wfn.org | Objects to Asian Summit

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3304 notes).

Note 3303 by UMNS on Nov. 25, 1996 at 15:48 Eastern (4088 characters).

SEARCH:   Ecumenical, Asia, summit, Philippines, Bautista,
               Andress, Johnson
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Contact:  Joretta Purdue                      589(10-33-71B){3303}
          Washington, D.C.  (202) 546-8722           Nov. 25, 1996

Ecumenical Network protests
premises of Asian Summit

     WASHINGTON (UMNS) -- United Methodists who work with justice
issues here and in New York were among those in the Ecumenical
Network on the Philippines who were critical of the Asian summit
held in Manilla in late November.
     The 18-nation Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
summit, attended by President Clinton and other heads of state,
"is primarily driven by interests of global corporations," said
the Rev. Kathryn Johnson, a former United Methodist missioner in
the Philippines.
     Johnson, who works with the Asia Pacific Center for Justice
and Peace in Washington, declared that the underlying framework
for regional cooperation between countries "should not be
corporate interests, but development that meets people's basic
needs, promotes democracy and social justice, respects human
rights, and protects the environment."
     The Ecumenical Network on the Philippines is affiliated with
Asia Pacific Center. Before 1996 the network was known as the
National Ecumenical Conference on the Philippines. It advocated in
the United States for human rights in the Philippines during the
Marcos, Aquino and Ramos administrations.
     "There are hidden costs to the free market and trade
liberalization that are the focus of APEC; [and] chief among these
are exacerbating social inequities, disregard for human rights and
environmental destruction," said Liz Andress, interim coordinator
of the ecumenical network.
     The network has participated in the Manila People's Forum on
APEC 1996 with non-governmental and grassroots organizations, and
supports the Kyoto Declaration issued by the 1995 NGO Forum on
APEC. 
     Demands in the Kyoto Declaration include, the people's
participation in decision making, elimination of arms trade,
rejection of unrestricted trade liberalization and constraints on
multinational companies.
     The declaration also calls for full implementation of human
rights and labor rights instruments, protection of farmers from
exploitation, defense of women and children, and recognition of
"food security" as a basic human right. 
     Food security is short-hand for an understanding by advocacy
groups that governments and world bodies should not institute
policies that promote food shortages and hunger.
     Liberato C. Bautista, newly named to head the United
Methodist ministry to the United Nations, said, "An economy --
global, regional or local -- whose produce and dividends do not
accrue to the betterment of the lives of the majority of the
world's peoples, and denies just, participatory and sustainable
development of their communities, defies God's promise of abundant
life for all."
     Bautista, a social ethicist and lay member of the Philippine
Central Conference of the United Methodist Church, added that
God's will bids breaking yokes that deprive people of sustenance
food, shelter, basic clothing, literacy and liveable income from
their work.
     The ecumenical network objected to the forcible eviction of
hundreds of urban poor families in Manila immediately preceding
APEC. Getting rid of people because they are eyesores contradicts
the goals of genuine development of peoples, said Jan Lugibihl, a
former Mennonite volunteer in the Philippines. 
     She also challenged the liberal trading of market goods when
the free flow of ideas is curtailed as in the case of Nobel Peace
laureate Jose Ramos-Horta's being banned from the Philippines.
     "Genuine and sustainable development cannot rest on and
flourish under instruments of militarism and structures of
intimidation," said Johnson.
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