Media release
July 2, 2025
On June 27 and 28, over 70 people of faith, members of the clergy, and human rights activists from 13 countries in Asia, Europe, and the Americas gathered in Rome, Italy for Pagtatanim: Sowing Seeds of Faith Solidarity for the Filipino People’s Struggle for Peace.
Over the two days of the conference, speakers and participants emphasized the urgent need for solidarity from communities of faith during the current political moment. As participants stated in the conference declaration, “Like many, we journeyed to Rome from around the World to reflect on the essence of Leviticus 25, which speaks of the Year of the Lord, the Jubilee. We find hope and inspiration that every 50 years, God commanded the people to liberate all slaves, cancel all debts, let everyone return to their ancestral lands, and let the land be renewed.”
During the keynote panel, Bishop Gerardo Alminaza, Vice-president of Catholic organization Caritas, emphasized faith communities’ duty to “accompany those under threat, listing political prisoners, searching for the disappeared, [and] advocating for peace talks, not surrender.” Drawing on the biblical concept of Jubilee, he envisioned peace as comprehensive restoration: “return land, forgive deaths, and set captives free.” He connected this to the Catholic Church’s Jubilee Year 2025, themed “Hope”, as an opportunity to “plant seeds of justice” even in hostile environments.
Throughout Pagtatanim, attendees heard from survivors and witnesses of human rights violations, war crimes, and environmental destruction in the Philippines. Whether highlighting former President Rodrigo Duterte’s legacy of thousands of extrajudicial killings under his infamous “war on drugs;” current President Marcos Jr.’s practice of selling out Philippine land, labor, and resources to the highest international bidder; or the harassment, detention, and enforced disappearance of environmental advocates and faith activists; all of them spoke of the culture of “unpeace” that flourishes in the Philippines today with the support of global powers like the US, Canada, and Australia.
Unpeace, as explained by human rights advocate and member of human rights alliance Karapatan, Charmane Maranan, is repression as law. It is the normalization of violence, the criminalization of resistance and critical thought, and the adoption of policies that obscure the soft invasion of the Philippines by the US behind a smokescreen of talk about “development” and “protection from China.” “It is the language of repression,” stated Maranan.
A just and lasting peace, the panelists and speakers explained, would not simply constitute the silencing of the guns. Instead, a just peace would resolve the longstanding socioeconomic roots of the armed conflict between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).
Coni Ledesma, a member of the NDFP Negotiating Panel, outlined the framework for peace negotiations between the Philippine government and the NDFP, the systematic attacks on peace consultants, and the challenges they are facing in her speech. “The GRP has used every occasion to stop, to terminate, to suspend, to terminate anything so that the process does not move forward,” Ledesma explained.
The imperative and history of international solidarity with the Filipino people’s struggle was deepened on the second day with the testimonies of advocates from Catalonia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Australia, and the US. “We are also peoples of faith supporting an existing people’s movement that has continued to persist and persevere to struggle against the roadblocks to peace, and we remain committed to supporting the Filipino people’s struggle to remove these roadblocks.”
Conference participants committed to action after two days of transformative presentations, panels, and workshops. “With renewed commitment we will help plant, nurture, and harvest justice in the Philippines by addressing the root causes of unpeace. Thus, we pledge to:
- Organize theological reflections on JustPeace tied to real campaigns.
- Advocate for an end to US foreign military aid used for repression.
- Accompany vulnerable communities, human rights defenders, and church workers.
- Push for the release of political prisoners, and support displaced peoples and the families of the disappeared.
- Join ecumenical “Push Back” campaigns to defend the oppressed and stop red-tagging.
- Continue to accompany the families of victims of the “drug war” and support the movement for accountability and justice.”
