Protestant group wants Bush to intervene in killings

It might take a little nudging from US President George W. Bush to convince President Arroyo to do more to stop the extrajudicial killings of journalists and left-leaning activists, bishops belonging to a major Protestant group believe.

Alarmed by what it considered unabated killings of left-leaning activists, including church workers, by suspected members of the government’s security forces, the United Methodist Council of Bishops (UMCB) had written President Bush asking him to use his influence to convince President Arroyo to address the issue with more urgency. Bush is a Methodist, but is perceived to be closer to the more conservative evangelical Christians.

According to the group, 21 church workers have been killed since President Arroyo’s rise to power in 2001. They were part of the more than 700 civilians killed reportedly by government security forces on suspicion that they were communists or plain sympathizers.

"United Methodists in the Philippines and the United States are deeply troubled by the growing violence of the military under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. We ask you to communicate to President Arroyo our deepening concerns, concerns which we expect you and your office share," UMCB president Janice Riggle Huie of Houston said in a letter to Bush.

Huie said the latest case involving a church worker was on Aug. 3. The victim, Isaias Sta. Rosa, was a Methodist pastor. "Three of our United Methodist bishops in the Philippines are currently conducting further investigation into Sta. Rosa’s death," she said.

The UMCB early this year sent a high-level fact-finding mission to the Philippines to check on the reported killings. The group had even met with Mrs. Arroyo.

The President created on Aug. 21 a five-man commission to investigate and thresh out measures to stop the killings. The commission is headed by former Supreme Court Associate Justice Jose Melo. The members are Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuno, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Nestor Mantaring, University of the Philippines regent Nelia Gonzales, and Butuan Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos.