Civil society organisations in the Philippines are suspicious of the intent of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 that the Philippine congress passed this year. President Duterte’s administration has insidiously made it difficult for civil society organisations to engage and influence the country’s development. Only a few months after this law passed, ACT Alliance member National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) has reported increased harassment incidences from the military in the conduct of their work with the communities since they have been red-tagged or identified as a communist organization in a presentation made by the Department of National Defense to the Philippine congress last year. 

The National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) was established in 1963 and is the largest group of mainline Protestant and non-Roman Catholic churches in the Philippines. Aside from ACT Alliance, NCCP is also a member the World Council of Churches and the Christian Conference of Asia, and represents close to twelve million protestant adherents. NCCP members serve the communities by providing emergency assistance to disaster-stricken families and communities, assistance to small community-based projects, solidarity support (financial, material, technical assistance) to workers on strike, displaced urban and rural poor, and families of victims of human rights violations. NCCP is a strong advocate for human rights and environmental protection as part of their core mission. In 2017, the Philippine Faith-Based Organisations Forum (FBO PH) was formed by NCCP together with the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines-NASSA/Caritas Philippines and the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches-Philippine Relief and Development Services, Inc. FBO PH forms the largest network of Christian churches and institutions in the Philippines. 

Delays in humanitarian aid

Since the Anti-terrorism Act was passed, NCCP and their members have been subjected to malicious propaganda and different forms of harassment by the government. NCCP has long been working with the communities in the Philippines through their member churches that are rooted in these communities. Last year, NCCP was one among a number of humanitarian and service-oriented organizations in the list of “front organizations of local communist terrorist groups” presented by the Philippine Department of National Defense in a congressional hearing.

NCCP decried the baseless and unfounded inclusion of its name. “Such red-tagging by the state may delay, impede, or even prevent the delivery of much-needed services to marginalized communities especially in the midst of disasters. Organizations like the NCCP should all the more be encouraged and supported especially in a context where human rights are attacked, and fear and insecurity constantly loom”, NCCP wrote in a resolution. Further, the General Convention of the NCCP approved to seek a dialogue with the Department of National Defense and/or other appropriate government bodies to resolve this matter. The ACT-member responded to the threat immediately. The campaign to stop the attacks on human rights defenders, including the church institutions and its people, gathered huge local and international support.

Impact on COVID-19 Responses

In March 2020, the Philippines implemented a strict lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19. Until now there are different forms of curfews and quarantine measures in place in the country, varying by region and set by the Local Governmental Units. Intercity and inter-province travel is restricted, and domestic air travel remains limited.

Check points have been setup in several places where Filipinos require to have a pre-approved pass to be able to travel from one point to another. These checkpoints and passes have slowed down NCCP’s COVID-19 response. Despite that, they reached more than 3,167 families providing them food and cash assistance – particularly people who had the difficulty to travel even to the markets, with the restrictions in place. Yet in these check points, NCCP and their church members’ staff and volunteers were questioned and harassed, often their intention to visit and support vulnerable groups become a point of suspicion. 

While lockdowns are in effect, the Philippine government passed the Anti-Terrorism Act that would further restrict access to humanitarian assistance and movement of aid workers. This further compromised the civil society action, particularly those implementing humanitarian response: churches, service-oriented groups, and humanitarian organizations impartially helping those who are most vulnerable and marginalized even more.

“Chilling effect” on humanitarian work instead of support

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet at the end of June 2020 formally presented her office’s report on the situation in the Philippines to the UN Human Rights Council during its 44th session, stating that “The law could have a further chilling effect on human rights and humanitarian work, hindering support to vulnerable and marginalized communities”.

Solidarity among faith-based organisations

NCCP issued a statement on Saturday, 3^rd July 2020. ”It is a travesty against God’s will as the Anti-Terrorism Act gives the government, or even just a few persons in the Anti-terrorism Council, the absolute power that determines what course people’s lives will take by putting forward a very vague definition of terrorism”, it declared, and continued that the measure will “insidiously” strip away respect for human rights and was likely to be “misused and abused” by those who wish to “lord it over” the people, obliterate opposition, and quell even the most legitimate dissent. “This bill will cause a further shrinking of democratic space and weakening of public discourse that will be detrimental to our nation”, the statement says. The Philippine FBO Forum bringing together constituencies from the Catholic, Protestant and Evangelical churches showed solidarity though issuing statement of support to NCCP and released opposition to the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 as it poses threat to the civil and political rights, including the right to freedom of religion and to exercise ministry in furtherance of religious beliefs.

