 
A MILLION VOICES FOR JUSTICE: STOP POLITICAL KILLINGS, END IMPUNITY IN THE PHILIPPINES Church Leaders Join Efforts to Bring Palparan to Justice Church leaders have called on their faithful to help in hunting down retired Army Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr. Palparan, charged with kidnapping and serious illegal detention in connection with the disappearance of the two missing University of the Philippines (UP) students Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan. Bishop Reuel Norman Marigza, General Secretary of the United Church of Christ of the Philippines (UCCP) said their Church has also experienced the anguish of losing pastors and lay leaders in Palparan’s ‘gruesome litany of death.’ In the same vein, Rev. Fr. Lorenzo Anievas of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente and governor general of the National Priest Organization (NPO), related how their members became victims of violence perpetrated by state agents.Church wants End to Extrajudicial Killings in the Philippines (21 October 2011, Amsterdam) The newly-founded Filipino Parish Council Netherlands (FPCNL) urged the Aquino government to stop the extrajudicial killings of members of the church. The call was made by Rev. Father Cesar Taguba, chairperson of FPCNL during the memorial mass for murdered Bishop Alberto Ramento held in the Old Catholic Church in Amsterdam. According to Taguba, at least 30 church workers and leaders had been killed from January 2001 to October 2011, most of them members of the United Methodist Church, Philippine Independent Church and United Church of the Christ in the Philippines. Justice Secretary Pledges Support to Bishop Ramento’s Case
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima declared support to the quest of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente to give justice to the kiling of Bishop Alberto B. Ramento. De Lima made the statement before a group of bishops and priests who visited her for a dialogue in the afternoon of October 18, 2011. Bishop Joselito Cruz, the Church's General Secretary, expressed appreciation to De Lima saying he puts high hopes to the Justice Secretary's words. Bishop Cruz led the group of clergy in an hour-long meeting with Secretary De Lima.
Memorial Mass for Bishop Alberto B. Ramento and other Church Martyrs Held in Amsterdam A solemn memorial mass “Remembering and Honoring Bishop Alberto B. Ramento and All Other Church Martyrs in the Movement for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation in the Philippines”, was held October 2, at the Old Catholic Church in Amsterdam. The mass marked the 5th anniversary of the extrajudicial killing (EJK) of IFI (Iglesia Filipina Independiente-Philippine Independent Church) Bishop Ramento on October 3, 2006 at his rectory in Tarlac. The mass was organized by the Filipino Parish Netherlands (FPNL) and the Old Catholic Church (OCC). Bishops Call for a Stop to Large-Scale Mining Operations, Repeal of Mining Act of 1995 The Ecumenical Bishops Forum (EBF) issued a statement at the end of the two-day mining forum of the organization's Southern Luzon Regional Conference in Legaspi on October 6, 2011. The organization of Catholic and Protestant bishops urged the government to repeal the Mining Act of 1995 and to issue a moratorium on large-scale mining. The bishops expressed alarm over the excessive mining operations by both local and foreign firms particularly in Southern Luzon and Bicol. Church leaders and workers along with mining-affected community representatives attended the anti-mining forum.
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