A CALL FOR PRAYER IN PIKIT, A CALL FOR PRAYER FOR PEACE

Show the World that we, as people--whether Christian, Muslim or Lumad, long for Peace

Press Statement

A CALL FOR PRAYER IN PIKIT, A CALL FOR PRAYER FOR PEACE

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”     Jesus (Matt. 5:43-44)

Last Wednesday, during the Midweek Prayer service, an M203 grenade was fired inside the UCCP-Pikit in Pikit, North Cotabato, resulting in the death of two of our worshiping members and caused injuries to several others. Two men riding in tandem aboard a motorcycle were seen speeding away from the church immediately after the bombing.

As this time, there is no evidence as to who were responsible and what their motives were. There are theories and speculations but no concrete proof as of yet.

In times like this, when emotions and passion tend to run high, we call for sobriety. Let us avoid speculations and a rush to judgment that are unwarranted and which may just lead to further escalation of tension and of violence.

In times like this when are are in the dark and do not know for certain who the perpetrators are, our best recourse is prayer. Prayer has always been the best refuge for believers, whether Christians, Muslims or of other faiths. Our God does not slumber or sleep and hears the cries of the oppressed.

One thing that unites us, whether Christians, Muslims or Lumads, is our high respect for houses of worship. Time and again those who work against peace and who would turn the conflict into a religious war have violated holy places by violence. This is totally unacceptable and should not be tolerated nor countenanced by any group or religion. As in the past, we have called on our churches as sanctuaries of peace and have protested the putting up of detachments and camps in places of worship.

We are heartened in this hour of our grief, that as we condemn the attack on our church in the strongest term possible, that Muslim leaders in the area have joined us in condemning this despicable act.

Our Muslim brothers and sisters in the area are fully aware of the inter-faith and ecumenical posture of our Church and how our Church people and institutions, like the Southern Christian College, had been in the forefront of promoting peace in Mindanao.

This may be an opportune time to show to the world that we, as a people - whether Christians, Muslims or Lumads - long for peace by calling for an inter-faith, tri-people prayer rally for unity, justice and peace.

I ask our leaders in Mindanao, from Bishops to Conference Ministers and local church leaders to consider doing so. I call on our ecumenical and inter-faith partners to consider doing so.

I urge all our local churches throughout the Philippines to designate a time in their worship services this Sunday to remember those who died and those who are in need of healing and to pray for peace as well as for justice for the victims and comfort for their families.

We continue to implore on the authorities to speed up their investigations and to leave no stones unturned to bring the perpetrators to account for their crime. We call on witnesses to this dastardly act to surface and to cooperate with investigators.

Let us pray for God’s comfort upon those whose loved ones have perished. To the families of Felomena Nacario-Ferolin and Gina Cabiluna, we lift you up in prayer that God’s consoling presence dwell with you in these difficult times. For those who were injured, that God would heal your wounds, both physical and emotional. For those who have done this cowardly act, while you may escape human justice, you can never escape God’s judgment.

Let us pray for our beloved country that peace and justice may soon inhabit the land, where there is an end to senseless violence and injustice, and where instruments of violence may be converted into tools for the well-being of its people.

(Sgd.) Bishop REUEL NORMAN O. MARIGZA

UCCP General Secretary

Interviews may be arranged through Media Liaison Rebecca Lawson, 0919-828-9514

The United Church of Christ in the Philippines Solidarity Statement to Hanjin's Retrenched Workers in Korea and the Subic Bay, the Philippines

United Church of Christ in the Philippines
 
A Solidarity Message
to the
Retrenched Workers of Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction
and the Presbyterian Church of the Republic of Korea
 
“Genuine peace comes when justice is served...
...for as long as labourers do not receive just wages...
There will be no peace.”
UCCP Statement on Peacemaking
 
