Pastors harassed
The Rev. Joel Q. Bengbeng (center), superintendent of the Ilocos South District in the Northwest Philippines, is among the United Methodist pastors from the Baguio Episcopal Area who say they have experienced harassment due to their social justice work. (Photo courtesy of the Rev. Hinivuu Pecaat.)
A United Methodist Insight Exclusive
Last December, three soldiers came to Rev. Joel Bengbeng’s house around seven-thirty in the morning. They told the United Methodist district superintendent that they came to improve relations between local religious leaders and the Philippines military.
Their manner, however, was more intrusive than cordial. They asked for Rev. Bengbeng’s cellphone number, and the hours when he would be in his office. They took pictures “for identification purposes at rallies” of both Rev. Bengbeng and his elderly mother who lives with him. Then they said their commanding officer also wanted to meet with the superintendent.
When the soldiers left, both the clergyman and his mother felt threatened. They feared the visit stemmed from Rev. Bengbeng’s past efforts to care for the public welfare of United Methodists and other citizens in his district.
COVID-19 and enforced quarantine
Rev. Bengbeng’s story of intimidation, which has continued since December, was one of several accounts of privation, intimidation, and violence told by Filipino United Methodist leaders during a two-and-a-half-hour ZOOM meeting May 15 (May 16 in the Philippines across the International Date Line). The Western Methodist Justice Movement, in cooperation with the Methodist Federation of Social Action and the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines-US network, sponsored the event to highlight the coronavirus pandemic’s effects on The United Methodist Church in the Philippines.
However, the webinar also revealed how the Philippines government is using the COVID-19 crisis to step up political repressions against vulnerable Filipinos and those who champion their human rights, which includes United Methodists.
Hosted by Deaconess Joy Prim in the United States, the event drew together representatives from the General Board of Church and Society, the General Board of Global Ministries, the Philippines Council of Churches, the National Association of Asian American United Methodists and MARCHA, the Hispanic/Latino caucus of United Methodists.
United Methodist Bishops Ciriaco Q. Francisco and Rodolfo A. Juan also spoke to the group, but both left the webinar early to meet with clergy in their respective regions as the Philippines faced the onslaught of Typhoon Vongfong. In his video greeting, Bishop Francisco said the webinar was organized to share with the worldwide denomination how COVID-19 has affected the church in the Philippines socially, physically, emotionally, and spiritually; how the church has responded; and what the future might hold after the pandemic.
However, just as the pandemic has revealed racism and economic injustice in the United States of America, the COVID-19 quarantine has uncovered increasing human rights abuses in the Philippines.
Bishop Francisco said the Philippines government instituted an “enforced quarantine” March 16 that has limited movement, banned in-person gatherings, and required working from home, resulting in job losses for many low-income workers. Despite those efforts, infections have increased, and the enforced quarantine has been extended through May 30.
No public worship, reduced funding
Bishop Francisco said the quarantine has eliminated public worship, causing a corresponding drop in giving to local churches. Because giving is down, churches can’t pay the salaries of their workers, including pastors. Although worship and Bible study have been conducted online, few Filipinos have Internet access, he said.
In response to growing hunger among people unable to work for food, United Methodist churches and ministries have been providing food to those unemployed and their families, Bishop Francisco said. Out of 164 local churches in his Manila Area, relief efforts have been set up in 158 locations, helping some 12,000 families at a cost of $4 million Filipino pesos (about $80,000 US), the bishop said. In addition, subsidies to some 361 church workers from March through May totaled $1.2 million Philippine pesos (about $25,000 US), Bishop Francisco said. The Philippines UMC also has provided personal protective equipment (PPE) to health care workers.
In light of the effects to date, Bishop Francisco said the Philippines UMC has applied to the United Methodist Committee on Relief for funds to help sustain its relief efforts through what is expected to be a lockdown lasting for months to come. (A May 18 UMCOR press release said its special COVID-19 Response Fund has received enough money thus far to begin distributing $20,000 grants – twice the usual UMCOR gift – to qualifying ministries engaged in meeting “pressing needs in the areas of health, food insecurity, water, sanitation and hygiene and economic instability.”)
Bishop Francisco Martial Law
Manila Area Bishop Ciriaco Francisco (far left) and the Rev. Lizette Tapia-Raquel (center) were among those attending a demonstration on the day of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte’s State of the Nation address on July 24, 2017 in Manila. (Photo courtesy of Lizette Tapia-Raquel)
Still following Social Principles
Bishop Francisco, a former member of the denomination’s Church and Society board of directors, said that despite the challenges they face, Filipino United Methodists remain committed to following the denomination’s Social Principles, particularly in regard to human rights (Paragraph 164 of the Book of Discipline). The bishop denounced “corrupt and abusive behaviors” on the part of Philippines government officials, especially the military, that have led to the arrests and deaths of people seeking food and jobs.
Bishop Francisco outlined five goals that United Methodist Filipino leaders have agreed to pursue:
- Sustaining church workers;
- Addressing poverty and the loss of jobs;
- Relieving food insecurity;
- Providing nutrition, especially for children; and
- Integrating whatever the “new normal” will be into the church’s future life.
