E/CN.4/1995/91 page 76 to alleviate the sufferings of the masses and in order to assert its constitutional role, came up with a solution in the form of public interest litigation for the eradication of social evils through the medium of the law, as is enjoined by the Constitution. Today, public interest litigation is being used effectively in Pakistan to protect against the violation of the human rights of all classes of society." Philippines In a communication dated 5 October 1994, the Special Rapporteur transmitted the following observation to the Government of the Philippines: "According to the information received by the Special Rapporteur, 15 Christians were killed on 8 June 1994 on Basilan Island, a part of the Sulu Archipelago in the southern Philippines. The victims are said to belong to a group of 36 people taken hostage by a commando under the orders of Abu Sayyaf, the dissident Muslim fundamentalist leader of the Moro National Liberation Front (FMLN). Father Cirilo Nacorda, a Spanish priest, is said to be among the people still being held. Father Cirilo Nacorda is reported to be the successor of Father Bernardo Blanco, a Spanish priest, abducted in 1993 by the same rebel group and held hostage for several weeks until he escaped. It is stated that his abductors had abducted an American Franciscan missionary in August 1992. According to the police report, the rebels stopped a convoy of several vehicles carrying 60 or so people. They reportedly let the Muslims go, after identifying them by making them recite a Muslim prayer. When the police were about to catch up with them, they reportedly killed 15 of the Christians and took away the other 21." Romania In a communicated dated 31 August 1994, the Special Rapporteur transmitted the following information to the Romanian Government: "According to information received, the media are allegedly contributing to the creation of a climate of religious intolerance against evangelists through press articles attacking the latter. The media are also allegedly supporting calls by Orthodox leaders and jurists for the Government to adopt and vote on a religious bill of law to protect the dominant Orthodox Church against proselytism by neo-Protestant and Western evangelical groups." On 25 October 1994, the Romanian Government transmitted the following information to the Special Rapporteur in reply to the above-mentioned allegations: "After December 1989 a great number of ’preachers’, ’prophets’, as they are calling themselves, came to Romania. Some of them proved to be honest, keeping their activities in the framework of a purely religious presentation and commentary of the Gospel.