Geertman murder another brazen assault on activists

Once more the National Council of Churches in the Philippines is alarmed and protests against the continuing atmosphere of impunity in this country.

We lament the death of Wilhelmus Geertman, executive director of the Alay Bayan-Luson Inc.. (ABI), a disaster response NGO based in Pampanga. We reach out to his family, friends and coworkers. We reach out to the people and communities touched by his life and example and pained by this tragic loss.

While we mourn, we denounce his brutal assassination with utmost condemnation. Reports say he was gunned down in broad daylight near his office by two motorcycle-riding men. Known for his advocacy in defense of farmers, especially in Hacienda Luisita, and his compassion for disaster victims, his killing cannot be dismissed as an act of robbery as was the police conclusion in the assassination of the Most Reverend Alberto Ramento in Tarlac. It goes beyond that, to the brazen assault on people who take it as their vocation to help marginalized people attain their full humanity. The killing of Geertman builds on the sad chapter of continuing extrajudicial killings in this country. We will not dwell on the statistics, but, we decry the failure of the government to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators of this wanton taking of human lives.

The human rights record of the Philippines has been examined by the United Nation Human Rights Council recently and its member-countries agree with human rights watchdogs that the Philippine government needs to do much much more in complying with the human rights protocols it has signed.

We stand on the inviolability of human life, and no one has the right to tamper with somebody else’s life, much less to take that life away. We stand on the Christian vision of a community or country where the humanity of each person deserves all the respect regardless of their economic or political status.

Thus, we join the demand for justice for Geertman and others felled by assassins’ bullets. This call becomes more urgent as the impunity heightens, and earlier killings remain unresolved.

Christian social responsibility is meant for the attainment of a community or society which promotes healthy and life-sustaining human relationships. We are called to live in a community where our differences are understood as our uniqueness, each contributing to the enrichment of the same towards the attainment of the divine promise of abundant life for all. (John 10:10)

—THE MOST REV. EPHRAIM S. FAJUTAGANA, chair; REV. REX RB REYES JR., general secretary, National Council of Churches in the Philippines,

www.nccphilippines.org