Good News in the Philippines

by Lawrence D. Pratt
In the Philippines the gospel is
changing the lives of huge numbers of
people who in turn are changing the
course of their country's history.
This April I had an opportunity to
visit the Philippines. Officially, I was
there on business to report on the condi-
tion of the armed civilian self-defense
organizations that have sprung up
throughout the islands in the last year
or two.
Unofficially, I was there to make o n ~
tact with Christian leaders and observe
the impact of believers in that war-tom
country. What I saw gives glory to
God.
A new president in February, 1986,
replaced the corruption-ridden dictator-
ship of Ferdinand Marcos as the result
of concentrated days of national prayer.
A revitalized military is headed by out-
spoken Christians who are making their
mark in that institution. Pastors who
had been uninvolved outside of their pul-
pits are now in the forefront of ex-
posing the deceptions of Communism
from the light of Scripture.
With all of its poverty, factional poli-
tical disputes and problems left over
from the Marcos period, the Philippines
is a land of hope and opportunity. It is
, a land where the fields are truly ripe un-
CTWIN LENS PHOI'O 1!>86 AIL RIGHTS RESERVED
Larry Pratt is a former member of
the Virginia House of Delegates. He
is presently President of Committee
to Protect the Family, Executive Di-
rector of Gun Owners of America,
1
Vice-Chairman of American Institute
for Cancer Research, Secretary of
the Council for Inter-American Se-
curity, and an Elder in the Harvester
;r>resfiyterian Church (PCA) in
SJ?ringfield, Virginia. He and his
wife, the former Priscilla Linares of
Panama, have four children.
to harvest.
I was given a briefing by Brigadier
General Honesto Isleta dealing with the
armed civilian self-defense organiza-
tions. General Isleta is the officer in
charge of the counter-insurgency cam-
paign against the communists in the
Philippines.
I noticed things in Isleta's office I had
not expected to see. On the wall behind
his chair is a picture of his classmate,
General Fidel Ramos, the current Minis-
ter of Defense. Above Ramos' picture i$
a photograph of President Corazon
Aquino. Above both pictures is a sign
the General had made up reading: "Jesus
is Lord."
In reply to a comment about the
sign, Isleta referred to Romans 13 in ex-
plaining that sovereignty comes from
God, and that the Defense Minister was
under the President whose authority in
tum was derived from God to whom
they are all accountable.
Hard by the door into General Isleta's
office was a six-foot long table com-
pletely covered with Christian tracts and
pamphlets explaining, among other
things, how to be born again.
Rev. Jun Veneer, President of the
Philippine Council of Evangelical
Churches (PCEC), told me that church
growth has been strong since 1898
when the Spanish gave up control of
the Philippines. This has occurred in
the face of persecution which in recent
years has primarily come from guerrilla
attacks on churches and pastors carried
out by the communist New People's
Army (NPA).
Veneer reports that in 1987, of the
44 member groups in his organization,
164 churches were reported to have been
closed and an equal number to have
been "taxed" by the NPA. The commun-
ist guerrillas have ordered 81 pastors to
stop preaching and have told 106
churches to stop holding home Bible
studies.
Through March of this year, 34 pas-
tors had been killed and 25 had been
kidnapped. The rural areas are the tough-
est because the presence of the govern-
ment is the weakest there. No wonder
that in 1987, the PCEC annual con-
ference addressed the topic of ministry
in the face of pressures.
A New Era with Aquino
Many people give nearly identical ac-
counts of the 1986 revolution that de-
posed Marcos and led to the Aquino pre-
sidency. Politics increasi:ngly centered
on palace intrigues under the tumul-
tuous days of the waning Marcos dicta-
torship. These entanglements had spread
to the military and had made it increas-
ingly ineffective in the face of a mount-
ing challenge from the NP A.
When the EDSA Revolution (named
after the connecting boulevard between
the presidential palace and the military
headquarters) broke out in February,
1986 the EDSA filled up with as many
as two million people. The military
was uncertain about what to do.
The people were fraternizing with the
soldiers, particularly where the con-
frontation could be the most direct: all
along EDSA. Troops loyal to Marcos
were largely thwarted by the spon-
taneous popular outpouring. For four
days this standoff continued during
which time people all along EDSA and
throughout the country were praying.
Not one crime was reported in Manila
during those four days.
