‘This is frightening’

BRANDINGThe wall of an Aglipayan church in Tigbao, Zamboanga del Sur was painted with words linking the church to the New People’s Army. —MART SAMBALUD

DAVAO CITY — Leaders of a homegrown Christian sect expressed alarm over what they said was an apparent campaign to justify attacks against them after words accusing the sect of being communist were painted on the fence of one of its churches and on walls along a highway leading to the church.

On Sept. 28, the fence of an Aglipayan church in Tigbao town, Zamboanga del Sur province, was painted with the words “IFI=NPA,” according to Rev. Felix Espra Jr., head of the Aglipayan parish in the town.

On the same day, similar words were painted on walls along the highway also in Tigbao and in Kumalarang, a town next to Tigbao.
Alarm Rhee M. Timbang, also a ranking Aglipayan leader, denounced the harassment.

Branding church leaders as communist “serves as license for their liquidation or neutralization, to borrow military terms,” Timbang said.

“This is frightening,” Timbang said.

Aglipayan leaders expressed alarm over the words “Bishop Ablon=NPA” and “IFI=NPA BAYAN” that appeared along the highway in the boundary of Tigbao and Kumalarang.

Ablon referred to Antonio Ablon, a bishop of the church.

IFI is acronym for Iglesia Filipina Independiente, the formal name of Aglipayan church.

NPA is New People’s Army and BAYAN referred to Bagong Alyansang Makabayan.

Ablon said attacks on his church had become brazen after the military claimed to have uncovered “Red October,” an alleged plot led by the Left to remove President Rodrigo Duterte from power.

Vandalism at the IFI church in Tigbao, according to Rev.
Felix Espra Jr., another church leader, was a sign of escalating attacks on the sect by the
government.

Other slogans

Ablon said IFI investigated and found these other painted words: “BAYAN MUNA=NPA,” “NPA SALOT-IFI=NPA” and “UCCP=NPA.”

UCCP referred to United Church of Christ in the Philippines, an umbrella group of Christian sects.

Rural Missionaries of the Philippines was also branded as a communist front.

Ablon said the appearance of anticommunist slogans on the church fence and on walls along the highway was highly suspicious as the area was in plain sight of soldiers manning a checkpoint and near a bunker occupied by soldiers and militiamen guarding a bridge project.

Ablon quoted a certain Sergeant Carpio as telling church investigators that soldiers saw the vandals early on Sept. 27 along with a village councilor who lived nearby.

Fear

The sergeant denied involvement, according to Ablon, but said soldiers could not do anything “and will not dare to erase” the slogans “as it might be the doing of their higher ups and he might end up suspected of sympathizing with the Left.”

Ablon said the anticommunist slogans appeared following a series of missions by IFI from June 19 to 21 in “lumad” communities in Zamboanga del Sur.

IFI investigated reports of alleged indiscriminate bombings by the military from May 29 to 30 that forced Subanen to flee the village of Saad in Dumingag town, Zamboanga del Sur.

Residents of the village have been accused of membership in the NPA.

After the missions, Ablon said, soldiers came to visit IFI bishops and clergy.

License to kill

IFI has consistently called for a stop to abuses allegedly committed by the military in lumad communities.

It was not the first time IFI was branded as communist, according to Timbang.

Under then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the military and police classified the church as an “enemy of the state,” he said.

The practice “has been intensified in President Duterte’s regime,” he added.