MINDANAO, Philippines, August 6, 2019 (Morning Star News) – Following the killing of a pastor on the Island of Mindanao on Friday, church leaders in the Philippines decried an alleged increase in attacks on Christian human rights defenders since the start of the Rodrigo Duterte administration in 2016.
Pastor Ernesto Javier Estrella of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) in Antipas, Cotabato Province, was gunned down on Friday morning (Aug. 2). He was 51.
While the motive of the killing was not yet established, police are reportedly trying to determine if it was linked to Pastor Estrella’s alleged ties with left-leaning groups. His wife told local journalists her husband had no enemies.
Pastor Estrella was on his motorcycle heading towards Magsaysay at 7:15 a.m. when two gunmen, also on motorcycles, approached and shot him several times, according to local press reports. Local health authorities declared him dead at the site.
Following his death, the Ecumenical Bishops Forum (EBF) condemned the “ideology of death” that they said perpetrated harassment and killing of Christians.
“The number of violent attacks against Christian human rights defenders has alarmingly increased in the three years of President Rodrigo Duterte’s government,” the statement read. “His avowed contempt for human rights has provided the institutional…
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