The Tension peaked during a flight of
attack helicopters headed toward rebel
positions commanded by officers such.
as Generals Isleta and Ramos. Isleta
told me that he had been praying Psalm
91 during this time which promises
God's protection, such as: "You shall
not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor
of the arrow that flies by day" [Psalm
The Counsel of Chalcedon, August, 1988 --------------------------------------------------------PageS
91:5(a)]. Five minutes later, the heli-
copters put down without attacking, ef-
fectively ending the last possibility of
civil war. Isleta told me that he later
learned that Ramos had been praying
the same Psalm at the very same time.
There seems to be little challenge to
the legitimacy of the Aquino presi-
dency. Corazon Aquino seems to be
enormously popular throughout the pop-
ulation. One of the things that has
most discredited the NP A with its con-
stant barrage of terrorism has been
Aquino's popularity. The NPA had
justified its call to arms and its extor-
tion and murder of non-combatants by
pointing to the Marcos dictatorship.
The NP A, however, has not let up one
bit since the installation of the popular-
ly elected Aquino government.
The Gospel Offensive
Davao, on the southern island of Min- .
danao, is the Philippines' second largest
city. Even though the threat of Muslim
terrorists has largely subsided, the NP A
counted Davao as its most successful ur-
ban laboratory until 1987. The NPA's
high-water mark of control nationally,
to one degree or another, was 69 of the
73 provinces of the Philippines. Davao
illustrates why the NP A is in retreat
throughout the country.
A spiritual dimension unites the
three main elements of successful count-
er insurgency in Davao (and in all of
the Philippines). The military com-
. mander of the region is Col. Franco
Calida who sports two prominent sym-
bols in his office: A Bible on his desk
and a picture of Rambo on his wall.
Calida claims to have a personal rela-
tionship with Jesus Christ, a testimony
affirmed by Christians living in Davao.
Calida is also credited with having pro-
vided the military leadership in blunting
the NP A assault against Davao.
The Alsa Masa (rising of the people)
is the foremost armed civilian self-
defense organization. It was organized
by the people to provide protection
from NP A extortion and attack that the
government could not provide, even un-
der the improved conditions of the post-
Marcos era. The :Philippines has 7200
islands with 42,000 villages, making
100 percent protection an impossibili-
ty.
Christians in Davao reported that
formation of the Alsa Masa was pre-
ceded by much prayer and fasting. In
fact, Christians were active in setting
up the Alsa Masa and other similar
groups. (Some self-defense groups were
not blessed with Christian influence,
and as a result, there have been isolated
episodes of vigilante activity.)
The Enemy the
Communists Cannot Kill
When the NPA assassinated Pastor
Ben Maglinte's second associate pastor,
he concluded that he might be next.
Maglinte went to the other Bible-be-
lieving pastors in the Davao area and
told them that he was probably the next
one on the NP A hit list, but that they
P ~ e -------------------------------------------------
were likely to be targeted soon after be-
cause they were also preaching the gos-
pel, not liberation theology.
Liberation theology has permeated
much of the Catholic church as well as
some protestant denominations and has
been a particular problem in the Philip-
pines. In a nutshell it has used Biblical
sounding words to give the hatred fos-
tered by Marxism the appearance of
Christian love. The result has been to
produce a self-righteousness among its
adherents that allows them to justify
theft and murder in the name of Christ.
Maglinte succeeded in organizing the
pastors into a non-doctrinal group for
the purpose of preaching the gospel and
exposing the lies of communism from
the light of Scripture. Sometimes the
day-long seminars that these pastors
hold can be reached only with a security
force provided by the Armed Forces of
the Philippines (AFP) to protect them
from attack.
The result of Maglinte's work has
been awesome. An entire region of
Mindanao around the city of Davao has
been converted from an area under com-
munist control to one in which life has
largely returned to normal.
The pastors continue to preach and
teach in an ever-expanding zone through-
out the island. In addition to church
groups and the general public, the pas-
tors have organized seminars specifical-
ly for teachers so they will be equipped
to teach the school children the same in-
formation.
Christians against Christians
On the island of Cebu, I met with
Jun Alcover. Alcover is an ex-com-
munist who has heard personally the
head of the Communist Party of the
Philippines (CPP), iose Sison, give
fund-raising speeches in Australia
before Catholic church. groups. The
money so collected is directed to the
Philippines through groups that are
supposedly dealing with poverty or
victims of military abuse, but in fact,
the funds end up in the hands of the
CPP.
The French magazine, Le Figaro, ran
a story on March 12, 1988, on the in-
vestigative reporting of a couple of
The Counsel of Chalcedon, August, 1988
French researchers who found that the
French Catholic Committee against
Hunger and for Development has do-
nated funds to organizations in the
Philippines which were controlled or
strongly influenced by the National
Democratic Front (a communist front
group), the CPP or others. The authors
were sued by the Catholic Committee
for libel, but the suit was defeated in
court.
