Protestant Church sues Arroyo for killings, human rights abuses

Protestant Church sues Arroyo for killings, human rights abuses

“Something is indeed terribly wrong when pastors and church workers are killed, arrested and detained or go missing while they are teaching people to know, defend and fight for their rights,” Rev. Rex Reyes, general secretary of the National Church of Christ in the Philippines (NCCP), said.

By RONALYN V. OLEA
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – While the Aquino government dilly dallies in running after former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, her family, and officials of her administration, different groups have filed cases against the former president and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) officials for plunder and human rights violations. Now, it is a church that decided to do so.

With more than 18 of its members killed, one disappeared, three ambushed and wounded and four arrested, detained and tortured, the United Church of Christ of the Philippines (UCCP) filed today a damage suit against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

UCCP general secretary Bishop Reuel Norman Marigza, relatives of five slain UCCP pastors and members and Pastor Berlin Guerrero filed the civil case against Arroyo before the Quezon City Hall of Justice.

“Gloria Arroyo and the military agents under her command must be held accountable for the injustice they have exacted on the Church and the Filipino people,” Marigza said. “We have preponderance of evidence pointing to the military establishment [as the perpetrators]. Arroyo then was the commander in chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Being the highest official of the AFP then, we are suing Arroyo under the principle of command responsibility.”

Marigza cited the case of Guerrero who was abducted just outside the local UCCP chapel in Biñan, Laguna after a Sunday worship service on May 27, 2007. The UCCP bishop said that records show that members of Naval Intelligence Security Forces were the ones who took Guerrero to a safehouse and tortured him before he was turned over to the Philippine National Police (PNP)’s provincial headquarters at Camp Pantaleon Garcia in Imus, Cavite.

Relatives of slain UCCP pastors and members are joined by bishops in their quest for justice.(Photo by Ronalyn V. Olea/ bulatlat.com)

Not one of the perpetrators of the crimes has been prosecuted, said lawyer Emilio Capulong.
Relatives of UCCP members Joel Baclao, Pastor Edison Lapuz, Pastor Raul Domingo, Pastor Andy Pawican and Noel Capulong are among the complainants.

Baclao was shot dead by a gunman just outside his home in Daraga, Albay, Bicol on Nov. 10, 2004. Baclao was the coordinator of Andurog-Bicol, a disaster relief program of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) and the regional coordinator of the Promotion for Church People’s Response (PCPR).

Lapuz had just come from his father-in-law’s burial in San Isidro, Leyte on May 12, 2005 when he was shot dead by two unidentified men.

Domingo, a United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) pastor and secretary-general of the human rights group Karapatan in Palawan, was killed by suspected military agents last Aug. 20, 2005..... MORE

Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/06/17/protestant-church-sues-arroyo-for-killings-human-rights-abuses/