PRAYER OF INTERCESSION FOR THE 37TH ANNIVERSARY OF EDSA PEOPLE POWER REVOLUTION

Photo courtesy of Tatler Asia

On this 37th Anniversary of EDSA People Power Revolution in our country, the Council of Bishops of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines together with the entire Church’s leadership and constituency, bring to God the situation of our country through this Prayer of Intercession:

O God of compassionate love, we praise and thank You for sustaining us with your lifegiving breath and with the earth’s resources, your creation. We thank you for the rich heritage of faith as a people, A faith that is grounded on the highest hopes for abundant life, justice and peace.

We are grateful for the varying gifts you have endowed to your people,

for the invaluable knowledge and wisdom to grow plant foods; for the skill in raising livestock, poultry and other sources of food,
for the ingenuity in engineering and architecture to build secure homes and functional structures for the pursuance of services,
for the ability to run the economy of the nation and responsible management of material and cultural resources;
for the ministry of preaching, teaching and healing that manifest your concern and care for your people; liberating children, youth and adults from forces and systems that hold them captives and oppress them, and for healing of body and spirit.

Merciful God, you goaded your people of old from slavery in Egypt

to the land of promise where the earth’s resources were accessible;
where your people were taught what it means
to live in your love-justice-peace covenant.

However, their leaders failed miserably to institute

the egalitarian social life, to make social justice
the measure of their relationships, and peace a daily experience.

In the midst of oppression and injustice,

You called prophets to pronounce judgement on erring leaders
and prophesy the dawning of a new dispensation—
a peaceable and just social order,
where the poor and alienated are raised from the heaps of despair and hopelessness.

Look upon the Filipino nation, loving and compassionate God:

The historical experience that took place 37 years ago, was a monumental heritage of our people’s struggle against tyranny and assertion of people’s sovereign power for desirable, ethically responsible and accountable national leadership and sustainable social, political and economic change.

We are in deep remorse, that the Church has been adamant in asserting the ethical demands of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, our Savior in our society, where:

• Impoverishment of people based on 2021 official data records 3.1 million families were poor or 13.2% of the total population estimated at 20 million individuals;
• Food and basic necessities to live a healthy and secure life for every Filipino family have been too costly due to unprecedented inflation reaching to 8.1% in December 2002, posing threats to quality of life and health;
• Transportation cost and accessibility have been impacted by unabated price increase of fossil fuel and its by-products that further the diminution of peoples economic power;
• Daily wage has not been increased, lagging at Php. 538 per day and further eroded its value due to inflation to only Php. 508, while the livable wages for a family of 5 is Php. 1,161;
• Lack of security of tenure for workers, where 8 out 10 workers are in informal work arrangement whether job order, contractual, self-employed, and others that diminish workers’ rights for decent and secure jobs;
• There is wide wealth disparity in the country, where the median wealth is pegged at Php.140,000 per month which simply shows that more than 50% of the population does not have that economic power, and only 0.1% of the families have monthly income ranging from Php.350,000 to 10 million;
• There are many other concerns and challenges that our people have to face and confront with which the present government has to appropriately respond and solve as the administrator of people’s wellbeing and welfare.

Loving Sustainer God, we pray for our national government that this may truly serve the Filipino people as pledged and as prescribed in the nation’s Constitution. May the restoration of genuine democracy, respect for human dignity and human rights, institute justice as a measure of your divine love, and make tenable peace a conscious goal that removes the root causes of unrest and restrain the State’s aggressive stances on its own people.

Our Redeemer God, make real your saving acts in the lives of our poor, oppressed and marginalized people. May the Filipino people forge greater unity transcending economic, political, social and cultural barriers and work towards the realization of a just, compassionate and peaceful country. May the historical heritage of the EDSA People Power Revolution will be lived-out by the present and future generations. AMEN.

THE COUNCIL OF BISHOPS
25 February 2023