General News and Announcements

October 1, 2009

The United Church of Canada is deeply saddened and outraged by the extrajudicial killing of the Rev. Fr. Cecilio Lucero on Sunday, September 6, 2009, in the town of San Jose, Samar. Fr. Lucero is the 26th victim of extrajudicial killing in the church sector under the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the first from the Roman Catholic clergy.

The United Church joins the National Council of Churches in the Philippines, the Ecumenical Bishops Forum, and other United Church partners in the Philippines in condemning this hideous violation of human rights. We join them in calling on President Arroyo to order an immediate and impartial investigation of the killing. We urge our own Government of Canada to condemn the brutal killing and to press the Government of the Philippines for a speedy resolution of the case.

Our church conveys our deep sympathy to Bishop Emmanuel Trance, his fellow clergy, and the Catholic church of the Diocese of Catarman, to the family of Fr. Lucero and to the people that he faithfully served as parish priest of Catubig and chair of the Human Rights and Peace and Order committees of the diocese.

Since 2001, The United Church of Canada has been working with partners to seek global attention and actions regarding the extrajudicial killings of individuals, who like Fr. Lucero, speak and work in defence of the human rights of Filipinos, especially the poor and marginalized. The number of killings has now exceeded one thousand. Fact-finding missions, including that of the United Nations Special Rapporteur, Mr. Philip Alston, have attributed numerous cases of the extrajudicial killings to the military and police. The root causes of the problem, according to Mr. Alston, are the Philippine military’s campaign, Operation Plan Bantay Laya, and the Philippine government’s counter-insurgency war, which considers activists and critics of government as enemies of the state and targets of attack.

The United Church of Canada once again joins with its partners to call on President Arroyo to order a stop to the extrajudicial killings and to terminate Operation Plan Bantay Laya.

We have sent a letter [PDF: 2 pp/29 KB] calling on the Government of Canada to press the Government of President Arroyo to take immediate and tangible steps to end the extrajudicial killings. We urge the Canadian government to make the continuation and provision of new development, and financial and other forms of assistance to the Government of the Philippines contingent on the latter’s successful implementation of measures to stop the extrajudicial killings, including the following:

1. measures to implement the recommendations of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial killings
2. successful investigation and prosecution of military personnel and others who have committed human rights violations
3. a Presidential Order to the military and police to end the campaign against members of civil society organizations, end the practice of labelling them as enemies of the state and the withdrawal of the military’s order of battle
4. resumption of the Peace Talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines

• Patti Talbot
  Acting Executive Minister
  Justice, Global and Ecumenical Relations Unit