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NCCP Statement on the Release of Pastor Berlin Guerrero
The National Council of Churches in the Philippines shares the jubilation on the release of Pastor Berlin Guerrero. We greet Berlin’s parents, his family, the UCCP household and all the people who rejoice when justice casts a drop of water on the parched lips of victims unjustly wronged. We commend the Court of Appeals for conducting the hearing with dispatch.
There are lessons to be affirmed following the illegal arrest and 15-months incarceration of Pastor Berlin. Among them are the importance of resilience and endurance, the necessity of common prayer and action and the undying faith in the unquenchable aspiration of the people for freedom.
Each time peace and human rights advocates are released from prison the truth is affirmed and falsehood and wrong are exposed. Each time prophetic voices break free from their chains, those who slander and cause suffering to the lowly are identified. Every suffering brought upon those who struggle for peace and justice is a defiance of the cowardly and the sycophants—an indictment of the powers and principalities who cause misery to others as their bellies have become their gods.
While we rejoice that Pastor Berlin is out from the prison cell, this is also a reminder that many of us are yet in prison because this country has not yet experienced genuine freedom. So many are hungry and angry, so many are landless and poor, so many are oppressed and suffering. All these and those yet in the four-walled prison cells are not faceless people. They are the face of Jesus Christ.
May Pastor Berlin be a living exhortation from the Master to all of us to remain courageous and steadfast in the quest for peace and justice.
(Signed) Rev. REX RB REYES, JR.
General Secretary
National Council of Churches in the Philippines
September 16, 2008
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