OUR PROPHETIC VOICES (Official Statements and Inputs from Church People and Other Sectors on Urgent Issues of the Day)

Statement on the Just Concluded Peace Talks

Beautiful are the feet of those who love peace ……

The National Council of Churches in the Philippines expresses elation over the successful formal peace talks between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in Oslo, Norway from February 15-21, 2011.  We congratulate both panels for the agreements reached as contained in their Joint Statement. We are jubilant on the note of optimism that the statement projects.  We thank the Royal Norwegian Government for its unequivocal role as facilitator of the peace process and for their hospitality to all those directly involved with the peace talks from the Philippines.

Specifically, the NCCP is edified that both Panels “recognized the need to resume the formal peace negotiations in order to resolve the armed conflict by addressing its root causes.”  For too long, this has been the cry of justice and peace advocates as it was the cry of the church.  This recognition puts to the fore of the peace talks the situations of the vast majority of the Filipino people.  It is a declaration that the peace talks is for the people more than anything else.  We take pride in this particular statement of both Panels.

We also rejoice that both Parties agreed to uphold all previous agreements so painstakingly crafted in the past.  We support the statement that these are “essential and unilateral affirmations in moving ahead and forging agreements on the remaining substantive agenda…”.  We commend both Panels for setting up timeframes, for the work of the reciprocal working groups, and the equally important work of the Joint Monitoring Committee.  We are encouraged as well by the forward-looking stance that the statement conveys.  We lift all these efforts to God who loves all people and desires that not one be lost.  Indeed, how beautiful are the feet of those who decide peace and salvation (cf. Isaiah 12.7)!

We look forward to the meetings of the Panels in the forthcoming months and assure them that the NCCP will continue to pray for the success of the peace talks and their continuing good health, each and severally.  With vibrant hope, we urge all Filipinos, especially the constituency of the NCCP to be vigilant that we all remain focused on the way of justice and peace.  We invite one and all to be of one mind in appreciating the issues that would lead to just and lasting peace.  Let us be vigilant that no one or any group derail the peace process that it may draw ever closer towards a successful end.  We owe that much to the future generations of this country.  Above all, let us continue thanking God “for setting us at tasks which demand our best efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy and delight us” (BCP).

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(SGD) Rev. Fr. Rex R.B. Reyes, Jr.
General Secretary – NCCP

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(SGD) Bishop Nathanael P. Lazaro

Chairperson

OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA HU JINTAO

With hope still raised high, we humbly, sincerely and desperately appeal to Your Excellency that the Chinese Government spare the lives of our loved ones, Sally Ordinario-Villanueva, Elizabeth Batain and Ramon Credo, Filipino nationals convicted in your country for drug offense and sentenced to die by lethal injection on March 30.

We are profoundly grateful that the Chinese Government granted a temporary stay of their execution last February upon the representation of Vice President Jejomar Binay.

We earnestly beg Your Excellency for commutation.  We believe our loved ones are victims of larger drug syndicates who take advantage of the unawareness, vulnerability and desperation of our people.  We are pained that they are meted the death penalty while the big true drug operators and syndicates go on wild abandon.

Our appeal is thus an appeal for compassion.  None would be happiest than the two children of Sally Ordinario-Villanueva, both honor students and the four-year old son of Ramon.  These children have not seen their mother and father, respectively.

Please listen to our plea and be the instrument for the extension of the lives of these three people.

Our hope and prayers are with Sally, Elizabeth and Ramon and for a just and compassionate world.

(Sgd.),

Marisol Ordinario, sister of Sally Ordinario

Sol Credo, wife of Ramon Credo

Fr. REX RB. REYES, JR. 
General Secretary, National Council of Churches in the Philippines

Bro. Eddie Villanueva
Jesus Is Lord Movement

Bishop SOLITO K. TOQUERO
Co-Chairperson, Ecumenical Bishops’ Forum

Bishop NATHANAEL LAZARO
Chairperson, NCCP, General Superintendent – IEMELIF (Iglesia Evangelica Metodista en Las Islas Filipinas)

Ms. NORMA O. DOLLAGA
Secretary General, KASIMBAYAN (Ecumenical Center for Development)

MR. NARDY SABINO
Secretary General, Promotion of Church People’s Response

Garry Martinez 
Chairperson, Migrante International

Lana Linaban 
Secretary-General, Gabriela

Renato Reyes, Jr 
Secretary-General, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN)

Save the Lives of OFWs on Death Row Alliance

Noynoy turns a blind eye on looming devastation of peasants’ livelihood as Balikatan exercises sweep their areas

Noynoy turns a blind eye on looming devastation of peasants’ livelihood as Balikatan exercises sweep their areas; while recently installed AFP Chief of Staff plays president

Official announcements and media’s recent reports state that the 2011 Balikatan joint military exercises will be participated in by 6,000 US and 2,000 Filipino soldiers. This is the first for the year and the 27th in the VFA’s 11-year history.

