In Solidarity with Kidapawan Farmers and Lumad

For Immediate Release

Contact: Rev. Jeanelle N. Ablola, Co-Chair, Cal-Nev Philippine Solidarity Task Force (PSTF)

pastorj@pineumc.org

The California-Nevada Philippine Solidarity Task Force of the United Methodist Church (Cal-Nev PSTF) condemns, in the strongest terms, the violent police dispersal of the unarmed assembled farmers and indigenous people (Lumad) in Kidapawan, North Cotabato, Mindanao, which resulted in 7 dead, over 116 injured including children, and 89 unaccounted and missing on April 1, 2016.

We condemn the assault and harassment that occurred at the Spottswood United Methodist Center. We are shocked and appalled at the audacity of the local government threatening Bishop Ciriaco Francisco with legal recourse when he, the staff, and church members were using the facility to fulfill their Christian duty to protect and provide relief to the farmers and Lumad who were seeking refuge from the police violence that occurred.

We, the PSTF, are church people in the US who work in partnership with the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP). The PSTF was formed in response to the extrajudicial killings and human rights violations in the Philippines. As Filipino Americans and non-Filipino allies, we inherited the ongoing struggle of liberation. As Christians, we inherited the struggle of the masses for which Jesus Christ turned over tables and was crucified. As such, we regularly go to the Philippines for immersion and exposure to the struggles of the people who bear the brunt of imperialist oppression. It is on these annual visits that all of our delegations, from 2007 onward, have witnessed the plight of the farmers and indigenous people of the Philippines up and down the archipelago.

Now, from a distance and 10 years after our formation, we witness continuing human rights violations. The drought caused by El Niño resulted in crop failure and hunger, so the farmers and Lumad went to Kidapawan City to peacefully picket and demand the distribution of food aid, farm subsidies, and for the government to raise the prices of their produce, which is exported out of the country because of neoliberal policies, leaving millions of Filipinos hungry and living in poverty. The government had knowledge that El Niño was going to cause such environmental conditions and have been able to prepare since 2015, yet the farmers of the Kidapawan picket, after having endured drought for 7 months, have yet to see the fruits of such preparation.

Over the years, PSTF delegations have gone on Pastoral & Solidarity Visits to the Philippines to be present with and to witness people having to unnecessarily endure such poverty and government negligence. We have witnessed it with the farmers of Hacienda Luisita, with the human rights violations against farmers of Panay Fair Trade Center, with indigenous peoples of Abra and of Rizal, with the negligence of the government to the survivors of Typhoon Haiyan in both Leyte and Iloilo - unfortunately, the list goes on.

Less than a week after celebrating Easter, the resurrection of Christ, we were met again with another cruel Good Friday story. We will not allow these events or the physical distance to keep us from being present with the farmers and indigenous people. We call on our California-Nevada church members, friends, family, and allies to keep the farmers and Lumad of Kidapawan in prayer, to discern and take up acts of solidarity as United Methodists who stand for genuine peace, or shalom – the peace that comes as a result of justice and wholeness.

Just as Christ committed his life to accompanying the poor and oppressed, we will continue to do the same in committing ourselves to such accompaniment through our upcoming Pastoral & Solidarity Visit in July 2016. Just as Christ committed his life to centering the voices of the marginalized, we will continue to do the same in committing ourselves to centering the voices of the Lumad in their speaking tour, Lakbayan Lumad USA, from April to May 2016. We call on our UMC church members to act out of faith, compassion, and witness that can help bring an end to such blatant violence and brutality.

We align our call and our advocacy with the farmers, the Lumad, peoples’ organizations, and church groups in their demand for the rice support and calamity funds to be met; for the release of detained protestors; for the end of the siege of Spottswood United Methodist Center; for the wounded and injured to be given medical attention; for there to be an impartial investigation of the PNP officials involved in the violent dispersal and killing of farmers; and for the Aquino administration to be held accountable for the dehumanizing, violent events that took place. Inspired by the farmers and the Lumad, we will not be intimidated and will continue to respond in these acts of faith as followers of Jesus Christ.

