Catholic priest and human rights activist still faces suspected death threats

12/06/2006 06:41:00 PM

Father Rolando de Leon is the parish priest of San Andres Apostol Parish in Norzagaray in Bulacan Province and the supervisor of 20 Catholic parishes in the city of San Jose and three towns in the area. [He] began experiencing a series of intimidating events after the Mass he celebrated on Sunday 30 October 2005 in Norzagaray. After the Mass, four envelopes were found in the church offering with the following message: "Warning to you Father Rolando de Leon; you will be the next." Three of the envelopes contained an M-16 bullet. Send a letter of appeal through the Asian Human Rights Commision.

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    Democracy, according to the late Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, is "a question of human dignity, [a]nd human dignity is political freedom, the right to freely express opinion and the right to be allowed to criticise and form opinions."

    But exercising political freedom in the Philippines, which purports itself to be a democracy, can lead to death. Since Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assumed the presidency of the country in 2001, more than 800 Filipinos murdered in politically-motivated, extra-judicial, targeted killings. Since the 4th quarter of July 2005, one person has been killed every two days. The victims of these brazen acts of violence were all unarmed citizens: lawyers, judges, journalists, medical practitioners, members of cause-oriented groups, priests, church-workers, human rights advocates, laborers and farmers.

    It is widely believed—and the United Nations support this belief—that state security forces are complicit in these crimes.