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07258 May 2, 2007
Atmosphere of fear Moderator's Philippines visit yields accounts of murder, mayhem
by Evan Silverstein
Erlinda Manano MANILA - As the Rev. Joan S. Gray looked on, Erlinda Manano - speaking in slow, broken English, tears trickling down her left cheek - recalled the day her eldest son, a 21-year-old Filipino activist and church worker, was brutally murdered.
Isaias Drummond Manano Jr., was gunned down April 28, 2004, by an unidentified man "in cold blood," Erlinda Manano told Gray, moderator of the 217th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Gray, making her fist international trip since being elected last June, was visiting church partners and congregations in the Philippine capital as part of a 17-day, three-nation tour of Asia. She also visited South Korea and Japan.
Isaias Manano, who had worked to solicit funds to help poor farmers before being fatally shot, was hit once in the stomach and once in his right temple while walking in the city of Calapan on the island of Mindoro.
He was an active member of the Christian Youth Fellowship of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) - the PC(USA)'s partner church in the country - and an officer of a progressive peoples movement. He was an advocate for the poor whose most "precious treasure was standing up strong for the Lord," Erlinda Manano said of her son in a voice vexed and sorrow-filled.
These days, serving God by serving the people can be deadly for religious and human rights workers in the Philippines.
Doyet Capulong "He lived the life of a real Christian," Erlinda Manano said. "He lived the true meaning of a Christ disciple and a missionary. That's the only reason I know of that they would do that to my son."
There were no witnesses to Manano's murder, other than a colleague who heard gunshots from a distance. There was no investigation of which to speak. There were no arrests, as there hardly ever are in the Philippines in connection with what are euphemistically called "extra-judicial killings."
Erlinda Manano thinks the military was behind her son's murder, as well as an alarming spate of other politically motivated killings and violence that's ripping the Southeast Asian nation apart.
She is not alone in her suspicions.
Since 2001, when President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo took office with the backing of the powerful military, hundreds of activists, clergy and other church workers, unionists, farmers, human rights workers, and journalists have been slain, sparking accusations of a systematic, nationwide campaign to silence those who challenge the status quo. Now, Erlinda Manano fears for her own safety.
Luz Fortuna "I continue this crusade, speaking for justice not only for my son but for those who were also brutally killed for no reason at all," she said. "I also feel insecurity about my life as I stand up, as I share what happened to Isaias. Every time I do this, I get insecure about what will happen to me after this."
Gray also heard firsthand testimony from six others who described how family members were shot dead in broad daylight, kidnapped, threatened or "disappeared."
Such is the cycle of violence being played out on the streets and in villages across the Philippines, the moderator was told, and with a fury that recalls the darkest days of the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship.
There have been 835 reported cases of extra-judicial killings since Arroyo took power in 2001, according to local human-rights group Karapatan. Of those, 25 are church workers - 15 of them from the UCCP, which hosted Gray's April 5-9 visit to the Philippines.
"I have to say my heart is heavy as I listen," Gray told the family members. "There are no words to express how terrible this is. We're struck numb."
Moderator Joan S. Gray consoles Virgilio Perido, whose two daughters are wanted for questioning by the Philippines military. Photo by Evan Silverstein. Gray, an Atlanta pastor, was accompanied on the trip by her husband, Bill, and the Rev. Insik Kim, the PC(USA)'s coordinator for East Asia and the Pacific. Earlier, the three visited church partners in Seoul before traveling to Manila and later to Japan.
Kim said last summer's General Assembly in Birmingham, AL - where Gray was elected moderator - expressed the denomination's support for partner churches in the Philippines in their struggle for justice and human rights amid the rampant violence.
"We want to express our solidarity with you, for your ministry amid the struggle for human rights," Kim said. "We're delighted that you have been working on behalf of justice, peacemaking and reconciliation in spite of all the things that have happened."
Most victims of political killings are left-wing activists, whom senior government and military officials have publicly labeled "enemies of the state" for their alleged links to the outlawed New People's Army (N.P.A.), a communist rebel group that has fought the government in Manila for nearly four decades.
The moderator heard the fatal story of Noel Cortez Capulong, a UCCP lay leader and activist who was driving home to his wife and two children when a pair of motorcycle-riding assassins pumped four bullets into him on May 27, 2006.
Just before his death, the 51-year-old egg vendor, who was called "Noli" by family and friends, attended a community meeting to help residents facing eviction from contested land near Calamba, Laguna, south of Manila. Earlier, Capulong visited the "botikang bayan" or people's pharmacy project that he was helping to launch in a small village to assist indigents.
Capulong, among other things an environmental activist, worked with the international affairs desk of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) and later as coordinator of the Ecology and Environmental Protection Program for the Southern Luzon region.
He had long been under military surveillance for his advocacy work for justice, peace, human rights and environmental concerns, according to the UCCP, which has more than 800,000 members throughout the Philippines.
In the days prior to his death, friends expressed concern to Capulong that being so vocal might be dangerous. But he refused to back down.
"He would never stop articulating and educating people when it came to environmental issues and social issues," Capulong's wife, Doyet, told the moderator. "He stood with his principle to live out the teachings of Jesus Christ. But there were people who disliked his principle and because of that he was killed by unknown persons for no reason."
At the time Capulong was gunned down, the UCCP's General Assembly was deliberating a resolution condemning the ongoing extra-judicial killings and calling on the Arroyo administration to put an end to the bloodshed.
Bishop Eliezer Pascua, the UCCP's general secretary, told the moderator that he believes the timing of Capulong's so close to the Assembly was no coincidence, but part of an ongoing campaign of intimidation against the church, which has been named an "enemy of the state" because of its human rights and advocacy work.
