wfn.org | NCC asks U.S. to look into arrests of Filipino workers

["Philip Jenks" <pjenks@ncccusa.org>]

NCC General Secretary asks U.S. State Department
to investigate detention of Philippine health workers

New York, February 18, 2010 -- The General Secretary of the National  Council of Churches has urged Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to look into the detention of 42 Filipino health workers by Philippine  military and police forces on February 6.

The Philippine government claims the workers were preparing violent  attacks on the government, a charge one church leader in the Philippines  has called, "ludicrous." The workers say they were involved in normal  medical activities when they were arrested.

One of the workers, the Dr. Alexis Montes, is a long-time staff member  of the United Church of Christ of the Philippines. Montes and his family  are well known to many U.S. and international church workers.

"It is a matter of the deepest concern to us in the United States  whenever Christian sisters and brothers are threatened by governments  and other forces or slanderously accused of illegitimate activities for  political purposes," said the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, NCC General  Secretary, in a letter to Clinton.

Kinnamon asked Clinton "to look into this matter and express the concern  and attention of the United States Government."

Earlier, the Rev. Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit, General Secretary of the World  Council of Churches, wrote to Philippine President Gloria  Macapagal-Arroyo to express his distress at reports the detainees are  being subjected to inhumane treatment.

Bishop Eliezer M. Pascua, General Secretary of the United Church of  Christ of the Philippines, said charges that the detainees were  supporting violent action against the Filipino government were  "ludicrous."

The full text of Kinnamon's letter to Clinton can be viewed at  www.ncccusa.org/pdfs/HCfilipinos.pdf

NCC News contact:  Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228 (office),  646-853-4212 (cell) , pjenks@ncccusa.org