Stop the killings in the Philippines!

Rice not bullets! Bigas hindi bala!

GABRIELA USA Congress Ecumenical Service Homily by Rev. Jeanelle Nicolas Ablola

Palm Sunday : Luke 19:28-43

One of the latest sermons I gave before I went on leave and vacation was about Jesus just starting in his ministry. Having joined the crowds and making the conscious decision to be baptized - to be part of this community, to be part of an ongoing movement - He was then compelled by the Holy Spirit to endure the wilderness where Satan challenged him with invincibility (“jump off this building”), challenged him to turn stones into bread, and offered him authority and rulership over all the world. And Jesus rejected Satan’s offers and challenges. Jesus denied the false power of empire and worldly kingship in order to take up a substantial power of being alongside the poor and the sick and the broken. The kind of power that doesn’t trickle down like a leaky faucet that we all must desperately huddle around, but the kind of power that rises up with conviction, power, and togetherness. The kind of power that is not from outside of ourselves, but is within us because it’s the kind that God created in us and wrote onto our very beings when we came to exist and breathe. To serve God by serving the people.

From being baptized then called into the wilderness to the triumphal entry, this is one of Jesus’ final public acts. In his wilderness time, he turned down invincibility, he turned down bandaid solutions, and turned down elite political rulership to do the work that he does. He opted for revolution - to be among the masses. He opted for solidarity and compassion in which people are empowered, in which people are equipped, where people are allowed to become aware of and to grow their strengths, their passions, and to engage in healing as they themselves are being healed. Jesus denied the role of King, but enters into the city in a protest that both parallels and confronts the triumphal entry of the Roman emperors. By doing this, Jesus is not trying to emulate empire, but shows that their work, our collective work, is bigger and stronger, more loving and full of more wisdom than an empire can ever contain. It transcends notions of politics, it transcends and, therefore, seeks to undo systemic oppression. It is nothing less than the preparation for resurrection - for birth, for wholeness, for life anew - bringing us from stagnance, from death and sorrow, from hopelessness, from brokenness and broken bodies.

Triumphal Entry is Power that Transcends Empire

Jesus’ famous “Triumphal Entry” is like that. Riding into the city of Jerusalem on a colt, was parallel to Roman emperors and their soldiers riding into the city after having plundered, raped, exploited, and subjugated villages and towns in the name of “Pax Romana” or Rome’s definition of so-called “peace” through oppression. Call it colonization, call it Martial Law, call it Oplan Bayanihan, call it the Labor Export Policy, call it Daang Matuwid, call it Making America Great Again. It is a false sense of “peace” that is birthed in fear and insecurity.

Countering Pax Romana, Jesus understood that peace is not subjugation. The work of peace is the work of healing which is the work of presence. To be there for one another, to be able to see each other as our loving God sees us. To practice compassion or to “suffer with.” At the risk of his life. Unattached to what could happen to him, embracing being present and being in the present to embody unconditional love for all people and to do so with integrity and with principle. An unconditional love that isn’t attached to his own self-preservation or fear. An unconditional love that allows all people to own their power and agency in the face of ideologies and systems that seek to injure and exploit the bodies of many for the comfort and ease of the few. An unconditional love that transcends borders and reminds everyone of their worthiness.

Jesus rides in triumphant, not after oppressing people, but after performing healing acts and after speaking liberating yet challenging words and lessons. Jesus rides in to the same place where he was kicked out, confronted, harassed, and persecuted for his ministry. Because his ministry was countercultural, was reminding the masses - the poor, the sick, the peasants - that even their lives were sacred, that even they were created by God, loved by God, cared for by God, and even that God was on their side. This is the triumph and this is the inspiration for the people praising God and proclaiming Jesus as a kind of king, proclaiming a peace that is genuine, a peace that is whole, a peace that was steeped in the values of their ancestors - the peace that we Christians call Shalom. Not a peace absent of conflict, but a peace that is the result of justice and connectedness and liberative love.

