M E M O R I E S: Life and Time of Pastor Rudy Bernal, his Glimpses on History & the People;s Struggle for Freedom
Chapter 43 – We Decided to Stand and Expose Human Rights Violations in Iloilo, a Way to Help Fight Tyranny and Injustice in Western Visayas and the Country…
We were released from detention at Camp Delgado. For several times, in the past, we just kept silent. We felt it was dangerous to tell this story and the expose some of this military atrocities.
That night, of I sat down looking into the sky for some times. The sky seems very lonely.
Then, I sat down with my typewriter. I decided to send a Press Release to the newspapers and radio stations in Iloilo City. In was a one page story. I told the short story of the military raid of the UIM & NFM seminar in Guevara Beach. How the raid was made. How I was asked to come down from the cottage at gun point and commanded to go the the session hall.
The fears on the faces of the seminar participants, ordered at gun point to go from the women’s cottage to the session hall. How the staff and participants were forced to ride the jeepney to Camp Delgado. The fears in the eyes of those arrested and detained for several hours. How a soldier secretly placed a hand grenade inside our sack with some rice. I signed the Press Releases.
Then, I asked Jun Fabellore, the CPBC messenger to bring the Press Releases to all the Radio Stations and Newspapers offices in Iloilo City. That was already 8:00 PM. The human rights violations that we suffered that afternoon must be revealed to the people of Iloilo City.
That evening, the news brook out. Radio and TV stations in Iloilo City carried the stories of the CPBC seminar raid and several hours detention of 38 people at Camp Delgado immediately. News tandem in Bacolod Cith and Roxas City carried the Convention Baptist raids was immediately known in Western Visayas. It was also carried to Mindanao and in Manila. The following day, Iloilo newspapers reported the military raid of the seminar of the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches.
Unfortunately that evening, about 10:00 PM., the military to raided us on their way back to their barracks in a village in Lambunao, where ambushed, reportedly by the NPA.
I don’t remember if there were casualties. But at 9:00 AM, the following day, Eddie Swede, a DYFM radio commentator, called me at CPBC office and interviewed me live of the UIM raid the night before. I told him of the raid, our detention and Camp Delgado for more than 3 hours. The hand grenade the soldier tried to surreptitiously hide inside our sack rice. I talked of the fears of the farmers and sugar cane workers when arrested and detained for some hours. Eddie Suede, jokingly said, why did you order the raid of the soldiers in Lambunao?
I laughed. I said, “Ed, you’re making a dangerous joke. You know how hard the military were, on those who ambushed them.”
Eddie Swede said, “Sorry Pastor Rudy. I am just trying to make a joke.”
The following day, I wrote a 2 - page report of the UIM raid and arrest to Bishop La Verne Mercado, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP). I requested Pastor Nestor Bunda to help me finalized our report. The true and factual report of what really happened. I will send this report to leaders of churches and international organizations, who were closed to us and have established relations with CPBC. I believed, we must not kept silent when our rights were violated, specially by people, whom we pay their salaries to protect us.
I brought draft letter to Dr. Domingo Diel, Jr., General Secretary for his signature. I told him we will send the report to the NCCP. Dr. Diel signed the report. I signed it with him. We sent it by mail courier to Rev. La Verne Mercado, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines. Rev. Mercado wrote a letter, with the copy of our report of the UIM raid and arrest with his notation to Gen. Fidel Ramos, Chief of the Philippine Constabulary.
He also sent copies of our report to all the heads of National Churches – United Methodist Church in the Philippines, United Church of Christ in the Philippines, the Philippine Independent Church, UNIDA, EIMELIF and other national churches who were members of the NCCP. He sent a copy of our report to the General Secretary of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).
I sent copies of our report to Rev. Tosh Arai, UIM coordinator of Christian Conference of Asia in Singapore and Japan. I also sent copy of the report to Rev. Olof Lindstrom & Leo Liljengren of the Baptist Union of Sweden and Heinz Havercorn of EZE, West Germany. We sent copies of this letter to churches and international organizations in some countries – Hongkong, India, England, Netherlands, Ireland, Norway, Neitherland, Thailand, Taiwan, Australia and the United States.
In two week’s time, letters from these churches and countries from different parts of the world arrived, and received by Gen. Fabian Ver, Chief of Staff of the Philippine Army, Gen Fidel Ramos, Chief of the Philippine Constabulary, Gen. Juan Ponce Enrile, Secretary of National Defense and President Ferdinand Marcos. The letters, from leaders of churches from around the world. expressed grave concerns on the raids, arrests and human rights violations of a peaceful seminar of UIM and NFM of the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches.
Rev. Ray Beaver, Secretary for Asia of the Board of International Ministries, USA, in a letter sent to me and the Baptist Convention said he was deeply concerned with the blatant human rights violation of the peaceful seminar of the Baptist Convention. He said, he has sent a letter to the Committee on International Relations of the United States Senate, with our CPBC report attached, requesting the US Senate and US Congress to look deep into violations on human rights in Iloilo City and other parts of the Philippines.
The military felt the effect of our letter and exposing the violations of human rights to the national and world bodies.
As a result of the letter of Rev. La Verne Mercado, Gen. Fidel Ramos made a strong order to the the Philippine Constabulary. General Ramos in his order said: 1) All raids of religious seminars must be made with soldiers having clear Name Tags on their breast, 2) Church leaders must be notified immediately of raids and arrests of their members, 3) Church leaders and members arrested must be turned over immediately to officers of their church organizations, and 4) And…the others, I cannot remember at this time.
The order of General Ramos, was written as an Editorial of Manila Daily Bulletin, that came out about a week after the UIM raid on July 30, 1984.
I think, Rev. Ray Beaver’s letter of the UIM & NFM raids to the to the Committee on Foreign Relations of the United States Senate and US Congress, has contributed something, on the US pressure for President Marcos to call for a Snap Elections that soon toppled him from power and sent him to exile in Hawaii.
Some 20 days after that UIM raid at Guevara Beach, General De Guzman, Regional Commander of the Philippine Constabulary at Camp Delgado, base in Iloilo City came to the the CPBC with some of his generals for a dialogue with CPBC officers, members of the Board of Trustees, members of Faith and Order Committee and Pastor Rudy Bernal. The dialogue was hard, open and helpful. That morning, General De Guzman made an official apology to CPBC of the raids and arrest of UIM staffs and seminar participants on July 29-30, 1984.
That morning of the dialogue of the Military Officers and General with the top leadership of the Convention, almost the day before, the military has started to cordon the areas surrounding the CPBC office up to CPU and Jaro Plaze. Then the whole night there were military officers and soldiers around the CPBC office. And, starting 6:00 AM until the dialogue was finished at 10:30 AM, the route of jeepneys was changed.The jeepneys, did not passed near the CPBC office. General De Guzman, made sure that no untowards incident will happen, while he and his co-generals and officers has dialogue with the CPBC official at the CPBC headquarters.
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