present a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council documenting the Philippine government’s alleged involvement in extra-judicial executions on a massive scale.
The report "Let the stones cry out!" also marks the beginning of an international campaign of the Philippines’ main churches to end the human rights violations, said the World Council of Churches (WCC) in a statement to BosNewsLife shortly before the official presentation at
1300 UTC.
The report, "distills the collective cry for justice of thousands of Filipinos – including more than 800 victims of extra-judicial executions from the year 2001 to the present – who have suffered the brunt of violations of human rights under the Philippine government’s counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism strategies," the WCC told BosNewsLife.
The WCC-backed ecumenical delegation presenting the document at the UN Human Rights Council meeting in the Palais des Nations in Geneva included officials of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), the Philippines Ecumenical Bishops’ Forum, the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, the Moro Christian People’s Alliance and the US-based United Methodist Church.
The group was to be accompanied by Rev. Liberato Bautista, assistant general secretary for United Nations and International Affairs.
CHRISTIANS ATTACKED
Christians have been among those in the cross-fire of fighting between independence seeking rebels and the military, BosNewsLife’s South East Asia Bureau established earlier.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has defended her government’s record on human rights. She has also pointed out that a Christian ally, Congressman Luis Bersamin, 62, and his security aid Adelfo Ortega were shot and killed by gunmen in December last year.
The attack happened in suburban Quezon City near the capital Manila after they left a Roman Catholic church where they attended a wedding. The assailants reportedly blocked their car and fired at them several times, police and other sources said.
Bersamin, a Catholic, had been very active for the local Christian community as member of the Congress of the Philippines, the country’s parliament.
CHURCHES CONCERNED
However churches have expressed concerns over the government’s perceived involvement in political killings to fight rebels or perceived political enemies, who include prominent Christians.
Last year the leftist human rights group Karapatan documented 764 deaths of activists and Christian leaders since Arroyo came to power in 2001, including the outspoken human rights advocate, former Supreme Bishop Alberto Ramento."
Ramento was found stabbed to death at his rectory in the Parish of San Sebastian of Tarlac City, on the morning of October 3. He had been an outspoken critic of the government and a leading advocate for peace and human rights in the country.
Within days of Ramento’s murder, another clergy member of the Philippine Independent Church also reportedly received a death threat via short messaging service on his mobile phone.
EPISCOPAL CHURCH
Ramento was a member of the committee that drafted the renewal of the terms of the concordat of full communion between the Episcopal Church and the Philippine Independent Church, which was signed during the Episcopal Church’s 75th General Convention in Columbus, Ohio, in June 2006, church observers said.
His death was the latest “in a string of killings of Christian leaders” in the Philippines, the Episcopal Church said at the time. Roman Catholic nuns in the Philippines also filed a complaint at the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Philippines’ security forces who raided their convent in Butuan City late last year.
Representatives of the Good Shepherd Sisters order appeared before CHR November 6, saying the Philippine National Police was involved in "gross human rights violations," when they raided the convent November 1, reportedly in search of a rebel leader who allegedly was seeking refuge inside.
Monday’s report presented to the UN Human Rights Council, parts of which were send to BosNewsLife, also presents information on the violations "and evidence of the complicity of government security forces," the WCC said.
It also "discusses the historical, social, economic and political context in which the violations are allegedly committed, including a "culture of impunity," the group added. (BosNewsLife’s Stefan J. Bos contributed to the story).
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