What follows is a draft of a resolution that will be presented by the Wider Church Ministry Team at the Annual Meeting of the Central Pacific Conference of the United Church of Christ this October.
Resolution on United States-Philippines Relations
and Peaceful Means for Peaceful Ends
Whereas Zechariah 8:16 calls upon us to speak the truth to one another and render judgments that make for peace,
Whereas the United States has a history of imperial invasion, occupation, and destruction in the Philippines that dates back to 1899,
Whereas President William McKinley received a message from “Almighty God” to “Christianize” the Filipinos,
Whereas estimates of the number of Filipinos who died as a result of the war that followed range from 200,000 to 1 million,
Whereas the United States has maintained power over the Philippines by working in conjunction with the government and military of the Philippines,
Whereas the Philippines have received almost $500 million in military aid from the United States since 2002,
Whereas the United States nearly tripled the military aid it gives to the Philippines from $11.9 million in 2011 to $30 million in 2012,
Whereas the current administration in the Philippines has been condemned by Human Rights Watch for allowing extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances by security forces to take place with impunity,
Whereas the current administration in the Philippines would like the United States military to expand its presence in the Philippines,
Whereas the United States killed 15 people in a drone strike on the Southern Philippine island of Jolo earlier this year,
Whereas not only the role of United States military must be scrutinized but also the role of multinational corporations that exploit the country’s land and people,
Whereas James 3:18 reminds us that what is sown in peace makes for peace,
Therefore, we call for
(1) the use of peaceful means to achieve the conditions of peace in the Philippines,
(2) the withdrawal of the United States military from the Philippines along with the cessation of military aid to the Philippines
(3) education, advocacy, and activism in the churches of the Central Pacific Conference of the United Church of Christ to end the use and promotion of military means in the Philippines by the United States government,
(4) ongoing dialogue on the pursuit of peace with our sister churches in the Mindanao region who belong to the United Church of Christ in the Philippines.