Passover is Political, is Remembrance

To add another layer onto all of this, Jesus’ Triumphal Entry takes place, intentionally, during the holiday of Passover. A holiday that was meant to remind the Jewish community of their ancestors, to memorialize when the ancient Hebrews were divinely liberated from the oppression of the Egyptian empire. Not only would the Passover bring to mind the liberation from slavery, it would also bring to mind the entire Exodus, the entire movement of God’s people - from leaving Egypt, to the parting of the Sea, to the struggles in their relationships and the promises made between them and God, to wandering in the wilderness, to finally finding a sense of home. It is a holiday when we remember spiritual ancestors under Egyptian oppression, when the masses under the occupation of Rome remember God - on the side of the poor - rising up the people to defeat superpowers throughout history. And God, still creating with us, will continue to help us defeat superpowers that feed off of us as if we were mere commodities.

The people lay down their cloaks, lay their cloaks on the back of the colt, and lay their cloaks on the road to pave the way for Resurrection. We - as women, as migrants, as church people, people of faith and spirit, as workers, as allies, as queer, as trans - we all are being asked to do the same. To lay down our cloaks, to claim our places in the struggle to pave the way for Revolution, to pave the way for the systems to be overturned, like Jesus’ mother, GABRIELA woman, Mary proclaimed in her Magnificat. For the proud to be scattered and the rich to be sent away empty, that the poor and humble may be filled. We lay down our cloaks, even sacrifice some of our comforts, lose ourselves, that we may find ourselves as part of an empowered collective that will triumph and turn weeping to laughter and that will midwife God’s realm into our reality - not just in the afterlife - but in the here and now. God’s realm is unstoppable and when we make ourselves available and open to being part of this work, it is inevitable that we will be restored, renewed, and resurrected, that some of us will turn into that New Filipina whose place is in the struggle, that some of us will become conscious and own that responsibility in holding up that half of sky.

Jesus saw the city and wept. It’s okay to pause and it’s normal, human even, to be disturbed by oppression, to let it break your heart.. While the state of how things are can make us weep, we will not turn back, because when our hearts break, our spirits rise. Through the fire of our tears and the softness of our hearts and the rising of our fists, we will keep being invited into and engaging in this beautiful Movement, this struggle which is the only other thing better than liberation itself. May God’s realm be made real in each and everyone of us. And may we also enter triumphant over imperialism together, as we serve God by serving the people.

Pastoral & Solidarity Visit Reflection by Susannah Hong

Right now as I sit here and think back to my trip to the Philippines last July, I am remembering standing sockless, in wet shoes that are quickly drying in the hot sun, a cart rolling by slowly, piled high with boiled peanuts, unending trails of steam rising from the heap (much more delicious than that might sound), and the excited buzz of the people all around me holding up banners, signs and umbrellas that not long ago were used as pathetic shields from a sudden and what to me, was a mighty rainstorm, now being used to shelter sweating heads from a sweltering sun.  And I am feeling what might be joy. There is only one day left before our trip is over and we are at a giant mobilization to counter the annual State of the Nation Address or SONA given by president Aquino. The people have gathered by the thousands to march and to make known the true of state of the nation of the Philippines.

We are a good distance away from the stage, but we can see and hear the speakers- representatives from each sector as they come up one by one to report and give witness to injustice, to unspeakable atrocities and also to the growing resilience in each person there. The whole thing is in Tagalog and under any other circumstance, I would be totally lost, unable to understand the language, but the past 9 days have been an intense whirlwind of immersion with these people and the different sectors. Our hosts had put in great efforts in making sure we were able to meet as many different people groups who lives are directly and constantly endangered by the capitalist endeavors of the rich few and in power. We marched with these people and were excited to recognize some familiar faces as the migrant workers and the women’s groups and the LGBT group went by us, or the factory workers huddled under store canopies during the brief but crazy rainstorm, or the farmers crouching down on the concrete to eat their lunches unloaded from trucks and Jeepneys (old military jeeps decorated in countless, sometimes whacky ways and re-purposed for public transportation). Though a handful of us had no mastery of the Filipino language, we all knew what was being said up on that stage. The people invited us into their space, tirelessly and generously shared their stories with us in great detail, and allowed us to be able to stand in solidarity with them on that last day.

