Mindanao Catholic bishop condemns desecration of chapel by BIFF

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines — Mindanao’s top Catholic parochial leader on Saturday condemned the desecration by Moro bandits of a chapel in Barangay Malagakit in Pigcayawan town last Wednesday.

Orlando Cardinal Quevedo, concurrent archbishop of the Cotabato Diocese, branded the act “wicked" and said it should not happen again.

Members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters destroyed the religious icons and vital fixtures in the chapel in Barangay Malagakit as they laid siege there for nine hours on Wednesday.

The BIFF, which splintered from the MILF in 2010, is claiming allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and is known for espousing the persecution of Christians and moderate Muslims who disagree with its extreme interpretations of teachings in the Qur'an.

The bandits also robbed houses and stores in Barangay Malagakit whose owners they forced to leave at gunpoint.

“As the leader of the Archdiocese of Cotabato, I condemn in the strongest terms possible the wicked desecration of the Catholic Chapel of Malagakit in the parish of Pigcawayan and most especially of the Sacred Hosts that were kept there for the Catholic faithful,” Quevedo said.

He said desecration of any Islamic worship sites should be prevented at all cost too.

“If the BIFF wants to have an image as a `respecter’ of all religions, it must punish its members who perpetrated the odious desecration in Malagakit and educate all its members in strictly respecting other religions,” said Quevedo, who belong to the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) congregation.

The OMI, whose pontifical base is in Rome, is a staunch supporter of the Mindanao peace process, which aims to put a negotiated closure to the now decades-old Mindanao Moro issue.

“I enjoin the Catholic faithful of Malagakit to restore the sacredness of their chapel and ask all the faithful of the Archdiocese to pray for peace and harmony among all believers of different religions,” Quevedo said.

Christians in Pigcawayan earlier said they will not let the destruction by BIFF bandits of the Catholic chapel in Barangay Malagakit divide them and their Muslim neighbors.  

Catholics in the municipality are certain that the chapel was deliberately vandalized to sow animosity between them and the local Muslims.

“That was meant to sow anger among us. We will not respond the way the BIFF want us to respond to that despicable act,” said Salvador Almonia, Jr., chairman of Barangay Malagakit.

BIFF gunmen used hammers in destroying the religious icons and fixtures in the chapel, not too distant from a public school which another group of bandits ransacked and looted.

The gunmen even raised on a flagpole a Philippine flag inverted, red flap on top.They also destroyed portraits of President Rodrigo Duterte that they found in the classrooms.

North Cotabato Vice Gov. Shirlyn Macasarte-Villanueva, a member of the provincial peace and order council, has urged Muslim and Christian residents of Pigcawayan’s adjoining Barangays Malagakit and Simsiman to disregard obvious attempts to wedge their solidarity.