Rev. Deborah Lee on Extrajudicial Killings in the Philippines
On March 14, 2007, Senator Barbara Boxer presided over a hearing before the Committee on Foreign Relation of the United States Senate, on the topic of "Extrajudicial Killings in the Philippines: Strategies to End the Violence."
Rev. Deborah Lee reports back, and records her spiritual reflections.
Reportback
I have just returned from Washington, D.C., where I attended the International Ecumenical Conference on Human Rights in the Philippines and the Senate Hearing on Extrajudicial Killings in the Philippines. Many of you have attended some of our educational forums on this subject, received our emails, helped us to write letters, publicized and spread the word. Thank you! It has been such an exciting time since PANA has gotten involved with this issue at the Human Rights Day People’s Worship (Pagsambang Bayan) in Daly City on Dec. 10, 2006. Little did we realize that there was a powerful convergence of forces and Spirit about to take place. Bishop Eli Pascua and Rev. Tess Vertucio from the United Church of Christ Philippines spent one month in Northern California speaking at numerous venues about the issue; 17 members of the United Methodist Cal-Nevada conference were sent on a fact-finding trip to the Philippines in mid-February; during this trip, the U.N. Rapporteur, Philip Alston, issued his report on the extra-judicial killings implicating the military, and then the Philippines government finally released the conclusions of their own Melo Commission report which also pointed to the military as responsible for the killings.
In February, we began a flurry of legislative visits in Northern California with the strong participation of several Filipino-American pastors and community leaders. Our target was Senator Boxer, with the request of an official on-the-congressional-record Senate hearing in her new post as chair of the Asia Pacific subcommitee of the International Relations Committee. We had wanted this hearing to be March 12-14 when the delegation of religious and NGO leaders from the Philippines would be in D.C. to offer firsthand testimony. It was a bold request on a tight deadline, and so we were not totally surprised when, despite our flurry of efforts, her office said, “No.” But the activity did not cease, and on Thursday, March 8, 2007, just 4 days before the beginning of our Philippines human rights conference, they changed their mind and said, “Yes!” All those letters, the newspaper articles, the hundreds of people with whom Bishop Pascua and Rev. Vertucio talked and met all over Northern California and Nevada, a significant letter by Rev. Bob Edgars, President of the National Council of Churches, the work of many staff and lawyers working in the ecumenical denominational offices and D.C. law offices lobbying the aides and staffers-- all put together worked! All of these activities and voices, across the country and internationally, converged. Every connection counted! I can remember a form letter to Barbara Boxer signed by a PSR alum who attended one of the educational forums. He wrote at the bottom in his own handwriting: "I met you at a wedding I officiated. Please look into this serious matter."
So the official Hearing on Extrajudicial Killings in the Philippines was ON for March 14th-- a victory in itself. But that was just the beginning of a dramatic few days leading up to the hearing. Within a span of less then a week, the Philippine government raided the home and sought to arrest leftist Philippines Senator Satur Ocampo as part of their political crackdown. He in turn announced that he was on his way to travel to D.C. to testify at the hearing, creating quite a stir. It was not really true, but a tactic to seek protection for himself-- and it in turn put a lot of attention on the hearings. Then, a day later, the Philippines government and newspaper headlines read that the top two military generals and two chiefs of police were on their way to Washington D.C. to attend the hearings to “observe” and clarify "truth from propaganda." This audacity of the Philippines government significantly raised the tension and level of concern for the Philippines delegates at the conference, particularly because during the span of the three-day conference, two more activists were killed in the Philippines.
Fortunately, Senator Boxer’s office made it clear that there would be no intimidation or fear at the hearing-- that Philippines military and police would not be allowed to to attend the hearing. (Whew!) Instead, the Philippines embassy attended and submitted a written report to represent the government’s views-- a much more appropriate diplomatic response than sending the military!
During the hearing itself, Senator Boxer was brilliant and tenacious in challenging the State Department’s claims that the Philippines is a vibrant democracy, taking adequate measure to address the killings-- painting a rosy picture of the situation. The others who testified were T. Kumar from Amnesty International, G. Eugene Martin from the Philippine Facilitation Project/U.S. Peace Institute, Bishop Eliezer Pascua from the United Church of Christ Philippines, and Marie Hilao-Enriquez from KARAPATAN, a human rights group in the Philippines.
You can see the live footage of the hearing at the following link: http://foreign.senate.gov/hearings/2007/hrg070314p.html. (You may need to skip ahead 20 minutes for the actual start of the hearing.)
Spiritual Reflections
The feeling was euphoric, almost elation. The hearing had come to a close-- there was almost a collective exhale-- a sigh and gasp of joy. As the crowd began to breathe and chatter to break the silence, smiles broke out. Claps on the back, sighs of relief. "I started to cry during the hearing," said one friend, then another. “Me too,” I echoed, and we had to pause as the emotion of that moment was still powerfully present.
Something holy happened there in that moment. Tears are the language of God praying, they say. God’s prayers. Signs of holy presence. Hearings happen all the time; they are part of the bureaucratic political structure. It’s hard to measure exactly what will come out of it, or how immediately we will see any results in terms of an end to the political assassinations and accountability of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and U.S. military. There is much more follow up work to be done. We cannot yet say what the impact of it all is. But we can say that something holy happened there.