I think what I felt that day was joy. The joy that comes from knowing that even people who have suffered and continue to experience loss over and over again can be so full of hope and determination and love.  I guess joy is the feeling that comes with the hope of liberation. It replaces fear and stuckness and isolation. This is what was shared with me and what I brought back with me from the Philippines, an unyielding belief in the struggle, the people, and impending liberation for all people everywhere.

One Month Later

It's crazy to think that just a little bit more than a month ago, that we had the opportunity to visit the Philippines and explore the various ways that human rights were being violated by the government at large and how the land of my ancestors was continually plundered and subverted.

Though the situation is dire, the people continue to fight and resist against the forces that seek to oppress them. The call for peace and justice rings out from the mountains of Mindanao, to Jinamoc Island, to the prisons of Camp Bagong Diwa. People of all backgrounds and ages continue to struggle in order to find this justice and to organize together in order to achieve this.

I think back to days of teaching Sunday School and Vacation Bible School and how children are taught to let "the light of Jesus" shine in their lives. Now it is our task as the delegates of the PSV to let Jesus' vision of justice and peace for all people to shine, in solidarity with the people of the Philippines.

From California, to Palestine, to Ferguson, to the Philippines. "We know we can, show solidarity."

"Reverse" Culture Shock

If you come across an article, a photo, a post on Facebook of injustice that disturbs you... Good - You have a heart. You have your humanity.

If that discomfort or disturbance triggers in you the fight or flight response, take a moment to resist flight, to sit with what you’re feeling that it may move you to fight. To fight injustice. To fight harm. Because something inside you has woken up to recognize injustice as wrong.

Because it means that you’ve been able to feel for/with others outside of yourself, outside of your family, even outside of your country. You’ve been able to find kin in the “other.” This is an act of self-care, of health, of wholeness to be able to allow yourself to be human, to allow your heart to beat for someone Jesus would call your neighbor, to allow yourself to feel indignation, to allow yourself to feel connected to a community bigger than your understanding and imagination, to allow your being to feel that transformative fire within, even for a moment.

If we feel out of place coming back, it is a normal symptom that says the veil of ego and individualistic comfort bred from imperialism has been lifted from our eyes. Our vision can no longer be one of complacency or status quo or even hopelessness.

These are the foundations of being a participant in God’s collective salvation for all people. It’s more than intellectual belief or knowledge. And it’s nothing less than the movement of the fire of the people.

May the reality that has been revealed to our group continue to beckon us to act and to stay connected to the struggle that brings peace to all of God's people and God's Creation.

Land=Life, Life=Land

"Land is Life" is a phrase that is often repeated in the Philippines. The soil and earth of the Philippines, coupled with its climate, is among the most fertile land on the planet, able to sustain a wide variety of crops.  Since agriculture makes up the lives of many Filipinos and has been a staple in many communities for hundreds of years, the phrase takes on a more literal meaning.

The land is able to sustain humanity because it is alive. The land itself is a community that is rich in diversity, energy, and beauty. By consuming and treating the land like a toy for humans to play with and then discard, we are unknowingly leading to our own extinction. As inhabitants of the planet, we must not try and dominate but rather collaborate and improve our relationship with Earth. Not just for the good of our families, but for the sake of humanity and the others that we would otherwise doom to extinction.

Climate Justice is not just an issue of science, it is an issue of justice. The poor are continually pushed out and marginalized by ruthless capitalist expansion. Community leaders and environmentalists are met not with words of peace, but with bullets. By consuming and discarding land, humanity faces the destruction of whole communities in favor of huge empires that will inevitably collapse due to a huge lack of resources.

God did not just create humanity. Animals, plants, and other organisms of different sizes and shapes were created as well. By subverting and treating the living Earth as a plaything, humanity has unknowingly caused more destruction to the planet than any other living being that existed in Earth's billions of years of history. As Christians, it is our job to live sustainable lifestyles and to fight the injustices that plague the living land. It starts with ourselves, and it starts with our communities.

Justice for Earth.

2013 Pastoral Solidarity Trip