By Elliott Wright*
Dec. 12, 2007 | NEW YORK (UMNS)

The leader of The United Methodist Church’s international mission agency has asked Congress to assure that no U.S. military aid to the Philippines can be used in ways that violate human rights.

Bishop Felton E. May, interim chief executive of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, sent a letter to members of Congress on Dec. 10, which was International Human Rights Day.

Dealing with spending bills, Congress was considering a measure (H.R. 2764) that would provide $30 million in military aid to the government of Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The amount is $19 million more than was requested by the U.S. State Department.

H.R. 2764 passed the House of Representatives, and the Senate has passed a similar version. The two bills must now be reconciled.

The Philippines military has been cited in numerous reports as being complicit in, if not directly responsible for, a series of murders of human right activists, including clergy and church lay leaders. These "extrajudicial killings" have been widely condemned by both Protestant and Roman Catholic leaders in the Philippines and on the global stage.

May urged Congress to approve no more than the $11.1 million requested by the State Department for military aid to the Philippines and asked that human rights conditions be applied to whatever amount is voted. He also appealed to Congress to make publicly available State Department reports that might indicate whether the U.S. government was aware of the use of U.S. funds in anti-human rights activities of the Arroyo administration and its military.

Several reports indicate that the extrajudicial killings are being justified on a pretext of security precautions rooted in the "war on terror."

Working for rights

The United Methodist Church in general and the denomination’s Boards of Global Ministries and Church and Society in particular are working to help establish human rights in the Philippines, to stop the extrajudicial killings, and to bring to justice those responsible for the murders.

The United Methodist Church has three episcopal areas in the Philippines, and the global ministries agency is linked through mission work to the United Church of Christ in the Philippines.

May wrote that his board "has been involved for many years in advocacy ministries of peace, human rights, interfaith relations and reconciliation in cooperation with Filipino churches. There are many United Methodist congregations in the Philippines that are experiencing increasing human rights violations within their communities."

Democracy ‘is suffering’

His letter cited several reports, including one by the Philippines government itself, which implicated the military in the wave of killing. Some estimates place the death toll at more than 800.

"As a result of the attacks on civil society, including church groups and clergy, opposition political parties, labor unions and nongovernmental organizations, democracy in the Philippines is suffering," the bishop wrote. "We know this firsthand and are involved in efforts to protect human dignity and rights.

"United Methodists in the Philippines are among the victims. In March 2007, my colleague, Bishop Solito Toquero of Manila, came to Washington as part of an ecumenical delegation to voice concern to members of the U.S. Congress about the many extrajudicial killings. Global Ministries has also supported human rights delegations that document atrocities and give support to bereaved families and communities."

*Wright is the information officer of the Board of Global Ministries.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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Resources

Board of Global Ministries

Philippines Episcopal areas