The extrajudicial killing of church workers is an attack against Christianity, say Filipino church leaders, who have demanded an impartial probe of the recent slaying of a Roman Catholic priest - writes Maurice Malanes.
The killing on 6 September 2009 of the Rev Cecilio Lucero was "an attack against the Christian faith and humanity, which aspire for freedom, genuine peace and justice", said Nardy Sabino, secretary-general of the Promotion of Church People's Response, a national ecumenical group promoting human rights and social justice.
Lucero was on his way to Catarman town from his parish in Catubig, both in Northern Samar in central Philippines, when ambushed and killed by about 30 armed men early that morning. He was aged 48.
Until his death, Lucero was an active member of Sabino' group and a human rights desk chairperson at the Catarman diocese. He had become the 26th extrajudicial killing victim from the church sector since 2001, the year President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took
office.
"Father Lucero was known to respond courageously and selflessly against human rights violations, which were rampant in his diocese," Sabino said in a 15 September statement published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper. He said Lucero's case was not isolated, citing other extrajudicial killings of church people, who also denounced abuses of government officials and troops.
Bishop Emmanuel Trance of Catarman condemned the murder and demanded authorities "investigate and bring to swift and due justice" the culprits. " If they could do this to a priest, this incident will instil fear among ordinary people," Trance told CBCPnews, the Catholic official news service of the bishops' conference.
The bishop said his diocese's social action centre had documented 18 extrajudicial killings during the past six months, many of them farmers, whose human and civil rights Lucero had helped defend.
The National Council of Churches in the Philippines, the Ecumenical Bishops Forum (a grouping of Catholic and traditional Protestant leaders), the National Clergy Discernment Group (a group of Catholic priests), and the Inter-Faith Justice and Peace Network each issued statements condemning the killing and seeking justice for Lucero.
The police in Samar said it had created a task force to investigate Lucero's killing.
The Philippine government's Commission on Human Rights chairperson, Leila de Lima, also pledged to pressure the police to act on the killings of Lucero and others in Samar.
[With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Conference of European Churches.]
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