PHILIPPINES
Davao Religious Launch Campaign
Against Extrajudicial Killing
PHILIPPINES
Davao Religious Launch Campaign
Against Extrajudicial Killings
MATI, Philippines [UCAN]
Bishops and vicars of four southern Philippine dioceses planned together to fight extrajudicial killings through prayers, fasting, a pastoral letter and a catechetical module.
The leaders of Davao archdiocese and its suffragan dioceses of Digos, Tagum and Mati (DADITAMA) have agreed on "four proposals of prayer and action" following their Sept. 13-14 quarterly consultation in Mati, Davao Oriental province, 1,025 kilometers southeast of Manila.
These planned actions will culminate on Nov. 30, the start of the Mindanao Week of Peace. Mindanao is the southern Philippine region.
During the Marian month of October, a time when praying the rosary is emphasized, parishioners in the four dioceses are asked to include a special petition to end the spate of killings in the region. Tagum diocese has incorporated this in the traditional "dawn rosaries" there.
The second initiative is a joint pastoral statement being drafted by a committee under the leadership of Father Pedro Lamata of Davao archdiocese's Office of Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue. The letter, which will be read in all 93 parishes of the subregion, is to be issued before the Week of Peace and will be signed by Archbishop Fernando Capalla of Davao and Bishops Guillermo Afable of Digos, Wilfredo Manlapaz of Tagum and Patricio Alo of Mati. Three of these Church leaders were present at the September meeting, but Bishop Afable was out of the country and sent his vicar general, the second-highest official in a diocese after the bishop.
The third joint proposal calls for development of a catechetical module on the dignity of life based on the 1968 encyclical Evangelium Vitae of Pope Paul VI.
Finally, the four dioceses will hold a simultaneous "Day of Fasting and Prayer" on Nov. 30, when Catholics and other concerned people could join "to show commitment to the sanctity of life," according to Father Federico Mantica, director of the Gamayang Kristohang Katilingban (GKK, or Small Christian Communities) Presidents League.
"This will be part of our spiritual response to the problem of killings," Father Mantica told UCA News from Tagum. Much concern has been expressed about the number of extrajudicial killings in the country, seen as targeting leftists and administration critics, but the priest pointed to a difference in the DADITAMA area.
"Most of the summary killings' victims are not from militant groups but people associated with drugs and illegal gambling. Almost all the killings are done in daylight with many witnesses around. The killers are brazen and have no fear of being caught. It seems to show they have influential people behind them and they are well organized," Father Mantica said.
Since the September meeting of diocesan leaders, he said, GKKs in all four dioceses have offered special prayers at their Sunday kasaulog nga pulong (celebration of the word) liturgies for a stop to the killings.
In Davao City alone there were more than 165 extrajudicial killings in 2005 and through May this year, according to the Davao Today newspaper.
Father Mantica said that in his area in Tagum City, 45 kilometers north of Davao, the number of "brazen, daylight" extrajudicial killings is increasing "but with no cases being resolved by local police and military authorities."
Jess Opalla, a local kaabag (lay minister) of a Catholic parish in Tagum City was killed six months ago in his cafe as he was celebrating its opening. He had witnessed an extrajudicial killing and had agreed to testify in court.
Opalla swore out an affidavit to what he saw and was told on April 4 that he was to testify April 6. "But at noon on April 5 he was killed. Who will be willing to testify now on any killings?" Father Mantica asked.
The priest added that in August, a local Protestant pastor, who also heads a chapter of the leftist Bayan Muna organization, was killed in broad daylight at a market in Panabao City, in the territory of Tagum diocese.
Child Jesus Sister Melvin Manligoy of the Social Action Office of Mati diocese told UCA News that clergy, laypeople and Religious in her diocese would join the DADITAMA effort even though extrajudicial killings are not a problem there.
"The area where the problem exists is in Tagum, Digos, and Davao City. We have not had any of these killings. Still, our bishop has promised that our diocese will be active and participate in all the activities," she said.
"Killing is evil," Bishop Alo told UCA News. "The Church condemns any sort of killing. ... Life is precious, and it is for this reason that capital punishment was abolished" in the Philippines, he continued.
The bishop called for schools and seminaries to train their students and seminarians in critical thinking and to foster their social consciousness "to uphold the dignity and sacredness of life."
The Archdiocese of Davao is this year's DADITAMA secretariat. The group's next meeting is scheduled Dec. 12-13 in Tagum City.
This year's Week of Peace, scheduled Nov. 30-Dec. 6 with the theme In the Name of the Almighty God of Harmony, Care for the Earth, is the eighth since the Bishops-Ulama Conference took over the Zamboanga City Peace Week and made it island-wide. The conference brings together Christian bishops and Muslim ulama (Islamic scholars) in the Mindanao region.
October 23, 2006