Children's groups protest, demand respect for human rights in Mindanao

Children join a protest Tuesday, September 14, 2010 in Davao City in the southern Philippines to dramatize their demands for respect to human rights. (Mindanao Examiner Photo - Karlos Manlupig)

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Sept. 14, 2010) - Children’s advocate groups have staged a rally Tuesday in the Mindanao city of Davao in the southern Philippines to dramatize their demands for respect to children’s rights by security forces in Mindanao.

Organizers said the military often tagged minors suspected or accused as supporters of rebel groups as “child soldiers” and worse, some of them had been arrested or killed by troops in counter-insurgency operations.

The rally was spearheaded by members of the Children's Rehabilitation Center and KABIBA Alliance for Children's Concerns in Mindanao. At least 10 children also joined the dozens of advocates during the rally.

Organizers said security forces should respect the rights of the children as the protesters condemned the tagging of children as “child soldiers.”

“We only want respect for human rights for these children who are innocent and had been dragged into this counter-insurgency operations by the military,” one protester said by phone.

Organizers said just this year, three minors, two girls from Monkayo town in Compostela Valley and a boy in Makilala town in North Cotabato province was tagged as New People’s Army child soldiers and had been subjected to mental torture and forced to admit they were rebels.

The protesters claimed that it has now become a habit of the military to tag children-victims of rights violations as “child soldier” apparently to escape from their accountability and at the same time misrepresenting them as such for their war propaganda. They said the senseless yet brutal campaign of Oplan Bantay Laya is not only targeting perceived enemies of the State, but innocent children as well.

Oplan Bantay-Laya is the codename of the military’s anti-insurgency campaign in the country.

The groups also demanded justice for Grecil Buya, the nine-year old girl, who was killed by government soldiers in an alleged clash with communist rebels in 2007 in Compostela Valley.

Buya’s family said the girl was only fetching water from a river when soldiers opened fire on her. She was shot in the head.

The rally, which was also participated by human rights groups Hustisya and Karapatan, last about two hours. (With a report from Karlos Manlupig)

Melissa Roxas: ‘Talking About What Happened Is Like Going Back to That Dark Place’

Melissa Roxas during the press conference in Los Angeles. (Courtesy: Bulatlat.com and http://www.arkibongbayan.org/2009/2009-06-June02-Melissa/melissaroxas.htm)

MANILA, Philippines — Filipino-American Melissa Roxas finally broke her silence and recounted her ordeal in the hands of the military.

Roxas and her two companions, Juanito Carabeo and John Edward Jandoc, were abducted in the afternoon of May 19 in sitio Bagong Sikat, barangay Kapanikian, La Paz town, in Tarlac, a province just north of Manila.

Roxas was freed after six days, followed by Juanito Carabeo. The family of Jandoc said he had texted them that he was already free but he has not been seen.

Speaking at a press conference in Los Angeles broadcast simultaneously online, Roxas read portions of her affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court. Her counsel filed a petition for writ of amparo before the Supreme Court days after her release. The Court of Appeals is still hearing the petition.

Roxas said her captors repeatedly interrogated and tortured her. She said she was also handcuffed to a bed.

They accused her of being a member of the New People’s Army (NPA) and that they were “instruments of God” whose mission was to bring communist rebels back to the fold of law. “My God does not torture people,” Roxas told them.

“Talking about what happened is like going back to that dark place,” Roxas said. She has been seeking medical treatment for the physical and psychological trauma she suffered.

Roxas, Jandoc and Carabeo were volunteer health workers preparing for a medical mission in Tarlac when they were abducted, according to Bayan in Manila.

Though she has not received threats since she came back to the United States, where she was born, Roxas said she continues to fear for the safety of Carabeo and Jandoc. “I have to live with that fear every day,” she said.

Roxas went back to the US to be reunited with her family there and to seek the treatment for the effects of the abduction and torture.

“I don’t want what happened to me to happen to any one else ever again,” Roxas said.

"Lies"

Reacting to the statement of the government lawyers that the abduction was stage-managed, Roxas said: “No amount of their lies or denials can deny the truth.”

Arnedo Valera, her lawyer in the US, said the Philippine government should be ashamed for their highly irresponsible and immoral remarks about Roxas’s case.

During the first hearing at the Court of Appeals last week, state prosecutors said the abduction was stage-managed by the victim. Earlier, the Philippine Human Rights Commission led by Secretary Eduardo Ermita claimed the incident was a mere fabrication.

“Melissa was tortured. That is a fact,” Valera said, adding that the Philippine government only wants to escape liability for claiming otherwise.