ACT Alliance’s support

In September 2020, amid continued violence in the Philippines, international church groups and human rights organisations demanded for an independent, impartial investigation into atrocities that characterize President Duterte’s administration. An “International Ecumenical Convocation on the Defense of Human Rights in the Philippines” was carried out on 17th September 2020, with ACT Alliance as one of the sponsors. In a “Unity Statement for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights in the Philippines”, the church leaders affirmed support for Filipinos who are enduring a “deteriorating situation of civil liberties and human rights”. It is signed by ACT Alliance as well as many of its member organisations and international ecumenical partners.

Photo Paul Jeffrey

The El Impenetrable area of ​​the Province of Chaco, Argentina, has suffered cycles of recurrent droughts and floods for the last 20 years. This year, the drought added to the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, and has made families of small farmers and indigenous communities in the area more vulnerable.

In a solidarity response to this situation, ACT Alliance Argentina Forum members and partners CREAS, SEDI, Hora de Obrar, and CWS joined to provide a rapid response fund to support to Junta Unida de Misiones (JUM)- an institution which has accompanied indigenous peoples in the area for more than 50 years, in an humanitarian project: “Access to water as a fundamental right for the full enjoyment of life.”

“Access to water is one of the most perverse forms of inequality and the consequence of a development model based on profit and lack of care for Creation. This joint initiative of the ACT Argentina Forum with the indigenous peoples in the Chaco is a concrete testimony of ecumenical diakonia in challenging times and a sign of hope,” emphasized Mara Luz Manzoni, Regional Director of CREAS.

“It seemed important to us to unite and accompany the JUM and the Chaco in the face of the seriousness of the situation of the drought and the fires. The best way was to create a rapid response fund to alleviate the situation. The sum of the contributions of each organization can have a concrete, rapid and accurate effect,” expressed Nicolás Rosenthal, executive director of the Hora de Obrar Foundation.

The project focuses on the construction and improvement of water infrastructures, both for human consumption and for agricultural and livestock use, as well as training in its construction and maintenance for rural community leaders in the municipalities of Castelli and Miraflores, Chaco. This initiative also seeks to reactivate the production of crops for families to both eat and sell. Both the drought and pandemic have impacted crop production, destabilizing food security for the population.

María del Pilar Cancelo, Executive Director of SEDI, an organisation invited to the ACT Argentina Forum, said, “The challenge of the Alliance is precisely the joint action of the churches, which makes it possible to join efforts and resources, to have greater impact, speed, and witness. This articulation between institutions is only a starting point, a challenge that we wish to sustain and enrich from this experience and the learning that arises”

For Martín Coria, CWS Regional Coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean, “This collaboration can be replicated for the benefit of more faith-based organizations such as JUM that, throughout the region of the South American Gran Chaco, accompany the struggle of indigenous peoples for their land and for water, for their dignity and rights ”

According to the JUM, in recent years there has been an increase in the frequency of prolonged droughts in Chaco. The lack of rain causes the loss of plant production, forest fires, high mortality of animals, and also a sharp drop in sales due to social isolation. This leads to decreases in the nutritional and sanitary health of the population, accompanied by forced migration from the countryside to the city.

Raúl Romero, the JUM coordinator, said in relation to the project “The response and support of the ACT Argentina Forum have been critical to strengthening rural communities in the territory, who face the drought and the pandemic in the Impenetrable zone of the Chaco, where they did not have access to a resource as vital as water.”

Faced with this panorama, as the ACT Argentina Forum, we articulate in ecumenical cooperation with the JUM, which together with public organizations will strengthen this initiative to guarantee the right to water through education processes in relation to the care and rational use of water and maintenance of existing infrastructures.

In this way, it will seek to benefit more than 200 members of farming families and indigenous communities, in the targeted area, through the construction and repair of reservoirs, cleaning and deburring of dams, and repair of wells. The people who will benefit from the initiative will be small producers, informal workers an artisans, who have seen their production and marketing affected, as well as the population groups in risk in relation to COVID-19.

The regional Gender CoP Asia Pacific is happy to invite everybody interested to a webinar within the framework of the campaign “16 days of activism”.

