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Philippine church workers get taste of martial law

Women's Ecumenical Forum members find freedom of movement not as free as they want it to be
Philippine church workers get taste of martial law
Policemen examine the belongings of people trying to escape fighting in the southern Philippine City of Marawi on May 24. Now church workers have to run a gauntlet of checkpoints to visit needy communities. (Photo by Divina Suson)  
Published: May 29, 2017 01:44 AM GMT
Updated: May 29, 2017 05:47 AM GMT

Church workers attending a leadership training workshop in the southern Philippines came out of a community immersion activity late last week to find themselves in the grip of martial law.

Philippine Marines manning a checkpoint in Sultan Kudarat province, held 25 members of the Ecumenical Women's Forum for almost two hours on May 25, two days after President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law in Mindanao.

The women were interrogated about their movements and activities, had their addresses taken down and their identification cards and faces photographed.

The soldiers were polite but firm. They said they needed to get the identities of all people passing through checkpoints to guard against "terrorists." They told the women that their permission was required before entering areas outside of the town center. 

Carmencita Caragdag, convenor of the women's group, said her group has been working in Mindanao for ten years. "We regularly visit churches in the hinterlands and we have never needed to ask permission to serve our people," she told ucanews.com.

The group's immersion activity was organized by the National Council of Churches in the Philippines and included the Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines and Muslim and tribal women leaders.

The group went to Moro and tribal communities in the hinterlands of Palimbang town where they heard rumours of fighting but the communities had little access to communication. "We came back to martial law," said Caragdag.

Duterte declared martial law following a botched arrest operation against Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon that led to days of carnage in the predominantly Muslim city of Marawi. Fighting so far has been confined to the city but Duterte warned that he was willing to declare martial law nationwide, citing recent incursions of Abu Sayyaf into the central Philippine island of Bohol.

 

Stop and search in Mindanao, Philippines which has been under martial law since May 23. Church workers are facing difficulties traveling through the troubled region. (Photo by Divina Suson)

 

Solicitor-General Jose Calida, the government's lawyer, said "law-abiding citizens" have nothing to fear from martial law only those "rebelling against the government."

Aside from Abu Sayyaf and the Maute Group, who have a few hundred fighters, the southern region of Mindanao hosts the rebel groups Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which has tens of thousands of fighters, and the splinter Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters that has a few thousand armed men.

Mindanao is also a stronghold of the communist New People's Army.

Periodic government crackdowns on these rebel groups have displaced communities, affecting thousands to hundreds of thousands of people, depending on the site. Human rights violations are also rife in Mindanao, often happening in the very communities served by the Women's Ecumenical Forum.

Since the 1970s, at least 13 priests have been killed in the region, all suspected of being communist rebel supporters.

"There are enough examples to show soldiers often cannot distinguish between 'terrorists' and civilians suspected of forming their mass base," said Caragdag. "Church people serve communities involved in conflicts. We have to brace ourselves for the fallout," she added.

The town where church workers were accosted is an infamous place in the history of the Moro people. 

In 1974, two years after the later dictator Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law, the army massacred about 1,500 Moros aged between 11 and 70 years old

Many were killed inside a mosque as hundreds of homes were razed to the ground.

Soldiers detained more than 3,000 women and children and reports of rape were later filed with a board organizing compensation for victims of the dictatorship.

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