The Ecumenical Bishops Forum decries the arrest of church worker and activist Aldeem Yañez even as it calls for thorough and impartial investigations into what religious leaders see as a glaring violation of civil liberties
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines – A group of bishops from different Christian churches on Monday, April 18, called on the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to start separate investigations into the arrest of Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) lay worker and activist Aldeem Yañez in Cagayan de Oro a week ago.
Authorities arrested Yañez at his home in Barangay Iponan on April 10 on suspicion that he has links to the New People’s Army (NPA), an accusation the IFI and his relatives said was false.
IFI-Cagayan de Oro Bishop Felixberto Calang said the church worker and activist was brought to the city jail in Barangay Lumbia for detention after he was charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives.
The charges were trumped-up, alleged IFI leaders and Yañez’s family.
The Ecumenical Bishops Forum (EBF) decried Yañez’s arrest even as it appealed to the CHR and DOJ to initiate credible, thorough, and impartial investigations into what religious leaders called a glaring violation of civil liberties.
“We call for the immediate release of Aldeem Yanez,” said the joint statement.
The joint statement was signed by United Methodist Bishop Ciriaco Francisco and The Right Reverend Emelyn Gasco-Dacuycuy of the IFI, United Church of Christ in the Philippines Bishop Joel Tendero, Caloocan Catholic Bishop-Emeritus Deogracias Iniguez Jr., and The Right Reverend Dindo Ranojo of the IFI.
The bishops blamed Yañez’s arrest on the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and called for its abolition.
Bishop Calang said Yañez was transferred to the city jail after inquest proceedings.
“The family, together with the church leaders who know Aldeem (Yañez) better, maintain that this case is trumped up, and we expect Aldeem to be free after a while,” Calang said.
The EBF described Yañez as a dedicated lay worker of the IFI who did volunteer work at the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform.
His elder brother, Bishop Redeemer Yañez of the IFI Diocese of Libertad, Misamis Oriental, alleged that officers from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) fabricated evidence against his sibling.
Police alleged that they seized a caliber .45 pistol and grenades when they searched Yañez’s house at Urban Poor Village in Barangay Iponan.
Bishop Yañez said the pistol and grenades were in bags described in detail in the search warrant.
“Based on the search warrant, they knew what the bags looked like yet my brother had never seen any of these,” said Bishop Yañez.
He said the younger Yañez was an activist and a critic of some of the government policies who used his music as his platform.
“He never used guns. What he has is his guitar. He is a church worker who did not believe in violence. Violence is against his religious conviction. Those who know him can say that it is not in his character to resort to guns,” the bishop said.
It wasn’t the first time for the church worker to be arrested and charged. In 2018, he was charged along with several hundred others in connection with an NPA attack on a militia outpost in Agusan del Sur, but the court dismissed the case.
“The arrest of Aldeem perpetrated by state security forces is a despicable act of a government that thrives on tyrannical expediency to silence government critics and legitimate political dissent,” read part of the EBF statement.
The bishops’ group said Yañez’s capture was “another in a long list of arrests of similar nature and circumstances.”
The group called the arrest the handiwork of the NTF-ELCAC which “exacerbates and embodies the tyranny of the Duterte administration and its continued contempt for human rights.”
It added, “Anybody and any advocacy not in consonance with Duterte’s anti-people, and anti-democratic policies is red-tagged as an ‘enemy of the state’ … Such a desperate, brazen move to terrorize the people even in the twilight months of this culpable government will neither deter nor cower the people, but only embolden our resolve to fight for justice and human rights and to end impunity.” – Rappler.com
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