In a press conference at the Cendet building here the other day, Protestant bishops and Catholic priests joined pastors from other churches in assailing the government for allegedly silencing their peers who had criticized the administration and its policies.
They cited Fr. William Tadena, a member of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI), who was murdered in Tarlac after celebrating Mass last March 13.
In Eastern Visayas alone, they claimed that there were 16 documented killings of church activists.
The latest fatality was Rev. Edison Lapuz, who was gunned down after he attended the burial of his father-in-law in San Isidro, Leyte last Thursday night.
Pastor Steve Berdin, of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP), said, "We see this violent repression targeting men of the cloth as part of the grand design to silence legitimate political dissenters of the bankrupt and unstable Arroyo (administration)."
The National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) called on President Arroyo yesterday to order an investigation into the gunslaying of Lapuz and the "other victims of summary killings before him."
For its part, the United Methodist Church (UMC) in the Manila Episcopal Area urged Mrs. Arroyo to look into the activities of the Army’s 8th Infantry Division based in Catbalogan, Samar in connection with the Lapuz killing and alleged human rights abuses.
"We are aghast by these senseless deaths which continue to haunt peace advocates in their quest for genuine peace," said Bishop Solito Toquero, UMC resident bishop in the Manila Episcopal Area.
"The number of peace advocates being killed has already reached an alarming scale, leading us to think that a systematic plan of silencing people expressing dissent is on a full-scale implementation," Toquero added.
The Church leaders believe that the government has a briefing material labeled as "Knowing the Enemy" that tags some of them as leftists and thus, enemies of the government for the military to spy on.
They claimed that those listed in the document are the Iglesia Filipina, Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines, the UCCP and the Promotion of Church People’s Response, among other religious groups. — Freeman News Service/ With report from Mike Frialde