International Human Rights Day in the Philippines is a saga of human rights that is “good on paper”. It is one of continuing impunity and non-enforcement of human rights laws, when we consider 132 cases of extrajudicial killings under the present government and zero prosecution. The recent promotion of military officers charged or implicated with abduction and torture, the unabated killing of indigenous peoples and environmental advocates and the vilification of activists, speak volumes not of the state’s helplessness but of what Representative Erin Tañada says is the “systemic inability to enforce human rights laws”. To paint the rosy picture that there are no political prisoners is far from the truth as those in detention have been charged with other offenses except political offense. The suffering of millions mired in poverty and their vulnerability to natural calamities abetted by unbridled resource exploitation speak of an order that perpetuates the denial of human dignity.
Amidst this, however is the unbending faith of the people for peace and justice. The recent peaceful march of indigenous people from Mindanao to Manila or MANILAKBAYAN was not a walk in the park but a strong message to the national government and the general public of the continuing human rights violations in their region. It is no secret that these violations are directly related to their opposition to large-scale resource extraction or plunder owned by mostly foreign mining firms without regard to their rights, the environment and posterity.
The season of Advent, the anticipation of the arrival of the Savior is never lost in the continuing struggle of the people for justice here and around the world. The church in solidarity with this struggle stands solidly on the prophetic voice “of the one crying in wilderness,” ‘Make straight the way of the Lord!’ (Luke 3:4) spoken by the prophets Isaiah and John of old. The straight path is not a slogan but a call for willful struggle for reform and renewal in church and society. This struggle is understood as showing “the strength of his arm . . . (who) has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of low degree” (Luke 1:51-52).
In the unrelenting moves to deny the truth about the grave human rights situation in this country, the National Council of Churches in the Philippines is equally relentless in its belief that justice is neither rhetoric nor media mileage. It is making the perpetrators of human rights violations accountable for their transgressions. It is heeding the voice of the people to stop the plunder of the earth’s resources and end the war response against those who speak for our patrimony. The church, nay, the ecumenical community is bound to issue without let-up the call to “beat swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks” and “neither shall they learn of war any more”. (Micah 4.3b)
The Most Rev. Ephraim
Fajutagana
Obispo Maximo XII,
Iglesia Filipina Independiente
& Chairperson
NCCPhilipines
Rev. Fr. Rex RB Reyes, Jr.
General Secretary, NCCPhilippines