Dear Peace Advocates,

Greetings of peace!

We are enjoining you to sign this statement (attached and included below) to support the call for justice for Fr. Fausto “Pops” Tentorio. We hope to publicize this statement between November 17 (the first month after Fr. Tentorio’s killing) and November 23 (the International Day to End Impunity as declared by the International Federation of Journalists). Thank you very much.

For peace and justice,

End Impunity National Secretariat

JUSTICE FOR FR. TENTORIO, END IMPUNITY NOW

We grieve and mourn for the death of Fr. Fausto “Pops” Tentorio, a dedicated and selfless Italian Roman Catholic missionary who served the Filipino farmers and indigenous peoples in Mindanao for 32 years. Fr. Tentorio was the parish priest of the Mother of Perpetual Help Parish in Arakan Town, North Cotabato, Mindanao. He was the Director of the Tribal Filipino Program of the Archdiocese of Kidapawan and a very active board member of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines.

As a compassionate prophet,  Fr. Tentorio set up literacy classes, health and day care centers, farm and other livelihood projects for the Manobo people., He decided to act and do something to improve the conditions of the indigenous people, who are among the most neglected among our people by providing them with the skills they needed to improve their lives. He helped capacitate the Manobo settlements to form organizations that will express their united efforts to stop the encroachment on their ancestral lands by mining companies. This earned the ire of those who were not happy with Fr. Tentorio’s work, as he previously experienced harassment, surveillance and attempts on his life by paramilitary groups in the province.

Our pained cries of grief come with the cry for justice as we condemn the brutality and the heartless killing of Fr. Tentorio. His killing is a clear example of the gross, systematic and brazen violation of human rights that remains to this day, with more than fifty victims of extrajudicial killings documented since July 2010. His killing is a clear example of the perpetuation of the climate of impunity – a state of brazenness of taking another person’s life because of intolerance of his views, work and political beliefs, a state where accountability for these crimes are not pursued, a state where perpetrators remain scot-free.

Such climate of impunity exists as justice for the victims of human rights violations remains elusive. Hardly any of the perpetrators of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearance, torture and other gross attacks on human rights defenders has been made to answer for their crimes.

We call for the immediate investigation on the killing of Fr. Tentorio. We are one with his family, the Roman Catholic Church and religious congregations, and the indigenous communities and people of Arakan Valley who were well-loved by Fr. Tentorio in demanding that justice be served.

We call for the end of extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and detention, enforced disappearances, forced evacuation of rural villages and other human rights violations which continue as brazenly to this day.

We will act unceasingly, and with full determination, to bring an end to the state of impunity that pervades Philippine society as we work towards the full realization of basic rights and fundamental freedoms in our country.

Related articles

• Fr. Tentorio killing must wake us up (politika2013.wordpress.com)