Valera said that instead of lying, the least the Philippine government should have done is to surface the abductors. “They know what they have done to Melissa,” he said.

“Instead of following the rule of law [on the case of Roxas], the rule of the jungle prevails,” the lawyer added.

Valera said they will seek before a US federal court punitive and compensatory damages against Roxas’s identified assailants or the Arroyo government in the absence of named assailants.

They will also file a private complaint before the US Department of State’s Human Rights Desk against the Philippine government for the violation of the fundamental rights of a US citizen. Valera said Melissa will also file complaints before the appropriate United Nations agencies for violations of the International Covenant Against Torture, the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

Roxas said she will be exercising all of her rights. She said she is willing to pursue the petition she filed in the Philippines even if that means she would have to appear in a Manila court.

Rhoda Ramiro, secretary-general of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-US chapter said Roxas’s case is not isolated, noting the pattern of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and abductions in the Philippines.

Citing data from human-rights group Karapatan, Ramiro said that from 2001 to March 2009, there have been 1,017 victims of extrajudicial killings, 201 victims of enforced disappearances, 203 victims of abduction and 1,010 victims of torture.

Ramiro said state agents carried out these atrocities as part of the Arroyo administration’s counter-insurgency program Oplan Bantay Laya.

What is more infuriating, Ramiro said, is that the hard-earned taxes they pay to the US government is being used to commit abuses against Melissa and other victims of state-sponsored violence in the Philippines.

The US remains as the top source of military aid for the Philippines, where the US government keeps an undetermined number of troops for so-called military exercises in the south and elsewhere.

Critics have said these exercises have spawned numerous human-rights atrocities. (By Ronalyn V. Olea, Human Rights Watch / Bulatlat.com)


Link: http://www.bulatlat.com/main/2009/06/28/melissa-roxas-talking-about-what-happened-is-like-going-back-to-that-dark-place/

Political activists denounce extra-judicial killings, hold rally in Southern Philippines

Members of the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), human rights group Karapatan and families of the victims of the extra-judicial killings in southern Mindanao region staged a protest at the entrance of the Eastern Mindanao Command in Panacan in Davao City in Mindanao on February 17, 2009 to condemn the killing of activists, which they claim as allegedly perpetrated by the military. According to Karapatan, from January to October 2008, extra-judicial killings have already claimed the lives of 50 victims while seven persons have been involuntarily disappeared. In seven years and 10 months, 977 victims of extrajudicial killings and 201 victims of enforced disappearance have been documented. (AKP Images / Keith Bacongco)

Unrelated Killings Or An Undeclared War?

Bayan Muna coordinator Danilo Qualbar was shot four times in the stomach by unidentified armed men but his death merited no outrage, investigation or autopsy. And second photo shows the spot where Qualbar was gunned down November 6 on his way home. And the body of Roel Dotarot, 33, who was one of two Bayan Muna organizers killed in Monkayo town alone within four months in a photo provided by KARAPATAN SOUTHERN MINDANAO. (Alan Davis)

COMPOSTELA VALLEY, Philippines (Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project / Dec. 12, 2008) - Is the recent spate of activist killings in Southern Mindanao an unfortunate series of coincidences or are they somehow related to the Philippine military’s counter-insurgency program Oplan Bantay Laya 2?

Successive reports and claims of shootings involving a red XRM motorbike; the use of a .45 pistol and the fact that three Bayan Muna (People First) organizers and a fourth peasant activist have been killed here since early November suggests a possible link of sorts if not an actual conspiracy.

All three Bayan Muna killings took place within 60 kilometers of each other in Compostela Valley and the neighboring province of Davao del Norte.

The latest victim, Bayan Muna organizer Isabelino Celing, 47, died in Tagum City hospital in Davao del Norte on December 6, six days after being shot and wounded in Monkayo town here.

A week before his killing, a farm activist was gunned down outside Davao. Two weeks earlier, two more Bayan Muna workers were shot dead in separate incidents.

Danilo Qualbar, 48, was the first to die in November. His killing and the authorities’ response to it seems sadly typical: When he was slain on November 6, there was no outrage, no real investigation, no autopsy, no nothing. There was only a simple eulogy delivered in the Compostela town gym attended by his family and friends.

Local ‘investigation’

Three weeks after he was gunned down at a quiet crossroads while riding home to his wife and six children, the police had still to interview his family.

And when the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project visited Compostela Valley the police chief showed no real eagerness to do so.

“They live up in the hills and besides they don’t want to talk to us,” said Inspector Ali Dampac, chief of the Compostela Municipality Police Force when asked why the police had yet to see them.

