At the end of May 2007, Pastor Berlin Guerrero was abducted and tortured by members of the Philippines security forces. He was imprisoned for 15 months before a court finally threw the charges against him out on the grounds they were baseless.

Pastor Berlin in happier times with family

On 6 May 2008, armed men abducted Pastor Rodel Canja and pressured him to provide evidence that Pastor Berlin Guerrero had links to the Communist Party in the Philippines. He was threatened with death if he did not manufacture the evidence his abductors wanted. He was held for four days and then blindfolded, put into a vehicle and dropped on a deserted road with threats of harm to him and his family if he reported what had happened to him.

Just End Christian Persecution provided updates and calls to action about Pastor Guerrero throughout that difficult time.

On the last week of November 2009, Pastor Canja began to receive calls from someone who said he wanted to meet Pastor Canja in person. The next day, the caller phoned again and this time introduced himself as Pastor Canja’s cousin Michael. Pastor Canja realised that the caller was not his cousin as he knew nothing about the Pastor’s family in the province. So after a week Pastor Canja changed his SIM card and mobile phone number.

On the morning of 18 December 2009, Pastor Guerrero received a text message after speaking at a film screening at the University of the Philippines at Los UPLB on the issue of the UCCP in challenging times. The text message read ‘Good morning, Pastor, how are you? It seems you have not changed your position.’

On 21 January 2010, Pastor Guerrero received an anonymous text message ‘Pastor, don’t be that confident, your time is short’.

On 3 February he was sent a text message that read ‘Good morning Pastor, we want to convey to you that if we cannot get anything from your skinny pastor friend, just bid him goodbye because you might not see him anymore’.

On Sunday evening 7 February, both Pastor Guerrero and Pastor Canja were sent text messages that read ‘Good evening, sleep well tonight because this will be your last’.

We are reactivating campaign work in this area.

Posted: Feb 2010