Philippines Crackdown On Missionaries, Churches Accused Of ‘Communism’ (Worthy News In-Depth)

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By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

MANILA (Worthy News) – Church groups say Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte are silencing Christian missionaries, priests, and bishops through “red-tagging tactics” for allegedly criticizing the government.

Ted-tagging labels these Christians as “communist sympathizers,” leading to detentions and potentially even killings of the accused, Worthy News established.

Many are charged with supporting or financing the communist rebellion by New People’s Army fighters in the Philippines, according to Christians familiar with the situation.

Reminiscent of the 1940s and 1950s McCarthyism in the United States, “the tactic imperils the lives of the accused,” explained Elizabeth Kendal, a leading international religious liberty analyst and advocate.

Elected in a landslide in May 2022, the administration of President Marcos Jr. and Vice President Duterte “appears poised to continue and even accelerate the brutal and unjust policies employed by their fathers,” she added.

Kendal, who investigated red-tagging, said it impacts “journalists, conservationists, human rights activists, advocates, or Christian missionaries tending to the needs of the vulnerable poor and downtrodden.”

Victims of ‘red-tagging’ “often disappear, imprisoned, tortured or dead, mostly at the hands of security forces with wide-ranging powers and guaranteed impunity,” she warned in comments to Worthy News.

MISSIONARIES TARGETED

In one of the latest known cases, police in Sultan Kudarat province in southwest Mindanao detained Aileen Manipol Villarosa, 41), a lay missionary with the Catholic Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP). She faces 55 counts of financing terrorism, according to Christian observers of the case.

Among others targeted were workers of the Protestant Iglesia Filipina Independiente denomination (IFI), an independent member of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Their troubles began on June 3, 2022, when in Ilocos Norte province, in the country’s far north-west, posters and leaflets were found in front of an IFI cathedral in Laoag city and its church in Banna town.

The publications reportedly bore names and faces of IFI church leaders, accusing them of recruiting for the communist New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, Worthy News learned.

Later in August 2022, some 16 missionaries were detained, including five nuns with the RMP, a Catholic mission group working to alleviate hardship in impoverished rural areas. “They were charged with alleged financing of terrorism, specifically, transferring funds to the NPA,” Kendal told Worthy News.

On October 3 last year, the IFI was again targeted by a user of the social media outlet Facebook named ‘NTF-ELCAC Caraga’ in the country’s eastern Mindanao region. The NTF-ELCAC is the government-run National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.

The force was created by previous hardline President Rodrigo Duterte with billions of pesos at its disposal, making red-tagging his government’s official policy.

NAMES PUBLISHED

It published names and images of IFI church leaders “accused of being NPA recruiters and terrorists,” Worthy News monitored. The IFI said in a reaction that “red-tagging has become now the present fashion and common face of harassment, intimidation, and threats…”

The denomination blamed “people and groups most likely associated with the state security sector and government’s agency NTF-ELCAC…”

The IFI added that fellow believers of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) and “certain quarters in the Roman Catholic Church” have also been singled out by authorities. However, these denominations “only strive to be consistent with their prophetic ministry, social witness and pastoral advocacy,” the IFI stressed.

Yet, “These churches have been named earlier as ‘enemies of the state’ and the military and police have been circulating materials and personnel to proliferate this insinuation to the public.”

The IFI referred to UCCP Reverend Edwin Egar

and his wife, Julieta Egar, who, along with 71 others, “were red-tagged; charged with supporting terrorism” in November 2022.

Fearing for their lives, the Christian couple and lay leader Ronald Ramos successfully asked the Supreme Court for protection from “red-tagging by members of the Philippine Army’s Infantry Battalion in Batangas,” some 62 miles (100 kilometers) south of the capital Manila.

Despite their legal success, the petitioners remain in hiding, “living in fear, wondering whether tomorrow will be their last,” Christians said.

PRAYERS URGED

Kendal asked believers “to pray” for the situation as “the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence ‘red-tagged’ 18 groups.”

They also include aid group Oxfam, the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), and a non-denominational fellowship of Protestant churches.

Christian leaders have expressed concerns that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will follow the authoritarian style of his late presidential father and the Rodrigo Duterte policies.

Human Rights Watch also condemned the recent red-tagging of Indigenous people, contributing “to making the Philippines one of Asia’s most dangerous countries for environmental activists and land defenders.”

“Activists are also harassed through the justice system, with many facing politically motivated charges for defamation and other fabricated offenses. The administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. should urgently issue a clear directive to all government officials to stop red-tagging and take appropriate action against those responsible”, the advocacy group said.

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