Justice for Bishop Ramento

A Statement by the Hong Kong Campaign for the Advancement of Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines (HKCAHRPP)
October 6, 2006

"The country's extrajudicial killings are not a secret. What do the police have to fear?"

Bishop Alberto Ramento, a leader of his church, a key figure of the ecumenical movement in the Philippines, an advocate for the poor, a worker for justice, a promoter of peace such a man was suddenly awakened at about 4:00 a.m. in his room in the convent in Tarlac City and brutally stabbed to death on October 3. Why was a bishop of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI), or Philippine Independent Church a man of God and the people killed so violently?

The initial explanation of the police is robbery and homicide. Why though would robbers go to the second floor of a convent to rob a bishop who had lived simply all his life and who had been a champion of the poor? What valuables would such a man possess? To steal goods from a 69-year-old man in his sleep, why would he have to be stabbed seven times?

The explanation of the churches and human rights groups in the Philippines and around the world is that Bishop Ramento's violent death rather fits the pattern of hundreds of others in the Philippines over the past few years, i.e., another extrajudicial killing. The common denominator of the death of these priests and church workers, journalists, lawyers, peasants, workers and students is that they have upheld the rights of the poor, the majority of the population in the Philippines, and consequently, they have been critics of the policies of the Philippine government and the actions of the country's vested economic interests. Like many of the other victims, Bishop Ramento had also received death threats prior to being killed.

Why then did the police not reach the same conclusion as well? The country's extrajudicial killings are not a secret. What do the police have to fear? Who are they trying to protect? Are the police not implicating themselves or the military in Bishop Ramento's death by claiming it was a robbery and homicide?

Thus, the Hong Kong Campaign for the Advancement of Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines (HKCAHRPP), a local coalition of concerned human rights, migrant and student organizations and individuals, joins others in the Philippines and throughout the world in condemning the violent death of Bishop Ramento and calls for an immediate and independent investigation into his killing. This case is an opportunity for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to honor her pledge in September to invite a delegation from Europe to monitor the Philippine government's response to the country's extrajudicial killings. The European monitors should play a proactive role in the process to ensure that a proper and impartial investigation is conducted.