Silence in the face of evil and injustice is the same as
approval 
The Universe
(April 10, 2005)
Good can and will overcome evil. That is one of the basic beliefs of Christianity. The religious processions that wound their way through barrios and towns all over the Philippines in Holy Week bore testimony to the core faith of Filipinos.
Theirs is an unshakeable belief that the injustice, torture and the unjust execution of Jesus Christ, is the grim reality of their own lives. They see themselves in him and in his passion.
The image of the just and outspoken Jesus of Nazareth being tortured and executed for protecting the poor and the exploited and challenging the authorities is a powerful one. Here in the Philippines, the just are persecuted and executed for exposing the truth about corruption and human rights violations. 12 journalists have been brutally murdered in the past 18 months alone. Human Rights defenders are being murdered daily yet none of their killers have been brought to justice.
There was a failed assassination attempt on the life of Romeo Capulong, a human rights lawyer, who was attacked in his farm in Nueva Ecija, last month. Human rights defenders say he is legal advisor to the striking workers at Hacienda Luisita a sugar estate owned by the family of former President Corazon Aquino in Tarlac.
Last November, Philippine military and police shot and killed seven striking workers and wounded many more. Two babies died as a result of tear gas used to disperse the picket at the plantation.
Since then, there have been many mysterious murders of supporters of the strike and witnesses to the massacre. A death squad is at work and human rights defenders have documented 40 murders of social rights activists.\
Some authorities say communists are behind the strike and that their evil ideology threatens the state while hypocritically other government officials rush to warmly embrace Chinese communist investors and are falling over themselves to throw open the economy to their unemployment-creating imports.
Human rights defenders worldwide are making their protests heard and demanding that their governments review aid and investment projects in the Philippines until there is an improvement in the protection of constitutional rights to protest, strike, demonstrate and exercise freedom of speech. We can rightly assume that hundreds of ethical and principled investors are silently turning away from investing here because of this.
The Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo must be made to understand that the deaths squads are doing untold harm and officials are ignoring these violations of human rights. By suppressing legitimate protest and gagging the media, a democratic society slides towards tyranny.
Silence in the face of evil is approval. When journalists speak out they are killed, when priests take a stand they are gunned down. Who are the real terrorists? This government must save itself from the excesses of its death squads that murder with impunity. All the good that it is doing is washed away with the blood of the innocent.
Popular dissent will begin to rise up and nothing will stop it when enough people are outraged at the senseless killing and corruption that is behind it. All of these violations to save the hacienda of a single wealthy family?
The longed for economic social political resurrection of the Filipinos is still a long way off. It is only by understanding of the historical grievances of the poor and taking sincere moves to rectify these wrongs that the nation will break free of the stranglehold of the elite and find true freedom. [End]