In addition, a pastor and his family were harassed around the time of the Assembly, forcing them to flee their home fearing for their lives, Pascua said. The previous year a UCCP member was killed near the location of a church meeting.
"This to me is an affront, if not literally a persecution of our church," Pascua said. "These abuses are being committed intentionally and systematically. So much of this is being done within the vicinity or within the proximity of where church people are gathering or are having activities."
Several investigations - including those by the United Nations and by a commission headed by retired Philippine supreme court justice Jose Melo - have attributed the killings to the Philippines military.
The U.N. report flatly declared that Arroyo is either directing the killings or cannot stop the military from committing them.
Government and military officials insist that they are not responsible for the murders, that the violence is a result of anti-government insurgencies being waged by various groups around the country.
In March, Pascua met with church leaders throughout North America to raise awareness of the political violence devastating his country. He also testified on extra-judicial killings before the U.S. Congress in Washington, DC, urging lawmakers to press the Philippines government to end the murders.
"The presence now of the relatives of victims of human rights violations is evidence that we are still hopeful even amid a hopeless situation," Pascua said during the meeting with Gray on April 6. "We are still hopeful because we can still unite with one another."
Gray heard the story of UCCP lay church worker and human rights defender Joel B. Baclao, who died in a hail of bullets outside his home in November 2004 as his wife, Rowena, looked on in horror.
Rowena Baclao suspects her 40-year-old husband might have been killed by a person linked to the military since he was a staunch opponent of military operations against rebels in Albay, about 186 miles southeast of Manila.
The family also reported that Joel Baclao had received several death threats before his killing. The victim had been warned that his life was in danger because his name was on a "list," Rowena Baclao said.
She said that the list might be an Order of Battle released by the military, which contains names of rebels who are wanted by the government.
"He was a good Christian," Rowena Baclao said of her husband, who also led an anti-mining campaign. "He gave of himself for others."
There was also the story of Nestle-Philippines union president Diosdado "Ka Fort" Fortuna who was fatally shot on Sept. 22, 2005, near Calamba, Laguna.
Fortuna, 51, was reportedly on the military's hit list and under constant surveillance. Workers at Nestle's Cabuyao plant have been on strike since January 2002 over a deadlock in a collective bargaining agreement.
"My husband had principles in life," Fortuna's wife Luz told the moderator. "He said always, 'How can I serve the people when I stay buried in the house? How can we win or how can we fight for our struggle when I will stay here, always in the house? How can we educate our children? How about the future of our children?'"
Gray heard how the Rev. Raul Domingo - a UCCP pastor who chaired a human rights group calling for government reform - received threatening text messages prior to being shot on Aug. 20, 2005, by suspected military agents in Puerto Princesa on the Philippines island of Palawan.
The 43-year-old father of five children died two weeks later. "I hope when you go back to your churches in your country you do something in some way to help us," the slain pastor's eldest son, Japhet Domingo, said to Gray and her small group. "One of my prayers is to stop these kinds of killings."
There were other narratives of political violence during the gathering, which in addition to family members of victims was attended by UCCP leaders and staff along with PC(USA) mission co-workers the Revs. Paul Matheny and Mary Nebelsick.
The two missionaries, who are married, were appointed in January 2001 to serve in the Philippines at Union Theological Seminary in Dasmariñas, near Manila.
"The first thing is that after such an event you never regain the sense of security that you had before," Nebelsick said of those experiencing human rights violations. "There is always a loss and always suspicion.
"You can never meet someone with a sense of security. And so your soul is torn and your life is in shreds and fear lurks in your heart. Especially for those who have children, whenever they are even two minutes away you begin to look for them and search for them," continued Nebelsick, who has a young daughter.
Recently two people from the seminary, which serves the UCCP, turned up missing for a day after being taken from their vehicle just outside the institution's main gate. However, they were among the lucky few who have made it back alive.
"Since then the seminary community feels like it is under siege," Nebelsick said. "All of us who go in and go out feel that we are no longer safe. Not even inside though we do have guards at the gate."
Gray also learned about Abner L. Hizarsa, a 55-year-old UCCP member and former political detainee, who was riding his bike to take lunch to his fifth-grade daugher at school when he was abducted in March.
The former activist was blocked by armed men in a white van, snatched and forced inside the vehicle, according to witnesses. His whereabouts and condition were still a complete mystery at the time of last month's meeting with Gray.
When the moderator asked how the family was coping financially since Hizarsa's disappearance, the missing man's wife, Cris dela Cruz-Hizarsa, said: "It's really hard. I do what he was doing before. It's a burden on me while we are looking for him. But I have to go on. I have to work and protect my children. We own [a small convenience store] and we make our living from that."
Gray also heard from a survivor of an extra-judicial killing attempt and a UCCP pastor whose two activist daughters have been threatened by the military.
"It's a really difficult life and in fact we lead a life that is almost like begging everyday for our survival," said the UCCP pastor, Virgilio Perido, who evacuated his family from their home last year after soldiers tried to pressure him into surrendering daughters Betty, 34, and Aprilyn, 26.
While in Manila, Gray met with staff and leaders from the UCCP and the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP). On Easter Sunday she delivered sermons at an early morning "sunrise" service at a local park and later during a service at the UCCP's Ellinwood Malate Church.
She visited former longtime Philippine Senator Jovito R. Salonga, who is a UCCP member. Gray also participated in a theological dialogue and earlier attended a Good Friday service at a UCCP congregation in nearby Quezon City.
What now lies ahead for Gray after recently returning to the United States, she acknowledged, is the task of advocacy and education.
"I don't think we'll ever forget not only your words but your fears, your pictures, your stories," Gray told the families. "I can't tell you that we have the power to stop it but we have the power to witness and we will not forget."
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