Tuesday, April 5, 2005

CHRISTIAN MURDERED IN SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES

By Sarah Page
www.compassdirect.org

DUBLIN, April 5 (Compass) -- A small group of Sama Christians in the southern Philippines are living in fear after unknown assailants killed Mr. Angelada, a fellow church member.

Angelada was brutally murdered in his own home on February 24, apparently in connection with a land dispute between Christians from the Sama tribe and members of the staunchly-Muslim Tausug tribe.

Angelada originally came from the Visayas in the central Philippines, but moved to Lumbayao in Zamboanga over 30 years ago. He welcomed the small community of Sama believers when they first arrived in Lumbayao and attended their church.

The Sama is a Muslim-majority tribe, at the lowest rung of the social ladder in the southern Philippines. Sama Christians face double discrimination. However, Angelada befriended the Sama and worked hard to improve their quality of life.

As one Sama believer told Compass, “When we first came, he offered his barn as our temporary home. He would sometimes give corn to those Sama who didn’t have food to eat. It was he who made a petition to the city mayor for our community to have electricity. Now everyone has the benefit of that. He was a good man.”

Early this year, several Tausug Muslims began a construction project on the piece of land in Lumbayao where the Sama have lived since the early 1970’s.

The Sama residents approached the project engineer and asked him to halt construction. In response, the engineer said the landowner wanted to develop the land, but he would allow the Sama to remain if they paid the appropriate amount for the land they occupied.

Angelada told the developers he would fight for the Sama’s right to remain without payment, since they had evidence that the land was loaned to them by the government. He was willing to approach the President of the Philippines if necessary. The response from the engineer was non-committal -- and 15 days later, Angelada was murdered.

Neighbors gave testimony to police investigators that on the evening of February 24, a man entered Angelada’s house and turned off the lights. Neighbors assumed the man was Angelada and took no notice.

The elderly Angelada was then attacked and severely beaten when he arrived home. A friend who discovered his blood-soaked body the following morning said Angelada’s face was beaten almost beyond recognition.

Police questioned a man who worked closely with Angelada, but since then have taken no further action. When the Sama believers approached the police asking for help, they were simply told to report back to the police if anything “unusual” happened.

Violence against Christians is not new to Zamboanga. Attackers shot and severely injured a Muslim-background believer from the Tausug tribe, identified only as ‘Ben,’ in November 2004. (See Compass Direct, “Philippine Christians Face Islamic Challenge,” December 3, 2004.)

A friend reports that Ben is now in recovery, but remains partially paralyzed after the shooting. “The last news we have after he was discharged from the hospital was that the bullet that went through his chest is still embedded in his lower spine. The doctors say this bullet caused his paralysis.”

Members of the Sama community say they don’t need to own the land but they need somewhere to live. “In this place we have the freedom to worship,” one believer said. “Even though there are Sama Muslims living with us, they don’t cause problems.” This is not the case in other parts of Zamboanga, where Christians are often harassed by their Muslim neighbors.

After the murder, Christian residents feared the killers would try to eliminate their pastor and lay leaders. A few have since moved to another community in Zamboanga city.

“That is the culture of the Sama people,” one believer told Compass. “If we foresee trouble, we would rather leave the place than fight for our rights.

“But if we leave this place, we will be greatly affected. If we move to other communities dominated by Muslims, we will no longer have the same freedom to worship. I can say this because I have experienced being harassed by Muslim neighbors before.”

The Sama is considered to be the lowest in a social hierarchy of 13 Muslim tribes in the southern Philippines. The name “Sama” means “to spit out.”

At present, Sama believers are considering their options.

“Some say our case is very weak, but with God nothing is impossible,” one Sama resident, who prefers not to be named, told Compass. “We just have to trust God.”