wfn.org | Church leaders call for calm after southern Philippines bombing kills six

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Note #7477 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

17-October-2002
02406

Church leaders call for calm after southern Philippines bombing kills six  
  
by Maurice Malanes
Ecumenical News International
  
MANILA - Church leaders asked for prayers and calm after condemning two
bombings in the southern Philippines on Thursday which killed six people and
wounded about 150 and which authorities blamed on a group fighting for a
separate Islamic state.  
"We pray for the victims and their families as we ask God for justice. Let
not hostility reign in our hearts but justice," Monsignor Hernando Coronel,
spokesperson for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, said in
a statement after the two bombs went off in adjacent shopping malls in
Zamboanga City.  

Noting that the Roman Catholic bishops "strongly condemn" the bomb attacks,
Coronel hoped that the latest bomb attacks would not widen misunderstandings
between Christians and Muslims, who are a minority in the country.  

Zamboanga is a port city with an 80 per cent Christian population located
near predominantly Muslim islands in the southern Philippines.	

The Philippines military blamed Abu Sayyaf, a violent group notorious for
kidnapping Christians and foreigners, for carrying out the attacks. Defense
officials said they feared the violence might "spill over" into the capital,
Manila.  

Some Philippine officials have linked Abu Sayyaf with the al-Qaida terrorist
group.	

Thursday's attacks were the third in a series in the Philippines during the
month of October. A bomb attack on Oct. 2 at a bar frequented by American
servicemen also in Zamboanga City killed a U.S. special forces Green Beret
sergeant and three Filipinos and injured 20 others. Police blamed Abu Sayyaf
for that attack.  

Six other people were killed and more than 20 were wounded in a similar
attack on Oct. 10 in Kidapawan City, also south of Manila. The military
blamed renegade members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) for the
Kidapawan attack. The MILF has been waging a rebellion for a separate Muslim
state in the southern Philippines since 1978. 

The spate of violence in the southern Philippines has prompted calls for
peace and justice by church leaders promoting Christian-Muslim dialogue.  

United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) Pastor Luna Dingayan prayed
before his parishioners on Oct. 13: "O Almighty God, may you help give our
leaders the wisdom to convert weapons of mass destruction into plowshares
because real security and peace comes from You and not from the barrel of a
gun." The UCCP is a partner church of the Presbyterian Church (USA).  

In another sermon on Sunday, the Rev. Simplicio Dangawan, also of the UCCP,
said the war on terrorism could be won only through "a spiritual warfare" and
by living up to the Christian tenet that "each one of us is our brother and
sister's keeper." 

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