Unprompted, the inspector insisted three witnesses including the barangay (village) captain of Qualbar’s hamlet had come forward to say the victim was not a member of Bayan Muna.

But an affidavit signed by Marlyn Caballero, wife of barangay captain Rafael Bugarotan and seen by the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project makes no mention of whether the victim was a member or not of Bayan Muna.

Qualbar was shot dead at Osmena Crossroads at around 5.30 p.m. Thecrossroads is a ten-minute drive out of Compostela town.

The spot where Qualbar was gunned down November 6 on his way home. ALAN DAVISAccording to witness Henry Balasag, 20, whose home overlooks the spot where Qualbar died, a gunman on a red XRM motorbike pulled up alongside him and shot him four times in the stomach with a handgun.

The killer wore a bull cap, blue jacket and gray knee-length shorts according to Balasag, who says the police failed to interview him. They did however take a statement from his mother who also witnessed the killing. A copy of her statement was given to the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project by the police.

Balasag said his first reaction was to run to where Qualbar lay dying, but was warned back by his mother. The assailant was still waving the gun around as he tried to ride his motorbike which had toppled over during the shooting. Balasag says he did not get a clear look at the gunman’s face because of the cap.

Three days after Qualbar was killed, another local organizer of Bayan Muna was shot dead in Davao del Norte as he answered his door to two gunmen on the evening of November 10.

Rolando Antolihao, 39, a banana plantation worker and Bayan Muna member was killed around 6 p.m. on November 10 in front of his wife and two-year-old daughter in the municipality of Kapalong, less than 20 kilometers from Tagum City. He was shot seven times according to human rights group Karapatan which visited the isolated scene of the killing the following day.

Two weeks later, a third activist was killed in similar circumstances in Davao City.

A fourth activist, Isabelino Celing, 47, died on December 6 in Tagum City Hospital, six days after being shot by a gunman in Monkayo Town. The gunman also reportedly rode a red XRM motorcycle.

Celing was the second Bayan Muna worker to be killed in Monkayo town in just four months.
The first was Roel Dotarot, 33, who was shot dead on August 15 by two gunmen wearing ski masks. The gun men were also seen beside an XRM bike by witnesses. The color of that bike is not reported.

Not a Bayan Muna member?

Compostela is a rural municipality of 70,000 people in Compostela Valley which is dominated by extensive banana plantations and rice fields from which it generates most of its income. The town itself is little more than a dusty settlement of basic stores, bakeries and short order diners separated by overgrown lots. Yet it attracts people down from the surrounding hills where the roads have yet to reach.

According to Inspector Dampac, Qualbar was a “pure businessman” and was probably killed over a debt or a deal gone bad. The motive for Qualbar’s killing, the police seemed to be suggesting, was anything but political.

“He was not a member of any group,” he told the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project.
This was also the claim of national task forces assigned to investigate extrajudicial killings.

In a phone interview, Major Henry Libay, secretariat member of the Philippine National Police’s Task Force Usig said Qualbar, Antolihao and Dotarot were not members of Bayan Muna or any other left-leaning group.

Task Force Usig was formed in May 2006 to investigate incidents of slain party list members, activists and media practitioners.

“We have affidavits of the victims’ families, neighbors, village leaders and even the local elections commissions saying that the victims were not members of Bayan Muna. The group claims they are their members but could not present any documents proving such,” Libay said.

Since they do not fall under the mandate of Task Force Usig, these cases are relegated to the local police for resolution. They are classified as murder or homicide cases, Libay said.

Justice undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor, who heads the Task Force 211, told the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project in a separate phone interview: “The general view is that aside from their organizational work, they also did some part time work in buying and selling of gold.”
Formed by the President on November 2006, Task Force 211 is officially mandated to “harness and mobilize” government agencies, civil society, and the public to prevent, investigate and prosecute political violence.

The two task forces converge with other government agencies in cases that are identified as extrajudicial killings.

Blancaflor implied that the victims may have been killed due to their involvement in mining operations in the area, not because of their political affiliations. “They have their businesses, too,” he said.

These claims are flatly contradicted by Qualbar’s widow Aurelia, the Karapatan, and by a local member of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP or the Philippine Peasant Movement) who maintains she had known him since 2001.

As well as being the local coordinator of Bayan Muna, Qualbar was also the information officer of the KMP-affiliated Compostela Farmers Association according to these same three sources.

