The Redemptorists Vice Province in its public statement declared that it welcomes the Lumads in the National Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help in Baclaran. The Lumads who sought sanctuary at the shrine numbered more than 700. The Lumads have been driven out of their lands in Mindanao, south of the Philippines because of intense militarization. A number of their leaders have been killed and their harsh harassment still continues to this day.
The statement further declares:
“We give our loving embrace to the Lumads and all other indigenous peoples of our country the Philippines, and we support their rightful claim for their ancestral domain, their indigenous ways of sharing our natural resources and their respect and protection of the environment. Their culture is overflowing with divine presence, with life, nurture and concern for others. We detest and keep on repeating our condemnation of the killings of the indigenous people. Such monstrous crime is an offense to God, the author of life, and will never fit with a civilization that knows the sacred values of justice and reason.”
