Christians in Jolo taking up arms for ‘self-defense’ —bishop

Some members of minority Christian communities in Jolo are taking up arms to protect themselves, a Mindanao bishop said Thursday in Cebu City.

An article posted on the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines news site quoted Bishop Angelito Lampon of the Vicariate of Jolo as saying that the militant organization Red God Soldiers (RGS) may have grown out of frustration and fear.

In Jolo, Christians are a minority and RGS members are arming themselves against extremists in Southern Philippines because they are getting increasingly “desperate,” Lampon said.

“This is a kind of desperate attempt by these Christians who are being attacked now and then by these armed groups,” said the bishop who is in Cebu for the bishops’ plenary assembly and the International Eucharistic Congress.

He claimed that some 300 RGS members last Tuesday showed off their firearms and vowed to drive Moro renegades from their communities.

They also burned a flag of the Islamic State and condemned recent attacks by the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a splinter group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), he added.

“If the government troops can defend civilians whether they are Muslims or Christians, then I think it will not come to this ... if only there’s enough security for them, I think they will not take up arms. But if they feel helpless, I guess it’s their form of self-defense,” Lampon said. — LBG, GMA News