The United Church of Christ in the Philippines(UCCP) joins the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea(PROK) in supporting the workers of Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction(HHIC) in their struggle for their workers’ rights as a result of illegal termination and unjust labor practices.  We salute the Korean people for their willingness to join in a peaceful protest that included more than 10,000 citizens on 195 buses to call for a resolution of the HHIC laid-off workers situation, on July 9, 2011.  Hearing that in the early hours of July 10, 2011, armed police fired tear gas and water cannons at civilian protestors, as they sought to visit Labor Leader Kim Jin-Sook who was protesting by occupying Yeongdo Shipyard Crane #85, reinforces the need for Church people around the world to join in solidarity with the struggle of the workers.  With the PROK, we strongly condemn the violent dispersal of the peaceful march to protest the termination of workers at HHIC on July 10, 2011 in Busan City, South Korea and call for the reinstatement of illegally retrenched HHIC workers. 

Globalization has allowed large Trans-National Corporations, such as the Chaebol conglomerate corporations where HHIC belongs, to move easily from country to country around the world, even when in the process they violate workers’ rights and welfare.  The lay-off of workers in Busan, South Korea likely precipitates from the opening of Hanjin’s new shipyard in the Subic Bay Freeport, Philippines. In 2005, Hanjin signed a 50-year lease and has since then invested US$721 million into this new shipyard.  With a ten-year tax holiday and a cheaper workforce of only PhP 306 (approx US$7.25) for nine hours labor in the Philipines, the HHIC likely intends increased profits by relocating their work to Subic Bay, Philippines. 

According to our investigation, the situation of Hanjin workers in Subic Bay Freeport is also fraught with violations of workers’ rights:
·         Although Subic government officials report that 21,000 workers and employed at Hanjin, the reality is that only approximately 17,000 are employed by Hanjin, while the others retained using 42 sub-contractors to circumvent the giving the benefits and rights of regular employees, including the right to join a union.
·         Not only do workers have a nine hour shift, they are also required to arrive to the company bus station 30 minutes before their shift begins.  Workers are often expected to work a double shift and have been known to work for as many as three days non-stop.
·         There are reports of wide-spread drug use for workers to cope with back-to-back shifts.
·         Since Subic Bay Freeport Hanjin opened, 30 cases of work-related deaths and more than 5000 accidents have been recorded.  Workers have been crushed by metal, impaled by slabs as well as cut, maimed and bruised to alarming degrees.  Families of death victims have been unable to collect death benefits.

The UCCP denounces the low wages, injury/death and violation of basic rights experienced by Filipino workers at the Subic Bay Freeport Hanjin shipyard AND the termination and violation of basic rights of Korean workers at HHIC Busan City, South Korea, most likely precipitating from the relocation of work to the Philippines. 

In response to the liberalization of trade and labor as is dictated by global capitalism, workers of different countries and those who stand in solidarity with them must increase their cooperation to expose and resist the violation of worker’s rights.  The efforts of Trans-National “Mega” Corporations to concentrate global power and wealth to themselves through the subjugation of the world workforce can be thwarted by a similarly global approach by broad social movements, including the Church, to struggle for fundamental changes that bring about a just, participatory and sustainable social order.

We commit ourselves to uphold the welfare of the world’s workers as a response to the call of faith, hope and mutual mission.  Our concern and support for the retrenched workers at the HHIC Yeongdo Shipyard of Busan is a solidarity expression not only of our partnership with the PROK, but also of our concern for workers everywhere.  We stand with those calling for the management of Hanjin Heavy Industries to be investigated, for the police committing violent dispersal against peaceful protestors to be held accountable, for the reinstatement of illegally retrenched workers, and for the respect of workers’ just wages and human rights.

 
 Signed By:

 
 
 
Bishop  Elorde M. Sambat                   Bishop Arturo R. Asi
North Luzon Jurisdictional Area            South Luzon Jurisdictional Area                


 
 
Bishop Jaime M. Morilles                    Bishop Dulce Pia-Rose                
Middle Luzon Jurisdictional Area            East Visayas Jurisdictional Area
 
 

 
 
Bishop Melzar D. Labuntog                    Bishop Modesto D. Villasanta
Northwest Mindanao Jurisdictional Area       Southeast Mindanao Jurisdictional Area
 
 

 
 
Bishop Reuel Norman O. Marigza
General Secretary