The World Council of Churches has joined with the United Methodist Church in appealing for the Philippines Government to allow three young missionaries to leave the country.
The WCC says the three – Zimbabwean Tawanda Chandiwana, Malawian Miracle Osmond, and US citizen Adam Shaw – have “exhausted all legal and diplomatic efforts” as they attempt to leave the country under differing circumstances.
Mr Chandiwana, in the country for two years as part of the United Methodist Church General Board of Global Ministries’s Global Mission Fellows program, was detained on 8th May in Davao City and transferred to a detention centre on 4th June, according to the WCC. He was initially charged with overstaying his missionary visa and was in the process of changing his status to a tourist visa as he neared the end of his mission service. His name was also found on a watchlist.
Ms Osmond, a missionary who was formerly part of the Global Mission Fellows program, had her passport confiscated while in the process of renewing her missionary visa and also appears to be included on a watchlist, said the WCC. And Mr Shaw, who was also formerly part of the Global Mission Fellows Program, has been ordered to leave the country and placed on a watchlist but been unable to obtain an exit clearance certificate.
Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, joined in calls for the three to be allowed to leave.
“The WCC has expressed alarm and outrage at the worsening human rights situation and increasing violence in the Philippines,” he added. “We decry the illegal arrests, extrajudicial killings, large-scale forcible displacement of Indigenous Peoples, and damage to schools since martial law was imposed in May 2017.”
His comments follow similar comments from the WCC Central Committee made last week calling for an end to the “culture of impunity” in the country.