• Dr. Beulah Shekhar, Emeritus Professor in Criminology and Victimology of the Karunya Institute of Technology & Sciences in Coimbatore, India, has plenty of practical and theoretical experience in regard to all forms and consequences of gender-based violence.
• Reverend James Bhagwan as General Secretary of the Pacific Conference of Churches in Fiji will bring in the theological reflection of the topic, based on his work in the Pacific area.

The webinar is moderated by Cyra Bullecer, ACT Alliance Regional Representative Asia Pacific.

Tuesday, 8^th December 2020, 11.30 am Bangkok time – open invitation

(the webinar will be followed by the meeting of the regional Community of Practice and conclude at 1 pm Bangkok time)

To join the webinar on Zoom: https://bit.ly/39j1Yqp, ID 897 0156 6719, PC 924510

ACT members in Lebanon are continuing to respond to humanitarian need after an explosion devastated Beirut on August 4, 2020. The ACT Lebanon Forum put out an appeal, which can be pledged to by contacting George Majaj.

Here are three stories, from the Middle East Council of Churches, the Department of Service for Palestinian Refugees, and Norwegian Church Aid, of the impact of the explosion and the work that ACT members are doing to respond to the needs that are so urgent in Beirut.

MECC

For every family in Beirut on August 4 there is a story; its effect touched the lives of thousands of people in the city most profoundly felt by vulnerable families.

Johnny the 47-year-old husband who lives with his wife Sally 50-year-old and their son Ramy 11 years old; along with his mother in law Maguy 83 years who has a hearing problem and Chronic diseases. The family live in Karantina, and their home is the second building facing the port.

During that evening the family was at home having dinner and Sally, was the first one to hear the first explosion and immediately the memory of the war flashed back and told her husband that there is something wrong. A few minutes later the whole family heard the big explosion and immediately ran away from the dining room to the hallway where it felt the safest place.

The power of the explosion shook the whole house down and the fridge moved from its place making a shield for the family and protected them from flying glass and windows. The house has five windows which all exploded and shattered everywhere.

Sally and Maguy were injured and Johnny’s eye was injured also. Ramy explains the horror and pain he felt during the explosion after seeing his family hurt. The family was in shock and the first thing that came to their mind was that the war is back.

Johnny’s story like many others is often delivered in tales of depression, of need and often hope. Since the explosion the family received help from several organizations; however, the family was extremely grateful by the support of MECC since it consisted of food, hygiene, detergent supplies that can support them for a few months along with mattresses and linens which was mainly their essential needs.

The family was grateful for that since there is always a fear of not being able to afford getting these essentials because of the economic situation, MECC alongside with local churches were able to support essential supplies to families in need and hoping to continue to meet other urgent needs.

DSPR-JCC

Youth from DSPR’s Joint Christian Committee for Social Service in Lebanon programme have been working tirelessly since August 4 to help clean up the blood and debris from the explosion.

These teens have been volunteering to remove debris, clean up homes, and to do whatever else they can to help those affected by the blast in Beirut. Many of them were also impacted by the explosion.

17-year-old Vanessa says, “I was there that same day. I was with my family going to Damour (south of Beirut). We had crossed the port when the explosion happened. We got out of the car. There were people everywhere, covered in blood. Some people were dead. I tried to help. There was so much blood.”

The teenagers practically grew up together at their hillside mountain Palestinian residences, known as the “Dbayeh camp.” As Palestinians, their futures are bleak. Palestinians are barred from acquiring Lebanese citizenship, and thus acquiring Lebanese identity cards, which would entitle them to government services, such as health and education. They are also legally barred from owning property and prohibited from working in over 60 skilled jobs.

“Even if we are Palestinians,” said 18 year-old Jubran, “We live here. We must help.”

“We kids cannot rebuild [their] home[s],” said Rudolph Habib, “We don’t have money to help. All we can offer is our youth. The capability of cleaning and carrying things for all these people.

“If we don’t do it, who will?”

Read the full story from DSPR-JCC.

NCA

The 4th of August 2020 deprived Hayat from a safe modest home, her source of living but most of all her son. Hayat a 65 years old woman living in Ashrafieh has endured the long years of civil war in Lebanon with her daughter Nancy and her son Shadi. Despite all her suffering, Hayat is a survivor and a strong mother who managed to stand on her feet to be supporting her family who needs her.

During the Lebanese civil war, Hayat’s son, Shadi, lost his capacity to speak and hear when a bomb exploded next to their home. He was then a two years old child. Thirty-six years later, Shadi was killed in the Beirut Blast, where he was buried under a destroyed three storey building.