“Not only is Noynoy callous, he is turning a blind eye to calls to stop the Balikatan military exercises in various peasant areas in the Philippines,” farmer leader and KMP secretary general Danilo Ramos declares.

“6,000 US and 2,000 Filipino troops, not counting their support and logistics staff, will be in various peasant areas in Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac, Zambales, Cavite City and Ternate in Cavite, and Lapu-Lapu City in Cebu,” Ramos continues. “What is first and foremost for Noynoy, as exposed with his endorsement of the Balikatan exercises, is to serve US imperialist interests in the Philippines,” Ramos asserts.

Ramos explains that Noynoy’s deliberate act to allow the Balikatan exercises and to uphold the VFA, despite the growing and continuing opposition against it, is the definitive example that his boss is American imperialist domination in the Philippines. No amount of criticisms from farmers’ groups and peasant organizations can sway him from his tunnel-vision endorsement of US invasion, plunder and manipulation of Philippine rural areas.

“While Noynoy suffers from a presidential hysterical blindness as the Balikatan 2011 commences on April 5, recently installed AFP Chief of Staff Lt. Gen Eduardo Oban cheerfully prods the US Forces to enjoy the Philippines both in the military and predatory senses,” Ramos opines.

“In the very words of Lt. Gen. Oban stating that ‘the conduct of Balikatan 2011 allows a long and lasting partnership, founded firmly on common heritage, between two freedom-loving countries committed to the preservation of liberty and democracy,’ the lead state-fascism implementor is actually expounding that the basis of the relations between the Philippines and the US is oppression and exploitation of the countrysides through military means,” Ramos remarks.

“This AFP chief-of-staff is acting out roles that is played only by a president or an eminent statesman; both of which he is, with absolute certainty, not.” Ramos comments. “This is such a contemptible actuation; and Noynoy, the commander-in-chief, does not reprimand his subordinate; what we can conclude is that we are now a military-dictated and -directed state with a chief executive allowing a lower rank to express a conviction reserved only for statesmen,” Ramos retorts.

“Lt. Gen. Oban should be sent back to the combat frontlines in Castilla, Sorsogon to be lectured on the topic ‘chain of command’ and censured for uttering such delusional statements like ‘the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the US have a long-time relationship of working together… this partnership includes a 58-year mutual defense treaty, showcasing a long bilateral partnership in Philippine history,” Ramos relates.

“What this air force officer continues to deny is the fact that the mutual defense treaty which he highlights as a shining example of a ‘long-time relationship of working together’ is none other than a permission concocted by an American-trained Filipino ruling class granted to American imperialists to rapaciously exploit the Philippines’ natural resources, with an emphasis on quelling the peasantry and smashing the landless farmers’ legitimate and moral quest for a sovereign and nationalist agrarian reform program,” Ramos explains.

“Since the invasion of the Philippines by US forces since 1899, it has been the poor and the peasants who have suffered the brunt of US violence,” Ramos calls to mind. “While Noynoy and his little president AFP CoS Lt. Gen. Oban compete for bragging rights with the scheduled Balikatan this April 2011, it will still be the poor and the peasant Filipino who will suffer the violence, oppression and exploitation now from both the US and its Filipino military counterparts,” the peasant leader laments.

“What is even sadder is that this feeling-popular president and his overly-ambitious military aide-de-camp – who has confused military and civilian roles in the nation’s affairs – are suffering from delusional amnesia in allowing the same vicious brutes who executed 1.6 million Filipinos in the end of the 19th and at start of the 20th centuries to continue to trample on the rights of and to commit merciless atrocities on 21st century Filipinos,” Ramos concludes. ###

March 17, 2011

Reference:
Danilo Ramos
Secretary General, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Peasant Movement of the Philippines)