The National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) said while the community pantries show the Filipino people’s propensity for mercy and charity, it is also an indictment of the lack or failure of government to adequately support the people in this time of desperation.
Bishop Reuel Norman Marigza, NCCP General Secretary said, it is regrettable that instead of encouragement, the community pantries are unnecessarily vilified and red-tagged by authorities.
"These cases of red-tagging and harassment show why the Bill to criminalize red-tagging proposed by Sen. Franklin Drilon, should be a priority,” he said in a statement on Thursday, April 22.
Marigza stressed:"Loving your neighbor by feeding the poor and our prophetic witness is not a crime."
He added that the community pantries show not only Christian values but also that of other faiths as well, for care and compassion to the least of our sisters and brothers.
"Despite the fact that the government has billions of resources from people’s taxes, we have to look out for each other, not only by supporting these community pantries but also by standing alongside the majority at a time when the government is most negligent and most unloving," Marigza said.
""It is now, more than ever, that we need to lift up our voice and make concrete actions without fear!” he added.
Marigza then called on their member churches to either put community pantries in local churches and parishes or to make donations to existing ones in their communities.
"The community pantries should be supported and emulated everywhere," he said.
The NCCP official added that community pantries that sprung up in many parts of the country are “exemplars of Jesus Christ’s admonition to love our neighbor."