IBON International - A Massacre Most Foul, Gross, and Utterly Repugnant

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IBON International is the international division of IBON Foundation, Inc. As an international NGO, IBON Foundation responds to international demand to provide support in research and education to peoples’ movements and grassroots empowerment and advocacy and links these to international initiatives and networks.

IBON International initiates and implements international programs, develops and hosts international networks, initiates and participates in international advocacy campaigns, and establishes regional and country offices where necessary and appropriate.

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Offices

IBON Foundation is a non-stock non-profit development institution committed to serve the Filipino people through various programs in research-education-information.

IBON Europe was set up in 2007 as the base for IBON International's program in Europe. It will initially focus on EU member states where it will develop partnerships with grassroots-based movements of marginalized peoples and sectors according to its mandate.

IBON South Asia's thrust is the empowerment of grassroots in the sub-region by developing the capacity of people's movements and grassroots organizations through research-education and advocacy support. IBON South Asia provides needed support to movements of marginalized sections of society such as Dalits, Adivasis, women, peasants, agricultural workers, fisherfolk and the toiling masses to empower them in building free democratic societies in the sub-region

IBON Africa focuses on building knowledge based capacity for grassroots organizations, social movements and local community based organization (CBOs) and NGO in the Africa region. To attain this objective, IBON Africa provides various services to sectors and organization in the Africa community - access to timely and relevant information through its databank and publications; training and seminars; organizing of international events to tackle such themes as golbalization, food sovereignty, aid and development and governance initiated by IBON in partnership with other international networks.

Networks

The Asia Pacific Research Network (APRN) was established in 1998 as a result of networking including a number of conferences in 1997, where the objective to channel and focus the efforts of NGO research towards supporting the need for information, education and advocacy of grassroots organizations was recognized by a number of key Asian research organizations or non-government organizations with established research departments.

The Reality of Aid network is the only major north/south international non-governmental collaboration focusing exclusively on analysis and lobbying for poverty eradication policies and practices in the international aid regime.

Issue Networks

The People's Movement on Climate Change is a global campaign that aims to provide venue for grassroots, especially from the South - who are the worst-affected and yet are the least empowered to adapt to climate change - to participate in the process of drawing up a post-2012 climate change framework.

The Water for the People Network (WPN) Water for the People Network (WPN) is a campaign network that supports the various water-related struggles at the grassroots in order for them to achieve national and international projection. It also serves as an information and resource center as well as a coordinating body for joint actions and campaigns on the national and international levels.

The International Initiative on Corruption and Governance (IICG) was set up in 2001 to promote interest on corruption and governance issues from a grassroots perspective that takes into account all aspects of corruption, including systemic factors and corruption in the private sector.

Network Participant

The World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) is a global network of communicators committed to communication for social change.

The Our World is Not For Sale (OWINFS) is a worldwide network of organizations, activists and social movements committed to challenging trade and investment agreements that advance the interests of the world’s most powerful corporations at the expense of people and the environment.

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A Massacre Most Foul, Gross, and Utterly Repugnant

Written by National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP)

Friday, 27 November 2009

NCCP statement on the massacre in Maguindanao

It is a massacre most foul, gross, and utterly repugnant!

The National Council of Churches in the Philippines joins the people in mourning. We reach out in prayer and solidarity to the families of the victims of the massacre in Maguindanao. The death toll of 46 people as of this writing, includes members of the media and two lawyers known for their human rights advocacy. We also reach out to the relatives of those missing. May the Holy Comforter be with them.

Yet even as we grieve and mourn, we are outraged. We are outraged that government has not acted with dispatch. Two days after news of the carnage broke out, the suspected mastermind has not been taken into custody. From day one, the spokesperson of the Armed Forces of the Philippines already identified the suspected mastermind – a known staunch ally of the President and undeniably a political warlord in Maguindanao. We join the demand for the Government to take action but, we are appalled that a state of emergency has been declared in Maguindanao. For so long, Mindanao has been militarized and used to justify more military hardware and budget. What other more powers does the government need?

This massacre is a grim reminder of the pervading culture of impunity and the lack of respect for human rights that has been in our midst and that has turned for the worse since 2001. We are indignant of this continuing culture of impunity and the lack of political will of the government to stop these killings. What government has been doing is the swift perpetuation of injustice and the slow if not hollow dispensation of justice.

The gruesome massacre of unarmed civilians is also a painful reminder that government statements to the dismantling of political warlordism have been mere rhetoric. Government has either turned a blind eye or entered into alliances with these warlords for political expediency at the expense of creating democratic space. Political warlordism is a manifestation of a feudal social order and we join the call that it should now be a thing of the past.

To our partners around the world, our deep gratitude for upholding us in your supplication and affirming our calls. We pray that peace and justice be given a chance in Mindanao and elsewhere in this country. We pray that all the resources that have been poured in Mindanao bail the people out from the mire of poverty, neglect and human indignity. We pray that we all rise from this blasphemy for the sake of the God who loves us all and calls us to be one people and for the sake of our children and the children yet unborn.

Rev. Fr. Rex RB Reyes, Jr.
General Secretary

Bishop Nathanael P. Lazaro
Chairperson