TOP American church leaders are asking the United States Congress to limit to $11.1 million the 2008 military assistance to the Philippines and to attach human rights-related preconditions to the entire aid package.

A US bicameral budget committee will meet this week to finalize the 2008 US appropriations bill and reconcile the two houses’ versions.

In a letter dated Dec. 3, 2007, over 200 leaders from the religious, labor and activist sectors told US congressmen and senators that any increase in military aid to the Arroyo government "sends a message that the US government supports the Philippine military’s counter-insurgency strategy cited by the UN special rapporteur as the cause of many serious human rights abuses.

"We are sending this letter at a crucial moment. The last thing we need is an escalation in US military aid to the increasingly repressive government of the Philippines. People of faith are deeply disturbed by the human rights violations taking place under the leadership of President Arroyo," said Jim Winkler, general-secretary of the United Methodist Church board of church and society.

Citing UN special rapporteur Philip Alston’s findings that the Philippine military "hunted down and killed activists," and that the Arroyo government has been unable to convict one perpetrator of over 400 extrajudicial slays, the church leaders said that aid to the Philippines should be "no more than $11.1 million".

They urged that "all of the military aid should be conditioned on the State Department reports" on the Philippine human rights situation and on the monitoring on how the funds are used.

Last Sept., the US Senate imposed human rights preconditions on $2 million in additional military aid, the first such US aid-linked sanction on the Arroyo government.

The letter, which was initiated by the Ecumenical Action Network, asked the solons to seriously reconsider a Senate proposal to increase Philippine aid by $19 million, up from the $11.1 million requested by the State Department.

Leading signatories to the letter were Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick of the Presbyterian Church general assembly; Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church; Rev. John Thomas, general minister of the United Church of Christ; Rev. William Sinkford, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations; and Bishop Roy Sano, executive secretary of the United Methodist Church Council of Bishops.

Andrew Stern, president of the 1.9 million-strong Service Employees International Union; former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark; former US Rep. Bob Edgar; Bama Atherya, executive director of the International Labor Rights Forum; and historian Dr. Howard Zinn.

Rev. James Kofski of the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns in Washington DC, noted that "there is no incentive to investigate alleged human rights abuses when the US gives the Philippines unconditional military aid."

Rev. Larry Emery of the Community Presbyterian Church in Walnut Grove, California, also noted that the Arroyo government "has already expressed that the bill in its present form is a vindication of the Philippine military," referring to claims made last month by Malacañang and the Department of Foreign Affairs that the aid hike reaffirms US faith in Arroyo’s human rights record.

"It is a moral imperative that the American government ensure that it does not have blood on its hands," Emery said, "by giving military aid to those who would kill and abuse innocent, unarmed citizens."

It also reminded US legislators that the Freedom House 2007 survey has downgraded its rating for the Philippines from "free" to "partly free" due to "minimal concrete steps to reduce extrajudicial killings . . . [and] doubts as to whether the perpetrators would be held accountable under Arroyo, who remained heavily dependent on military support to stay in power."

A number of Filipino-Americans also signed the letter, including Jon Melegrito, of the National Federation of Filipino-American Associations, Jerry Clarito of the group Filipino Civil Rights Advocates, Katrina Abacar of the Katarungan Committee, and Julia Camagong of the Philippine Forum. – Anthony Ian Cruz