Philippines boots Ohio missionary

MANILA — The Philippines on Wednesday deported a U.S. missionary found to have engaged in “political activities,” but two of his colleagues, both Africans, were waiting for their fates to be decided by the government.

The missionary, Adam Shaw, of Brunswick, Ohio, was headed to Cleveland to be reunited with his family Wednesday night, said Thomas Kemper, the head of Global Ministries, an agency of the United Methodist Church that is in charge of its missions program.

“Adam Shaw has left the Philippines,” Kemper said.

Kemper said he was meeting with local United Methodist Church workers and lawyers to speed up the release and deportation of Shaw’s two colleagues — Tawanda Chandiwana of Zimbabwe and Miracle Osman of Malawi.

The three missionaries were first questioned in February while taking part in an international peace mission in General Santos City, on the southern island of Mindanao, where President Rodrigo Duterte had declared martial law as the military battled Islamic militants there.

Chandiwana was found to have overstayed his tourist visa, and Osman’s passport was confiscated. Chandiwana was ordered to leave for “being the subject of a government intelligence report for his alleged involvement in leftist-organized activities,” the Bureau of Immigration said Tuesday.

Bishop Ciriaco Francisco, the United Methodist Church’s bishop in the Manila area, denied that the three had been engaged in illegal or unconstitutional acts.

He said the three had been investigating alleged human-rights violations against local residents in the Lake Sebu area in southern Mindanao, where government troops were said to have killed seven so-called communist insurgents in fighting in December.

Still, he said the church accepted the move to deport the three “like a bitter pill” because it would allow them to leave the Philippines unharmed and free.