JustEndPersecution issues an action regularly, suggesting letters that can be written (and prayer points). Some examples of action taken by the End Christian Persecution Network include:

• arrest warrants were issued in late 2007 against the four members of the Filipino security forces responsible for the abduction and torture of Pastor Berlin Guerrero on 27 May 2007;
• Fr Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly, a Vietnamese Catholic priest, was imprisoned on October 2001 with a sentence of 15 years (his ‘crime’ was writing a submission to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom and the Congressional Human Rights Caucus) but Fr Thadeus was subsequently released in 2004 after an international campaign for his release;
• in late 2006, three Muslim men were tried and convicted in Indonesia for the 29 October 2005 murders of three Christian teenage school girls who were beheaded with machetes as they were walking home from school in Poso, Central Sulawesi (a fourth girl escaped with wounds);
• Joel Flores, accused of having murdered United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) member Jose Doton (gunned down by two men on a motorcycle on 16 May 2006), was brought to trial for the murder on 3 October 2007 (it was the first case of the murder of a UCCP member since 2004 in which someone has been arrested for murder and brought to trial); and,
• Pastor Rinaldy Damanik, who was released from imprisonment in Indonesia on false weapons charges in November 2004 (he received 76,000 letters of support internationally while he was in prison).

Murders Most Foul – More Church workers murdered in the Philippines

Prepared July/August 2010

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute – Proverbs 31:8

For he that is condemned for the name of the Lord God is an holy martyr, a brother of the Lord, the son of the Highest, a receptacle of the Holy Spirit, by whom every one of the faithful has received the illumination of the glory of the holy Gospel, by being vouchsafed the incorruptible crown, and the testimony of Christ’s sufferings, and the fellowship of His blood, to be made conformable to the death of Christ for the adoption of children - Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (4th / 5th Centuries)

On 14 June at around 4:30 pm Benjamin E. Bayles was waiting for a ride at the crossing Sitio Antolo, Brgy. Suay when two men wearing helmets on board a black Honda TMX 155 with no license plate stopped nearby. The back rider disembarked and walked towards Benjamin. About 3 meters away from him, the gunman shot him several times. When Benjamin fell down, the driver of the motorcycle also got off the motorcycle and shot him. His body had 25 bullet wounds and 21 bullets in it when an autopsy was conducted.

Then the perpetrators left the area on the motorcycle. Bystanders took Benjamin to the Valeriano Gatuslao District Hospital but he was pronounced dead-on-arrival. Among the bystanders who witnessed the incident was a government employee who immediately called someone he knew from the Himamaylan City Philippine National Police (PNP) to report the incident. The Himamaylan City PNP alerted the nearby Kabankalan City PNP who set up a check point and apprehended Roger Bahon and Ronnie Caurino. Two .45 caliber pistols were confiscated from the suspects.

Mr Bayles was a 43 year old, single, parish worker of the Independent Church of the Philippines and a member of the September 21 Movement and the Negros Federation of Sugar Workers.

The Kabankalan police initially said the suspects confessed to be “organic” members of the 61st Infantry Battalion of the Philippines Army. The two were turned over to the Himamaylan PNP and are now detained at the Himamaylan City Jail.

The Himamaylan PNP later retracted the statement from the Kabankalan police, claiming the suspects are not connected with the military.

Benjamin had taken part in many human rights fact-finding missions. He had received a number of death threats before his murder.

The bishop of the Diocese of the Independent Church of the Philippines in which Benjamin Bayles was a member, The Right Rev Felomino Ang, wrote in response to the murder “In this moment of grief and rage, as your bishop, I am calling all the ordained and the faithful to be prayerful and vigilant that the death of Benjie Bayles will be given justice and the killers and their handlers will be convicted. We have already offered many lives in the altar of liberation, let this be our inspiration to immerse ourselves deeper to struggle for genuine freedom and peace based on justice. As One Body of Christ, let us intimately renew our commitment with the struggling masses. Break the culture of silence and let our cries be heard “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute” (Proverbs 31:8)”.

On 15 June, Jovelito Agustin, a lay minister in the Philippine Independent Church, was murdered in Bacarra, Ilocos Norte. He was also a broadcaster who spoke out for the rights of workers. He was also the Diocesan President of the Laymen of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente in the Diocese of Laoag. Jovelito was on his way home on-board his motorcycle after an evening broadcast when two motorcycle riding gunmen overtook him along the highway and shot him several times. He was rushed to hospital where he died.

He had received death threats before his murder.

Funeral of Benjamin Bayles

Take Action Now: points to include in your email (see below – You Can Help)

Points to make in your email:

• Express deep concern at the murder of Benjamin Bayles on 14 June by two gun men.
• Request an immediate, impartial and credible joint investigation by the Himamaylan and Kabankalan PNP into the murder of Benjamin E. Bayles.
• Ask for the immediate filing of criminal charges against Ronnie L. Caurino and Roger M. Bajon and anyone else found to have been involved in planning or carrying out the murder.
• Also express concern at the murder of Jovelito Agustin, a lay minister in the Philippine Independent Church, on 15 June.
• Ask what progress has been made in identifying his murderers and bringing them to justice.

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