Killings of Chruch Lay Ministers
For immediate release: 30 June 2010 The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has denounced the extrajudicial killings of Benjamin Bayles and Jovelito Agustin, both lay ministers of the Philippine Independent Church. In a 29 June letter to President-elect Benigno Aquino III, Tveit urged "the Philippines government to keep its commitment to international human rights instruments and put an end to the killings and to the culture of impunity by prosecuting the perpetrators and granting justice to the victims of human rights violations". Aquino is being inaugurated today. He succeeds Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Bayles and Agustin were "active lay ministers, known in their churches as outspoken advocates of human dignity and of the rights of the most marginalized", Tveit stated. Bayles, a human rights advocate, and Agustin, a broadcaster who defended workers' rights, were murdered by suspected paramilitary groups on 14 and 15 ...