Deaconess Darlene Marquez-Caramanza of the Manila office of the General Board of Global Ministries underscored Bishop Francisco’s references to human rights abuses by the Philippines government.
“The Philippines is not a safe place to be for human rights defenders,” the deaconess said. “Trumped-up charges are the order of the day.”
‘Grave human rights violations’
Ms. Marquez-Caramanza said that President Rodrigo Duterte's government has committed “grave human rights violations" disguised as “counter-insurgency programs” against farmers, land reformers, the poor, and indigenous people. Between July 2016 and November 2019, activists have been murdered in extrajudicial killings at a rate of 1 to 2 per week, she said.
Because Mr. Duterte’s government is relying on a U.S. model for “stabilizing security” in the country, and because of arms sales to the Duterte regime, the United States is a major force in Philippines politics, said Ms. Marquez-Caramanza. Currently, the U.S. Congress is preparing on May 30 to consider a resolution to sell five more attack helicopters to Duterte’s government, supposedly to repel the New People’s Army, an insurgent group.
“Those helicopters have been used to attack whole villages of so-called insurgents,” said Ms. Marquez-Caramanza.
She cited some 120,000 people arrested since the March 16 lockdown went into effect. Among them were 10 relief workers on May 1; 40 people including three church workers on April 30; and 14 students coming from a community kitchen in Quezon City within the past month. On May 8, five farmers were “massacred,” as Ms. Marquez-Caramanza put it. On May 10, six farmers supporting the land reform movement were arrested, along with a Catholic priest charged with allegedly manipulating the Lumad people, an indigenous group that has resisted government efforts to intimidate and remove them.
“Where does this bring us?” asked Ms. Marquez-Caramanza. “How do we do mission at such a time?”
Photo courtesy of Rise Up for Rights and For Life
Philippines Killings
Rise Up for Life and for Rights and the National Union of People’s Lawyers-National Capital Region joined forces during a press conference to condemn drug-related extrajudicial killings and violations. Emily Soriano holds a photo of her son, who was killed in 2016. To her left are Norma P. Dollaga, a United Methodist deacon, and Ephraim Cortez, an attorney who is a United Methodist.
Rising up for human rights
Another deaconess, Rubylin Litao, described the work of the organization she coordinates called Rise Up for Life and for Rights! (exclamation point included in title).
Ms. Litao said her group works with poor families whose loved ones – often young men – have been killed by police and soldiers in President Duterte’s supposed “drug war.” She said the campaign has given rise to a new vocabulary:
- “Tokhang” or “tok-tok,” drawn from the sound made by troops when they knock on doors to arrest alleged violators.
- “Nanlanban,” victims who fought back against police; and
- “Palit ulo,” someone killed attempting to recover a dead body left in the street as a warning to others.
Rise Up aims to counter this repression by bringing together people, especially people of faith, who will resist the fake “drug war” campaign, said Ms. Litao. Her organization has coined the motto “STOP THE KILLINGS” which it uses in education, documentation, and alliance-building efforts.
Rise Up is now looking for ways to continue its ministry amid the COVID-19 enforced quarantine, Ms. Litao said. “We need medications, medical services, and livelihoods. We need community clinics instead of checkpoints,” she said.
Community leadership leads to surveillance
The Rev. Joel Bengbeng, the final webinar speaker, thinks his current intimidation by the Philippines military dates back a couple of years to his efforts to defend a village of mostly United Methodists from being destroyed by a questionable dam project. As superintendent of the Ilocos South District of the Northwest Philippines Annual Conference, Rev. Bengbeng was instrumental in leading a citizens’ effort to stop the dam that would have flooded out at least five villages in the region, also affecting the towns of Salcedo, Santa Lucia, and Santa Ana.
Rev. Bengbeng’s leadership, which included energizing 43 churches in his district to oppose the project, combined with citizens’ efforts to halt the dam, at least temporarily. His leadership saved communities under his care, but it also marked him as someone who could oppose the government successfully.
As evidence of ongoing intimidation, Rev. Bengbeng noted that just before the new district office was to be dedicated in December 2019, the local military headquarters was moved to a rented unit immediately behind the church office. Subsequently he was visited again by soldiers who tried to convince him to sign a document used by the military as a loyalty oath for “surrendees” from the insurgent New People’s Army.
“I’m afraid, and my elderly mother who lives with me is afraid,” said Rev. Bengbeng. “It affects my ability to work as a district superintendent.”
Despite the “atmosphere of fear” heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic, Rev. Bengbeng said, he intends to continue to “pray together and work together for human rights and justice” for the people of the Philippines.
Philippines Central Conference Board of Church and Society Facebook page.
United Methodist Church Philippines Conference Facebook page.
UN raises alarm about police brutality in lockdowns – CNA International, an English-language Asian news network based in Singapore.
Deadly Typhoon Vongfong Leaves Trail of Destruction on Luzon – Weather Channel
Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011