ILOILO CITY -- The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines has raised concern over the continued summary executions in the country and called for stronger solidarity among human rights and peace advocates.

In a statement "Forging Social Solidarity for Human Rights" marking the 58th anniversary of the International Declaration of Human Rights, CBCP President and Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo said the same human rights issues which have prompted the Church to issue statements in the past are plaguing the country.

"As we celebrate the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we recall what our country has been through and on account of which the Church in the Philippines has issued its statements and exhortations, such as against arbitrary arrests and detentions, liquidations and salvaging, secret marshals and para-military forces, persecution and killings of church personnel, ministers and journalists, extra-judicial killings of protesters and defenders of their rights, all committed and perpetrated in the name, in those days, of national security and development," said Lagdameo in his statement.

The prelate said the same issues, particularly the summary killings, continue to happen.

"Has the situation in fact improved or become worse? And why are advocates, defenders and beneficiaries of agrarian reform being harassed and killed? And how many prisoners are languishing in jail without the benefit of defense or beyond the length of time that will be imposed if their cases were heard on time," Lagdameo said.

The human rights group Karapatan has recorded more than 700 cases of political killings since the President Arroyo came to power in 2001.

From January to November this year, the group documented 185 victims of extra-judicial killings. It has also recorded 93 cases of involuntary disappearances.

"No amount of denial and not even their victim-blaming can conceal from the nation and the international community the stench of Arroyo's human rights record," Karapatan said in a statement.

Lagdameo said in his message that human rights and peace advocates should "forge a strong network of 'social solidarity' as the moral bastion of the 'power of the powerless,' who are 'the least of our brethren."

He urged the Catholic faithful to reflect on the rights drawn up in the encyclical of Pope John Pail II "Centissimus Annus."

These include: "the right to life, an integral part of which is the right of the child to develop in the mother's womb from the moment of conception; the right to live in a united family and in a moral environment conducive to the growth of the child's personality; the right to develop one's intelligence and freedom in seeking and knowing the truth;

The right to share in the work which makes wise use of the earth's material resources, and to derive from that work the means to support oneself and one's dependents; and the right freely to establish a family, to have and to rear children through the responsible exercise of one's sexuality."

Lagdameo said peace "can only be attained in the atmosphere of a local and global advocacy of human rights, where the promotion and defense of which have become more complex and difficult."

"It is in this atmosphere which includes the dismantling of self-interest, we can have genuine economic development, we have been longing for so long a time. It is in the atmosphere of political stability that economy and business (can) prosper and develop," Lagdameo said.*NPB

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