Pastor Maglinte told me of the des-
perate need he and his fellow pastors
have for funds to buy paper, mimeo
machines and literature for their work.
Their organization is called CALCOM
(Christian Action to Love Communists
[but hate communism]). Contributions
can be sent by checks made out to
CALCOM, % Pastor Ben Maglinte,
Bible Baptist Church, Plan. Rd. Dabio
Toril, Davao, Mindanao, Republic of
the Philippines.
More Christian Soldiers
The situation was much the saQJ.e
elsewhere in the Philippines. In Cebu,
in addition to the pastors who are faith-
fully preaching the gospel, the Colonel
in charge of the island for Gen. Isleta,
Apolinario Castano, speaks openly of
the need for the peace of Jesus Christ.
Castano, a joyful man whose speech is
effortlessly sprinkled with Scripture, is
often heard on radio in Cebu exposing
the fallacies of liberation theology and
of Marxism.
Castano's adjutant's office is headed
by an officer who routinely applies
Matthew 18 to conflict resolution
among the military as well as among
the people of the region. If the adver-
saries are not Christian, then it is ex-
plained to them that Matthew 18 will
not be helpful to them unless they
know Jesus Christ, and they are shown
how they can know Him.
In the island of Negros Occidental
~ h e r e the war still rages in open battle,
Pastor Salustiano Cabahug speaks of
the church triumphant in history. He is
,entitled to that view, having been the
leader of an embattled church for many
,years in the city of Bacolod. Cabahug
'pastors the Community Evangelical
Church, formerly associated with the
, T ~ e Counsel of Chalcedon, August, 1988
American Baptist Convention.
Cabahug's 1700 member church has
sponsored the establishment of 10
daughter churches around the perimeter
of Bacolod with another 1000 members.
In addition, Cabahug's Bible College
has trained the 27 pastors that the
Community Church has sponsored up
in the mountains. They used to have
28, but one was killed by the NP A. At
the annual conferences Cabahug gets to
hear the inspiring accounts of the
bravery of these mountain pastors
whose sole concern has been to preach
the gospel with the confidence of
Romans 8:38: "Yet in all these things
we are more than conquerors through
Him who loved us."
The Future Belongs to God
There is a great deal of interest in
Christianity on the campus and among
young professionals in the Philippines.
For example, movie theaters in Makati,
the modem business district of Manila,
have been taken over as worship cen-
ters.
One of the groups in the forefront of
this spiritual offensive is Maranatha
Christian Fellowship. In a few short
years they have built large congrega-
tions in the university belt of Manila
and in Makati. They are now spreading
their work to university centers in other
cities of the Philippines.
Maranatha is training the future lead-
ers of the Philippines to have a faithful
Growing Christian School
in the Appalachian Mountains
of Southwest Virginia needs
a First Grade teacher who will
aim to provide a God-centered
education in the claSsroom
to 15 - 20 students, for the
1988 89 school year.
Byron Snapp
Headmaster
Covenant Christian School
P.O. Box 871
Cedar Bluff, Virginia 24609
(703) 964-5222
Christian walk in whatever profession
God has called them. And they are not
just taking the sheep from other flocks
to build up their own. A not unusual
testimony is that of one of Maranatha's
active lay evangelists, a student leader
in Dagupan, Renata Fernandez, who be-
fore becoming a Christian had been a
leader in the communist student group.
Fernandez has turned away from his pro-
clamation of bloody revolution to pro"
claiming the praises of Him who called
Fernandez out of darkness into His mar-
velous light.
Readers of The Counsel of Chalcedon
will be interested to learn that Mara-
natha in the Philippines is using a
video tape series by Rev. Joe Morecraft
in their Sunday school in Manila.
Morecraft has never traveled to the
Philippines, but his ideas are helping
teach Philippine university students and
young professionals by means of mo-
dem technology.
The spiritual awakening occurring in
the Philippines is incomprehensible to
the communists who assume the
spiritual dimension of man to be irrele-
vant. They may never know why their
apparatus, so painstakingly built up
over many years, faces what could be a
steady, and even rapid, collapse. The
next two years are not likely to be good
ones for being a communist in the
Philippines, but there is no doubt that
they will be a great time for the Chris-
tians. D
Did you know there were two 12th presidents of the United States? Zachary Taylor
was one. The other was president for one day. Who mtS the other? See page 16.
..... ~ ~ Page7