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Dateline ACT

Philippines 0103

Philippine churches again assist victims of Mindanao war

April 4, 2003
Davao, Mindanao, The Philippines
By Paul Jeffrey

Even before the Philippine military renewed its attacks on rebel forces on the southern island of Mindanao early this year, churches in the region began providing support to families affected by the brewing violence.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao since the military resumed waging war in February. Here, in a crowded church-run center for the displaced in Pikit, a mother fans her sleeping child."Several pastors and priests in Mindanao informed us in January of troop movements in the area, and people started evacuating from rural communities. Once they see people in uniforms moving through the area, they know the clashes are coming, and they start moving to safer places. Many local churches opened their doors once again to evacuees, and we started providing assistance where we could," said Minnie Anne Calub, coordinator of relief and rehabilitation programs for the National Council of Churches of the Philippines (NCCP).

The church council is a member of Action by Churches Together (ACT), the international alliance of church-based relief organizations.

A soldier and artillery in Pikit. In February the Philippine military broke a lengthy cease-fire and resumed operations on the southern island of Mindanao.

With government forces waging open war against insurgent groups by mid-February, NCCP/ACT began providing support to some 8,000 families, most of them in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. That assistance has been provided through local congregations of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, the United Methodist Church, the Independent Church of the Philippines, and the Episcopal Church, as well as through the Southern Christian College in Midsayap. NCCP/ACT is coordinating its relief operations with government agencies and other non-governmental organizations in the area in order to avoid duplication of services to displaced families, according to Calub.

Children displaced by renewed military action on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao stand in line to wait for food at an evacuation center near Pikit. Assistance provided through NCCP/ACT includes emergency food, blankets and sleeping mats, medical assistance, and psychological assistance especially targeted to children and women traumatized by the violence. When the displaced families are able to return to their communities of origin, NCCP/ACT will provide rehabilitation assistance, including seeds and tools that will allow families to restart their lives.

NCCP/ACT and its member churches in the region will also continue to support formal dialogue between Muslims, Christians, and indigenous peoples as a way of lessening the potential for violence, according to Sharon Rose Joy Ruiz-Duremdes, the organization’s general secretary.

Ruiz-Duremdes said that religious tensions in the region had been manipulated by those favoring war, adding that international factors were also contributing to the conflict. She said the so-called "war on terror" by the United States, including the invasion of Iraq, was aggravating anti-Muslim sentiments in the country. She said the NCCP and its member churches were working to prevent the renewed presence of U.S. troops in the country. A plan to send more than 1,700 U.S. troops on a combat mission to the southern Philippines was cancelled in late February when the Macapagal Arroyo administration had to admit that the involvement of U.S. troops in combat would violate the Philippines constitution.