30/08/2026
๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐
124th Proclamation Anniversary
๐๐๐, ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐๐ป๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ ๐๐ฟ๐ด๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐๐ผ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ป๐ณ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ป๐ โ๐๐๐ฎ๐๐ฒ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐ป๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฒโ
MANILA โ The Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) was proclaimed by striking workers 124 years ago not in a sanctuary removed from the world, but among a people struggling to change it.
That history hung over an Ecumenical Liturgical Forum on Aug. 3, where IFI and its ecumenical partners confronted an uncomfortable question: What does it mean to speak of peace amid unpeace?
The forum, โCome, Let Us Reason Together: An Ecumenical Liturgical Forum on the Growing State of Unpeace in the Philippines,โ brought together leaders and partners of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) and IFI, one of its member-churches.
Two speakers approached the question from different directions but arrived at a similar challenge.
IFI theologian Very Rev. Dr. Eleuterio J. Revollido, rector and academic dean of the Aglipay Central Theological Seminary, turned to the prophets and the biblical meaning of peace. Rosario Bella Guzman, executive director of the nonprofit research and development institution IBON Foundation, turned to the economic and political realities confronting ordinary Filipinos.
Between Scripture and statistics emerged a common warning: It is possible to speak constantly of peace and still have very little of it.
โ๐ฃ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฒ, ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฒโ
Rev. Revollido began with Isaiahโs invitation: โCome now, let us reason togetherโ (Isaiah 1:18).
The words, he reminded the gathering, did not emerge from a peaceful society. Isaiah spoke amid corruption and injustice, calling the people to seek justice, rescue the oppressed and defend the vulnerable.
Then came Jeremiahโs warning: of declaring โโPeace, peace,โ when there was no peaceโ (Jeremiah 6:14).
For Rev. Revollido, this was more than an ancient contradiction.
He noted that peace, or โshalom,โ was not simply the absence of conflict but wholeness, right relationships, human dignity, the well-being of communities and harmony with Creation โ ideals that could not simply be declared into existence.
The Churchโs task, in the current context, was โbeyond reflection toward immersion, beyond charity toward justice, beyond neutrality toward faithful discipleship, and beyond comfortable religion toward costly obedience,โ he said.
The Church, Rev. Revollido warned, must never become โa chaplain to injustice.โ
๐จ๐ป๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐ฏ๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ป๐๐บ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐
If Rev. Revollido described the moral and theological dimensions of unpeace, Guzman supplied some of its numbers.
The Philippine economy, she said, was producing growth without necessarily producing security.
Her presentation cited evidence that the Philippine economy was crashing.
She noted a 4.8 percent unemployment rate in May 2026 โ representing about 2.5 million jobless Filipinos. She also said that four out of five employed Filipinos were in informal work and that millions continued to describe themselves as poor or experience involuntary hunger.
The contradiction was difficult to miss, she said: The economy could grow while people remained hungry; development could accelerate while communities became more vulnerable.
This led Guzman to the question running through much of her presentation: โWho, exactly, is getting richer?โ
Her answer pointed toward the countryโs economic oligarchs and the policies that continue to concentrate wealth and opportunity in the hands of a few.
She criticized privatization, liberalization and incentives for foreign and large-scale investment, arguing that these increasingly opened public resources, land and essential services to powerful economic interests.
Among the developments she cited were greater foreign participation in renewable-energy projects, longer foreign land leases, infrastructure projects and public-private partnerships.
The language of development, Guzman suggested, could obscure another story: one in which benefits accumulated upward while insecurity remained below.
๐ ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐บ๐๐๐ ๐ฏ๐ฒ ๐บ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฒ
Guzman also raised concerns about the direction of the countryโs economy and politics, including the Luzon Economic Corridor, accelerated infrastructure and right-of-way projects, renewable-energy developments and the proposed Pax Silica project in Central Luzon.
She questioned the countryโs growing economic and strategic dependence on external interests, particularly as the Philippines deepened its relationship with the United States.
Here, the two presentations began to meet.
Rev. Revollido had asked what peace meant when justice was absent. Guzman showed some of the structures through which that absence was reproduced.
The forum did not end with an easy definition of peace: Peace is not simply the absence of war; the quiet imposed on people who have legitimate reasons to protest; or an economy that claims to grow while millions remain poor.
In different ways, Rev. Revollido and Guzman returned the forum to Jeremiahโs warning: A society can speak of peace while leaving untouched the conditions that make peace impossible.
For a Church proclaimed by workers in the middle of the Filipino peopleโs struggle for dignity and self-determination, the warning carried particular weight.
Exactly 124 years later, the challenge remains: to reason together, listen to the people, name injustice honestly and stand where human dignity is threatened.
Because peace, the forum suggested, was not made by looking away from conflict. It began by confronting what made peace impossible.
