Council of Churches affirms solidarity with RP human rights workers

Human rights workers from the Philippines currently attending the 14th Session of the UN Human Rights Council have been invited to speak at the World Council of Churches, also in Geneva.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) through its Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA-WCC) has asked the Ecumenical Voice for Peace and Human Rights in the Philippines (EVPHRP) to speak on the situation of human rights in the Philippines.

WCC is one of the international organizations that issued a statement calling for the release of the 43 health workers arrested on February 6 in Morong, Rizal.

The EVPHRP group is attending the session of the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva to formally file their complaint against the Philippine government and military on the illegal arrest and detention of Morong 43.

Dr. Mathews George Chunakara, director of CCIA-WCC welcomed the delegation of RP human rights workers led by Fr. Rex Reyes, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) and Marie Hilao-Enriquez, chairperson of human rights watchdog KARAPATAN.

Thanking WCC for its unwavering support to the churches in the Philippines, Reyes said it is essential to speak up in defense of human rights especially in countries “where it seems not to exist” emphasizing the importance to “affirm the church’s self-understanding as being for and with people.”

“We do our best to preserve human dignity in that part of the world, conscious of the fact that we are your representatives there. It is an ecumenical task”, Reyes told WCC.

The group presented to the council the situation of the detained health workers also known as Morong 43, highlighting their illegal arrest by the military, torture and continuing detention.

Atty. Edre Olalia, acting Secretary General of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) and a legal counsel of the Morong 43 discussed the various human rights violations the health workers have experienced which he said afforded solid grounds “for citing the arrest and detention as illegal.”

Jigs Clamor, a member of the delegation, and husband of one of the detained health workers recounted the sufferings his family has undergone and still going through while his wife is under detention.

He described how the military threatened his wife of reprisals to her family unless she admits her group’s association with New People’s Army.

“This is the same story with the families of the other detainees,” Clamor said.

The health workers who have been illegally detained at Camp Capinpin since their arrest on February 6 have since been transferred to Camp Bagong Diwa, in Manila. Five of the detainees have turned state witness amid alleged torture and harassment from military.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, for its part, has also issued a statement expressing grave concern on the continued detention of health workers while calling the illegal arrest as a “seeming lack of regard of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for human rights and the rule of law.”

Citing the importance of international pressure, Enriquez said, “the number of human rights victims in the Philippines shoot up each time nobody is watching.”

The delegation also called on WCC general secretary Dr. Olav Fykes Tveit who also reiterated the WCC’s continuing support and interest on the case of Morong 43.

The 14th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council began May 31 and goes on until June 18, 2010.