Rev. Mike Yoshii (who also attended this hearing) once mentioned at a retreat that his experience of the Congressional Hearings on Redress for Japanese Americans interned in WWII hearing was a pivotal spiritual experience for him. I think maybe I caught a glimpse of that. We always say that the spiritual is political, the political is spiritual. But still I didn’t expect a Senate hearing in the Nation’s Capitol with people dressed in suits and ties to be an experience of divine connection.
So what were those tears about? Perhaps they were tears of being heard. Not just by anyone-- but tears that truth had been spoken and heard by the mighty and powerful. That somehow some "light had shined on the truth," as Senator Boxer said, as she commended the witnesses from the Philippines for doing the hard job of truth-telling, when truth-telling can cost you your life.
Tears that some accountability was being administered. Hard questions were being asked of a State Department that dances around and hides, speaking in euphemisms about the U.S. war machine and the false democracy of our allies. Tears that the lies were being exposed. Tears that the story of the seven poor farmers massacred at dawn while working in their rice fields would be told here in the halls of the most powerful country in the world. That the senseless taking of their lives and the livelihoods of their surviving families would be lifted up at the same table where the State Department representative spun his web of half-truths. Life and truth would be spoken here. Just this act was so powerful.
Perhaps the tears were for of all those stories and individual lives lost and affected. We had heard testimony after testimony, report after report for a full day in the conference prior, yet somehow, the lives and spirits of the hundreds and their thousands of kin seeking justice filled the hall that day. Our tears were also for the delegation from the Philippines who have become our friends – and our fear and love as we say goodbye to them and they return to unknown conditions in the Philippines-- where their protection is not guaranteed.
Towards the end of the hearing, Senator Boxer asked the witnesses testifying on the reality of the extrajudicial killings if they could ever recall a time in the past, a particular case, when the Philippine’s government was held accountable for its actions. First Marie from KARAPATAN, in her fragile voice, shook her head and said “No.” Followed by “No,” “No,” No,” down the panel. Little more needed to be said.
A friend in attendance at the hearing, an immigrant from the Philippines said, “This is how the system is supposed to work," referring to the democratic process we had just witnessed. I am an ABC (American Born Chinese) so I take a lot of this for granted. I vote, but I am also more used to being on the outside of the political process – or at least the outside of the government buildings with signs, protesting and chanting. Maybe I thought that was where I felt most comfortable -- because of my race, gender, political beliefs. I suppose that is where I assumed I would see and experience God-- on the outside, not on the inside, engaging in the political process.
I have always been a critic of our so-called U.S. democracy that is so over-run by big-money and big business, cynical in thinking that all those letters and petitions that I sign do not really make a difference and that politicians don’t really care. Democracy and accountability in this country is a far cry from ideal, and even feels like a crapshoot sometimes, but it has been a powerful experience to see it at work, to see that it is possible, that we could have some access and recognition by our government leaders, and that justice did stand a chance.
There was something about that hearing process that reminded me of the New Testament story in Luke 5:17-21, the healing of the paralytic. Jesus is teaching and healing in a house, and a large crowd has gather, including the Pharisees and doctors of the Law who had come from every village in Galilee, from Judaea and Jerusalem. These were the powers-that-be, the top officials, the government leaders. A man who was paralyzed wanted to go to Jesus, to get close-- perhaps he wanted to hear the teachings, to be healed, to be seen and touched by Jesus. But because of the crowds it was impossible. So with the help of his friends carrying him on his bed, they climb up on the roof and make a hole in the tiles and lower him down into the middle of the gathering in front of Jesus. Jesus is moved by their faith and the man is healed.
That’s a little of what it was like. There seemed to be no way to get in, to be heard by the powerful and mighty. So many issues and concerns, so many officials crowding the space and the airtime. Somehow we found a way to get into the halls of Congress. Like the healing story, it requires many, many hands and even unconventional measures. But as friends we will find a way to create a place inside. Just the getting there is holy in itself. Even if nothing more happened. But Jesus recognizes that faith, the man is recognized for what he is, not a paralytic, but as one who is faithful. How powerful, spiritually, it is to be “recognized,” to be truly seen and known and understood-- to be taken as one who can give witness and testament to the truth. How touching and healing it is for one to say, “Yes, of course, I see your pain and your suffering and your great faith. I recognize what is going on here. Come, welcome here into this place.” That happened in that hearing. When Senator Boxer understood what was being done in the Philippines, she said, “We don’t want another El Salvador here…we don’t want blood on our hands.”
To be heard and recognized by my government is part of that healing and holy moment. Isn’t that what our friends in the Philippines are asking of their government as well? That their cry for justice and the sanctity and worth of all people’s lives be recognized, that the ongoing economic and political suffering of the people be seen, acknowledged and truly addressed.
The hearing took place on the last day of the conference which was called, “A day of truth, reckoning and hope.” Indeed it was.
---Rev. Deborah Lee