Presbyterian delegation returns from the Philippines

Group expresses solidarity with embattled UCCP

by Roger Scott Powers

Special to Presbyterian News Service

CHICAGO — Eight Presbyterians have returned from the Philippines after a 9-day visit, February 19-27, hosted by the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP), a partner of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

The delegation, which also included a member of the United Church of Christ, was jointly sponsored by the Philippine Solidarity Project and the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship.

The delegation found the Philippines to be a country of widespread poverty and enormous inequality ruled by wealthy elites and riddled with corruption. As its economic crisis worsens, peoples’ movements are rising up to call for change, but they are being met with government repression.

“The UCCP joins the struggle because most of its members are peasant workers,” explained one UCCP pastor. “The church needs to be with its flock.”

The UCCP is a church that has taken the side of the poor and supports peoples’ struggles for justice and peace. As a result, its leaders have been targeted by political violence.

In the past six years, twenty UCCP pastors and church leaders have been killed for working with the poor and advocating for human rights. The most recent was the Rev. Filomino Catambis, who was killed on Jan. 23 of this year. Others have received death threats or been detained and tortured.

The delegation heard testimonies from victims of human rights violations and their families, including workers at Hacienda Luisita, a sugar cane plantation owned by the family of former President Corazon Aquino, where striking workers were massacred on Nov. 16, 2004. Seven were killed and more than one hundred wounded.

“Your coming here and hearing their stories means more than you can imagine,” said one UCCP leader.

The delegation also visited UCCP Pastor Berlin Guerrero in the Cavite Provincial Jail, where he has been held on trumped up charges for the past nine months without trial. Members of the delegation pledged to increase international pressure to help secure his release.

The timing of the delegation coincided with the 22nd anniversary of the People Power revolution that ended the brutal dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. But as bad as things were under the Marcos regime, the economic and human rights situation is considered to be even worse under current President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Manila newspapers were filled with news of a government corruption scandal and calls from civil society groups for President Arroyo to resign.

Asked how Presbyterians in the U.S. could be most helpful to the UCCP, five suggestions were offered:

• Tell the stories of the victims of empire to churches and communities in the U.S.
• Pray and stand strongly with the UCCP as we exercise our prophetic ministry in the Philippines.
• Lobby your country and government for fairer and more humane policies toward the Philippines.
• Join in the movement toward global peace and against U.S. interventionist wars.
• Organize regular and frequent immersion trips to the Philippines for pastors and leaders of the PC(USA).

Members of the delegation included the Rev. Matthew Lang, Shelley Milosevich, and the Rev. Richard Williams from Chicago Presbytery; the Rev. Larry Emery, Ann Kohl, and Stuart Robinson, from Sacramento Presbytery; Joel Hanisek, Presbyterian Representative to the United Nations; Irene Pak, intern with the PC(USA) Office of Racial Justice & Advocacy; and the Rev. Roger Powers, co-moderator of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship.

The next PC(USA) delegation to the Philippines is tentatively scheduled for August 2008. For more information, visit the Peace Fellowship Web site or contact the group by email.

The Rev. Roger Scott Powers is pastor of Light Street Presbyterian Church in Baltimore and co-moderator of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship.