Express Your Support and Outrage – Another Church Activist Shot Dead
This update is from Global Ministries partners in the Philippines about church workers and activists killed by extrajudicial forces.
This update is from Global Ministries partners in the Philippines about church workers and activists killed by extrajudicial forces.
Dear Friends,
Greetings of Peace in these troubling times!
In less than a month after our brother Noli Capulong was brutally killed, another church worker of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines from Oroquieta City (Northern Mindanao) was gunned down by motorcycle-riding killers on Saturday, 17 June. Tito Marata was the provincial officer of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines and a member of the Farmers for Agrarian Reform Movement. Tito is the 17th church activist killed since November 2004 (please see list below). The killing of Marata happened a day after the Arroyo Government committed one billion pesos (USD 1 = PHP 53) for an all-out war to end the communist insurgency in two years or less. Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez on the other hand declared that loss of lives is unavoidable if the government will crush the Reds. “You can’t avoid collateral damage… Sometimes there are bombings and civilians might get hurt,” Gonzalez told the Inquirer newspaper.
With this appaling development, we once again appeal to you to continue praying for our country and to send petition letters to your Foreign Ministers, the Philippine Government, and the Philippine Commission on Human Rights to put an end to the killings of church people, peace advocates and leaders of people’s organizations. Below are links to three sample petition letters for your reference.
Sample Letter to Foreign Ministers Sample Letter to Philippine Government Sample Letter to Philippine Commission on Human Rights
CONTAK Philippines has launched SPEAK Now Campaign (Stop Persecution and Extra-Judicial Killings Now in the Philippines) last month and we have produced a Campaign Kit (Primer on the Killings of Church People, Stories of the Martyrs, Prayer Guides, Petition Letters and Postcards, Posters). If you are interested to receive a copy, please send us your address and contact information.
We sincerely appreciate your support and solidarity to our campaign to stop the killings and to find justice for all the victims.
Respectfully yours,
Lei Garcia
Executive Director
CONTAK Philippines
17 Church People Killed
1. Isaias Manano (UCCP) 28 April 2004
2. Joel Baclao (UCCP) 10 November 2004
3. Juancho Sanchez (UCCP) 16 November 2004
4. Vicente Olea (UCCP) 23 November 2004
5. Abe Sungit (UCCP) 5 February 2005
6. Fr. William Tadena (IFI) 13 March 2005
7. Alfredo Davis (UCCP) 15 April 2005
8. Rev. Edison Lapus (UCCP) 12 May 2005
9. Rev. Raul Domingo (UCCP) 20 August 2005
10. Jose ‘Pepe’ Manegdeg III (RC) 29 November 2005
11. Junico Halem (UCCP) 6 December 2005
12. Mateo Morales (RC) 24 January 2006
13. Nestor Arinque (UCCP) 7 March 2006
14. Rev. Jemias Tinambacan (UCCP) May 9, 2006
15. Pastor Andy Pawikan (UCCP) May 21, 2006
16. Noel Noli Capulong (UCCP) May 27, 2006
17. Tito Marata (RC) June 17, 2006
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CONTAK Philippines
(Church Office for International Network in the Philippines)