The government has this year seized several of the group’s bank accounts and closed its website. “With this latest state attack, Marcos II is showing he is, after all, true to his core as the dictator’s son,” the missionary group stated. Both Catholics and Protestants have suffered. Marigza said his own denomination, the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, has been targeted by official disinformation. “They claim the UCCP has been infiltrated by communists and that guns are stored in our churches. They do that with no basis in fact, but since there’s no rule of law, no due process, then these people can get away with airing whatever lies they want to concoct,” he said. A United Methodist clergywoman, Rev. Glofie Baluntong, is one of the latest church leaders to be red-tagged. A pastor and district superintendent on the island of Mindoro, where she has worked with the indigenous Mangyans for more than 20 years, she has been followed and harassed in the past, but in 2021 authorities charged her with attempted murder after an alleged gun battle between government soldiers and members of the rebel New People’s Army. That Baluntong was officiating at a burial service elsewhere on Mindoro at the time of the violence, with dozens of witnesses, didn’t dissuade prosecutors from pressing charges. She borrowed money to pay bail and over the last year has appeared in court four times. Each time the case has been continued, and she’s currently awaiting a December hearing. Although she resisted, her denomination finally moved her to Manila where she stays in a church compound. “When the warrant for my arrest first came out, the bishop wanted to transfer me right away. But the church in Mindoro has such a small number of workers, I didn’t want to leave. Yet here I am in Manila, where I’ve had to reorient my work for my own safety,” she said. “I’m afraid, of course. Mindoro has a very bad history of the extra-judicial execution of activists. I’m afraid. But we have to go on.” With both her denomination and the larger ecumenical community protesting her situation, Baluntong has assumed a highly visible public profile. She hopes that will help victims of red-tagging who aren’t as well known. “By speaking out, I’m hoping to raise awareness that this is what happens all too often to people engaged in social justice ministries. And they cannot do anything bad to me because of the support I’ve received. At least I hope and pray that’s true,” she said. An 84-year old Catholic nun who has been red-tagged for decades says social status can protect some, but not all. “If I were not a sister, I would be assassinated. But because I’m a sister, with institutional support, and because I live in a religious institution with guards outside, they can’t get to me. But if you’re a lay person, they just go and kill you,” said Sister Mary John Mananzan, a Missionary Benedictine nun. Mananzan claims it’s an honor of sorts to be threatened with assassination. “If I look at all the people they’re red-tagging, they are the most authentic people, they really love their country, they have excellent self-sacrificing lives,” she said. “So I’m not being insulted when I’m lined up with them. I’m being put on the honor roll.” |
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