Hayat was watering the flowers in front of the nearby church and Shadi was visiting a friend nearby, when the explosion ravaged their neighborhood. Hayat’s daughter and neighbors ran to her rescue as she was thrown on the floor drenched in blood and directly took her to the hospital to treat the wounds caused by the shattered glass all over her head, chest and hands.

As soon as Hayat’s wounds were treated, a painful journey started in search of her son. Relentlessly, she toured the hospitals holding her son’s photo, hoping to find him among the wounded worried that he cannot provide his name being deaf. It was until the next day when the civil defense team found Shadi’s body under the wreckage of his friend Issam’s collapsed building.

Thanks to the ACT appeal funds, NCA is supporting IOCC to rehabilitate Hayat’s house. Hayat and Nancy have this house as their only shelter. The explosion caused damage to the ceiling and the walls, and broke the door and the windows of their house. But now, despite all her pain and sorrow, Hayat considers the support to be a gift from God. She was hesitant to believe that someone would come to help her till she met the engineers who visited her house to assess the damage. Then, in no time, the contractor started the work to ensure that the family house is ready before winter hits Beirut.

Super Typhoon Goni, referred to locally as Typhoon Rolly, made landfall in the municipality of Bato, Catanduanes province in the Philippines on 1 November 2020. Over 1.4 million people in five regions across Luzon were affected.

The typhoon made landfall as a category five storm and has been labelled the world’s strongest typhoon of 2020. Super Typhoon Goni followed the same path as Typhoon Quinta, which made landfall just five days prior, affecting 200,000 people, leaving 22 dead, and four people missing. A third typhoon (Atsani) has taken a slightly different path to Typhoon Goni and Quinta, is anticipated to make landfall in the Philippines in the next few days.

The typhoons caused rivers to overflow, flooding communities and putting the region in a state of crisis. As widespread infrastructure was destroyed, many towns have become difficult to access, leaving thousands of families in need of food, shelter, safe drinking water, and hygiene materials.

The situation is particularly dire for people with vulnerabilities, such as the elderly who left their homes for evacuation centres or temporary shelters, as the risk of transmission of COVID-19 in crowded spaces is high. 

ACT members are coordinating their response with other humanitarian actors and faith-based networks, such as NASSA/Caritas Philippines and the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches – PhilRADS. The ACT Philippines Forum is working on an appeal to provide immediate food and psychosocial support to the most affected.

More information on ACT’s response, including how you can help, will be provided shortly.

[PRESS RELEASE]

The Hundred Billion Dollar Climate Promise: Will it be kept?

Today the OECD published a report on the status of climate finance that has been mobilised by developed countries in relation to their commitment to deliver 100 bn USD annually by 2020. The report takes stock of funds that had been delivered by 2018, indicating that although there is a steady increase in funds, the goal of reaching 100 bn USD by 2020 is far away.

“The significance of delivering 100 bn USD annually by 2020 is not just about reaching an arbitrary number target. It is about saving lives, and preventing further suffering around the world. These funds are urgently needed to deliver action on the ground by people and communities in climate-vulnerable countries,” says Patriciah Roy Akullo, co-chair of ACT Alliance’s climate justice group.

The increase in funds reflected in the OECD report is to a large extent due to a growing number of loans, offered by multilateral development banks. While loans serve as an important source of support, they are very different from grants which do not have to be repaid.

“The 100 bn USD should serve its intended purpose – to support, not to add a burden of debt. The increase in finance reported would look rather different if it was just grants that counted towards the 100 bn USD,” says Mattias Söderberg, co-chair of ACT’s climate justice group.

“With the current approach, countries are delivering a large portion of climate finance as loans- which developing countries would have to pay back. As a result, we risk ending up with a situation where developed countries actually generate a profit from the support that they have committed to deliver. To say this is unfair is an understatement” continues Söderberg.

Apart from the commitment to deliver 100 bn USD annually, developed countries have also committed to balance the support that they provide for mitigation and adaptation initiatives. Despite this, the OECD report reveals that there is still a large focus on mitigation globally.

“It is difficult to continue to have faith in promises such as the 100bn USD commitment, or the balance of support for mitigation and adaptation, when countries are not taking concrete initiatives to deliver on their commitments. There is a huge need for an increase in adaptation finance, and this is even more critical given the additional challenges that communities face due to COVID,” says Söderberg.

