Church divided over suit vs Arroyo

BAGUIO CITY—A group within the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) has urged its bishops to amend a human rights suit seeking damages from former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for fear the action would lead to the church’s breakup.

The group calling itself the Advance Jesus Agenda Movement (A-Jam) on Saturday asked Bishop Reuel Norman Marigza, UCCP secretary general, to remove his name as a complainant from the June 16 suit filed by the families of UCCP pastors and members who were killed allegedly by the military during the term of Arroyo, now a representative of Pampanga.

“We cannot separate Marigza from the UCCP, and many members who want justice for our fallen pastors do not agree that the church should be a party to the case, or else the church will be attacked again as a communist front,” said retired Reverend Simplicio Dang-awan, a representative of A-Jam.

On June 16, Marigza, Pastor Berlin Guerrero and the families of murdered UCCP members Joel Baclao Jr., Andy Pawican, Noel Capulong, and Reverends Edison Lapuz and Raul Domingo sued Arroyo for P5 million before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court.

‘Enemies of the state’

In an 18-page complaint, they said that Arroyo was in control of the Armed Forces of the Philippines when it pursued UCCP members as “enemies of the state.”

Dang-awan, a former UCCP Baguio senior pastor, said there were conservative UCCP groups that had expressed displeasure over the supposed “communist infiltration” of their church.

“The UCCP started being infiltrated by communist ideologues in 1983 … and we believe that 50 percent of our pastors are ideologically influenced,” he said.

A-Jam was formed in 2003 by UCCP members who “do not want to follow any ideologies, except God’s,” Dang-awan said. It has been in touch with the conservative groups, hoping “to reduce the friction and sustain UCCP’s integrity,” he said.

Conflict among members

Dang-awan said he joined 11 other UCCP leaders in Metro Manila for a June 20 assembly, led by Melchor Morales, the convenor of A-Jam. After the meeting, they agreed to persuade the UCCP Council of Bishops to withdraw the lawsuit lest they trigger an exodus of conservative church members, Dang-awan said.

Bishop Marino Iñong of UCCP Baguio confirmed the conflict among church members. Iñong is a member of the UCCP Council of Bishops.

But he said that the UCCP bishops voted to “stand with the people,” to justify UCCP’s direct participation in the suit.

“I don’t think the suit alone would compel members of the church to break away. [The conservative factions] have been around even before this case, and they have other issues against the [UCCP leadership] which we have tried to address before,” Iñong said.

The UCCP is a union of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ USA), the Presbyterians, the Evangelical United Brethren Church, the Philippine Methodist Church and the Congregational Church, that was joined in the course of 60 years by the United Church of Manila, evangelical organizations and fellowships from various parts of the country, Dang-awan said.

Reservations over suit

In February, the UCCP celebrated the centennial of its Baguio church, one of the pioneer Protestant churches organized by UCCP’s founders with the blessings of the American colonial government.

Last year, UCCP Baguio expressed its reservations over the planned class suit against Arroyo, after Marigza announced his intention to file charges against the former president, Dang-awan said.

He said members of three big fellowship groups distanced themselves from the UCCP Council of Bishops in 2010, owing to the UCCP leadership’s perceived affiliation with left-leaning groups.

“The UCCP members, who do not want the leadership involved in the lawsuit, also want justice for our murdered brethren because we want to teach those soldiers a lesson. But many of our members, who are also lawyers, believe that [Arroyo] would do her best to prove UCCP is a communist front and that will make us more vulnerable to attacks,” Iñong said. Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon