Statement of the Ecumenical Bishops’ Forum (EBF) on the Arrest and Detention of Australian Missionary Sr. Patricia Fox

Photo credit: The ABS CBN

“Be alert and vigilant. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith.” (1 Peter 5:8-9)

The Church in the Philippines lives in perilous times as an increasing number of clergy, religious and church workers face unspeakable violence and whose rights are violated by President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration. Church people who join the pilgrimage of poor communities and support their struggle for justice, peace and human dignity suffer state-perpetuated political persecution.

The assault against Sister Patricia Fox, who is an Australian religious missionary and the regional superior of the Our Lady of Sion Sisters in the Philippines, is the most recent blow against church workers and religious institutions. For the past 27 years, she has immersed herself in the arms of the toiling Filipino masses and worked hand-in-hand with farmers, supporting through her prayers and selfless service their struggle for land and life.

Sr. Pat, as she is known in the ecumenical community, was illegally arrested by elements of the Bureau of Immigration at her residence in Quezon City. She was detained for two days, from April 16 to 17, following allegations of her participation in political actions against the Philippine government. The soft-spoken and good-natured missionary nun was released, following the strong condemnation of faith communities, the human rights defenders, and members of civil society groups and peoples’ organizations.

The Ecumenical Bishops’ Forum strongly denounces this absurd action taken by Duterte’s administration against Sr. Pat. We express outrage at this evil-doing and demand that all politically motivated harassment against human rights defenders, peace and justice advocates, political activists, and church workers be put to stop.

We cannot comprehend why church people become targets of political persecution. When has it become a crime to accompany the poor and the oppressed in their struggle? When has it become a crime to preach the words of God and live-out the works of Christ?

Recent events manifest a systematic state-sponsored attack on church people. On December 4 last year, Catholic priest Marcelito Paez was killed after facilitating the release of a political prisoner. On May 11, 2017, Iglesia Filipina Independiente Bishop and peace advocate Carlo Morales was arrested, detained for nearly a year, and was recently released upon the granting of his bail plea.

We hold the Duterte government accountable for the many cases, documented or otherwise, on the persecution of church people. This situation only reveals the hands of a despotic government that seeks to suppress the Church’s role as a moral compass of the society.

We vehemently condemn the mounting cases of political and religious persecution under Duterte’s tyrannical and dictatorial rule. We demand that this administration stop the increasing and increasingly hostile attempts at silencing church people who accompany those that experience far more greater historical and structural injustices.

The plight of Sr. Pat sends a chilling message to everyone. The persecution of church people does not only reveal the sword of a despotic government that seeks to suppress the Church’s role as a moral compass of society. It is a demonstration of this administration’s noxious attempts to criminalize legitimate dissent. This serves as a prelude to more intensified state-perpetuated violence against those who work for peace, justice and the promotion of human rights.

We, therefore, call upon all Christians and to all people of good will to boldly resist state violence and political oppression, and continue to stand up for and work in solidarity with the poor, deprived and oppressed, so that justice and peace may reign and life, in all its sanctity and dignity, can be enjoyed.

For God’s people,

                             
Bishop Deogracias Iniguez, Jr., D.D.                  The Rt. Revd. Felixberto L. Calang, IFI 

EBF Co-chairperson                                                   EBF Co-chairperson

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte addresses an event with Filipino community in Hong Kong, China April 12, 2018. REUTERS/Bobby Yip

Andrew R.C. Marshall

(Reuters) – Clarita Alia knew what was coming.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte addresses an event with Filipino community in Hong Kong, China April 12, 2018. REUTERS/Bobby Yip

I met her with Reuters colleague Manny Mogato in May 2016 in a slum in Davao City, just after its long-time mayor, Rodrigo Duterte – also known as “The Punisher” – was elected president of the Philippines. Four of Alia’s sons were killed in Davao in a brutal anti-drug campaign that Duterte had vowed to take nationwide.

“Blood will flow like a river,” Alia predicted.

She was right.

Within months of Duterte taking office in June 2016, police or unidentified gunmen had killed thousands of drug suspects. And so, joined by another colleague, Clare Baldwin, we began our in-depth reporting of “Duterte’s War” that would win Reuters the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting.

Read the investigation here:

At first, we focused on telling the tragic stories of drug-war victims and challenging false claims by the Duterte administration. In 2017, we set ourselves a bigger and riskier goal: to expose the killing machine behind those deaths – the Philippine police – and name the killers themselves.

We did this by melding data journalism, multimedia and shoe-leather reporting. Clare and I accessed and analyzed a trove of official crime reports, security camera footage and crime scene photos. This allowed us to identify not just new patterns in the killings, but also the top killers.

We corroborated our findings with months of reporting in slums and hostile police stations, often working as a team to watch each other’s back. Clare was greeted at one station by homicide detectives who shouted and lifted their shirts to display their guns.

Human-rights groups blamed thousands of vigilante-style killings on the police or their associates. The police publicly denied this. But two senior officers – one of them, at times, trembling with nerves – told Clare and Manny that police had carried out most of these killings. That story also cited a secret report, leaked to Manny, that detailed how police received cash for executing suspects, planted evidence at crime scenes and disabled security cameras in neighborhoods where they planned to kill.

What gave our stories their potency – and what so enraged the Duterte administration – was our use of the Philippine police’s own data, mainly in the form of crime reports, to undermine and disprove official claims. As 2017 went on, the police made it harder to get information about their deadly operations, while the government started its own campaign to counteract what it said was “fake news” about drug-war killings.

Even so, we continued to pry data from the police by making calls, writing letters and visiting stations to inspect and record blotters and other original documents. This allowed us to identify a deadly police unit from Duterte’s hometown – the “Davao Boys.” Armed with this data, Clare and I retraced the unit’s lethal path through Metro Manila’s streets. When Clare asked one Davao Boy why he had been chosen for the unit, he smiled and replied: “Special kill skills.”

Reporting by Andrew R.C. Marshall

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