind the massacre? Now that they refuse to follow the military’s story line, does this warrant the continuous threats against them?

All these violations they carry out with impunity to supress the peasant movement for genuine land reform. Even President Duterte has ordered the military to shoot at peasants who occupy lands for food cultivation. It is obvious that the US-Duterte regime favors the big landlords and have no concern for the lives of peasants who feed the nation.