Climate finance is a central element in the UN climate talks and disagreements on this topic is often identified as the reason for a lack of progress in the general negotiations.

“Climate finance is urgently needed to enable climate action. However, the fulfilment of commitments are also needed to build trust and confidence in the UN climate talks. Developed countries should deliver on their commitment to mobilize 100 bn USD by 2020. This climate promise must be kept,” concludes Akullo.

Media contacts

Mattias Söderberg co-chair of ACT Alliance Climate Justice Group | msd@dca.dk
Patriciah Roy Akullo, co-chair of ACT Alliance Climate Justice Group | prak@dca.dk
Joanna Patouris, ACT Alliance Climate Change Communicator & Coordinator Joanna.patouris@actalliance.org

Policy Brief

ACT Alliance’s Policy Brief: A Review of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through a Climate Lens  is now available for download in English and Spanish.

In 2015, the international community made an unprecedented set of commitments to pursuing a sustainable future through the adoption of the Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals as well as the Paris Agreement on limiting global warming to well below 2° Celsius. The world set course for a transition to low-carbon, climate-resilient societies and economies, with countries working toward common goals while focusing on their national circumstances, challenges, and opportunities. Adapting to climate change is a key objective of the two agendas. 

Climate change threatens many of humanity’s biggest achievements as well as its future goals as reflected in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Progress on SDG 13 on climate action is falling short of what is needed to meet the targets of the global agenda by 2030.

The brief explores various SDGs and presents a set of recommendations to strengthen the synergies between the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Adapted from story by Anglican Alliance/Elizabeth Perry.

ACT continues to build its influential network of faith-inspired climate justice advocates around the world. Through this network, ACT has been able to influence, inform and inspire climate action at the national and international level, while working to ensure that the needs and solutions of communities made vulnerable by climate change are taken into account, and responded to.

Through the support of ACT member, Brot für die Welt (BftW), ACT has begun the implementation of its new Climate Justice project, “Faith actors enhancing inclusive, ambitious and sustainable climate policy and action in accordance with the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals.”

One component of the Project brings ACT Alliance members and faith leaders together through multi-stakeholder dialogues in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) regions. 

“This series of dialogues has allowed ACT members and church leaders in Jordan to gather and share their stories, experiences, and solutions related to climate resilience, and to identify opportunities for collaboration and action. We also asked participants to share with us their reasons for taking action on climate change, and this helped us to understand some of the key concerns of our members and church leaders” said Rachel Luce, ACT’s MENA Regional Representative.

ACT’s Jordan office hosts first climate justice dialogue

The first dialogue was hosted by ACT Alliance’s MENA Region. Both because of COVID-19 travel restrictions and the different contexts within the region, this workshop exclusively focused on Jordan. Equivalent dialogues are due to take place in Palestine and Egypt later in the year. 

The Jordan climate justice dialogue was convened through a combination of in-person meetings (compliant with local COVID-19 rules) and online sessions, bringing together ACT members, church leaders, environmental NGOs, representatives of Jordan’s Ministry of the Environment, and others to discuss climate change in Jordan. Participants explored issues of loss and damage, adaptation and mitigation, identifying their common concerns, and specific actions that they could take on climate change.

“These dialogues helped us to catalyze greater climate ambition amongst ACT members and faith leaders in the MENA region as participants said that they previously identified Climate Justice as a secular issue. By the end of the dialogue, participants said that they understood the need for faith actors to take action on climate change in their context,” said Rachel Luce.

“The dialogue encouraged participants to explore issues of climate justice in ways that they had not before,” said Joel Kelling, ACT’s MENA region Climate Justice Working Group Chair. 

“One of the participants spoke about how they were used to the idea of creation care, but that the concept of climate justice was new to them,” he continued.

Bringing together various actors working on climate change in the region through the dialogues has the potential to strengthen relationships between ACT members and other local networks, “Some of the participants offered to provide additional capacity-building on climate change to clergy in Jordan. This is great for us, as the sharing of resources means that we do not have to replicate already existing materials,” said Joel. 

As climate change continues to threaten lives, livelihoods and all of creation, it is important that all of ACT’s membership joins the fight on climate change, and the multistakeholder dialogues present an opportunity to do so. 

“Climate change is one of the issues that bring ACT members in the region together, ACT’s MENA region will continue to mobilize and equip ourselves to contribute to tackling the injustices in our communities that are exacerbated by climate change,” said Rachel.