21 August 2023
Pray for PHILIPPINES
Pray for PHILIPPINES: where the government of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and Vice President Sara Duterte appear set to continue the dangerous practice of ‘red-tagging’ its critics. Since the May 2022 elections, religious workers – including priests, bishops and missionaries – associated with the Protestant Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI, an independent member of the worldwide Anglican Communion), the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) and the Roman Catholic Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP) have been ‘red-tagged’ – i.e. falsely accused of recruiting for or financing the New People’s Army (NPA; the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines). Victims of ‘red-tagging’ are often arrested, murdered or disappeared – mostly at the hands of the Philippine Armed Forces, and mostly for doing nothing more than criticising government policy. Please pray.
(This RLPB was written by Elizabeth Kendal, an international religious liberty analyst and advocate. For more information and archives, visit Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLPB) http://rlprayerbulletin.blogspot.com)