If Qualbar was indeed a businessman or gold miner, he was not a very successful one. His house is found a tough one hour off-road drive up high in the hills in the tiny hamlet of Sitio Nursery in Barangay Ngan. His home was a wooden shack on stilts decorated only by a large poster of Britney Spears. The ground 10 feet below is clearly visible between gaps in the floorboards.

With quiet determination in her voice, Mrs. Qualbar insists her husband’s death followed on from and was directly related to a local radio report she heard announcing the army was launching “clean-up operations”‘ after an October 24 clash between the military and the communist New People’s Army (NPA) in nearby New Bataan town.

Compostela Valley is a known stronghold of the NPA and a key focus for the Philippine military’s campaign Oplan Bantay Laya 2, the publicly declared government attempt to end the long-running communist insurgency by 2010.

Mrs. Qualbar insists her husband was never an NPA member, but had been a frequent participant in ‘anti-militarization rallies’ in both New Bataan and in Davao.

“I know who killed him,” she says.

“On November 1, a week before he was shot, he came home and told me had been identified out loud by two military intelligence officers as he passed the checkpoint (72nd Infantry Battalion) near here. I told him that his life was in danger and that he should leave.

“When he passed by the soldiers, he told me, one of the men there had called out ‘that one’,” Mrs. Qualbar said.

Compostela town police said they had “no idea about any threats made at any checkpoints” and “could not say the AFP (army) are suspects.”

According to Mrs. Qualbar, the same day, in the morning, she had seen two soldiers drinking across from her house in the general store opposite.

“They were tall, of regular build, in their 30s or 40s and were wearing civilian clothes,” she said. “They spoke Cebuano, with a Visayan accent.”

She maintains she never saw them again after November 1.

But Mrs. Qualbar does claim family friends spotted another ‘military-looking’ man ‘following her husband and texting’ somebody outside Kings Bakery in Compostela town moments before Danilo climbed onboard his bike for his fateful ride home.

Mrs. Qualbar believes the man was texting an accomplice -- possibly the gunman.
“Members of CAFGU (Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit) came here a few days ago asking me where my husband was buried,” she said. “They were joking with me, trying to upset me. I told them, you know. You know.”

There were no soldiers manning the checkpoint near Qualbar’s home when this writer drove past.

Branding

The writer however spoke with Colonel Alan Luga, commander-in-chief of the 1001st Infantry Brigade in Compostela province. Originally from Cebu, the son of a general and seen by many as a rising star in the Philippine military, Luga insists the army was in no way connected to the killing of Qualbar.

“If people have evidence, let us see it,” he said when this writer finally caught up with him at an early evening badminton game in Tagum City.

According to the colonel, orders, discipline and full awareness of and adherence to human rights law ensure that extrajudicial killings simply do not happen in the army.

“It is well known that Karapatan and Bayan Muna are civilian fronts for the NPA,” he said, “but as long as they stick to the law, we do not go after them.”

“Even NPA members are safe,” he said, “unless actively involved in armed combat. The only legitimate targets are armed groups.

“We must be legal,” he added, “we must do good.”

Colonel Luga admitted the army did have a problem in winning the “hearts and minds” of some people in the areas and needed to do more. He also maintained Compostela Valley had the highest number of NPA insurgents in the country, but that their numbers and threat were slowly declining.

“They are getting weaker,” he said. “The problem is they are targeting and recruiting youngsters -- not necessarily believers, but those with a sense of adventure who have no jobs and nothing to do.”

“I’ve been here just six months and I have seen a lot of incidents,” he said.

But Bayan Muna party list Representative Satur Ocampo told the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project that the reactions of the military and police to the killings were wholly predictable – and wholly wrong.

“They should take heed the recommendation of the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killing that the President should instruct all military commanders to stop denigrating or labeling legal organizations,” Ocampo said.

He also pointed out the government’s failure to heed recommendation by the Melo Commission to investigate retired Army general Jovito Palparan, accused by many in connection to the disappearances of activists in central and southern Luzon but denies such charges. The five-man commission was formed in August 2006 to probe killings of activists and journalists and was headed by former Supreme Court Associate Justice and current elections commission chair Jose Melo.

“It would be fruitless for the families of victims and human rights organizations to present their cases to Task Force Usig given the bias it has shown from the very start,” Ocampo said.

The writer met Colonel Luga in Tagum City a few days after the NPA released video footage taken of Lieutenant Vicente Cammayo who is being held captive by the NPA after it captured him during a recent clash between the military and the communist guerrillas.

Cammayo’s wife Mariel who is six months pregnant, recently appeared on television appealing for his release. Like the military, the NPA have been accused of their own human rights abuses including extrajudicial killings committed under the precept of so-called “people’s revolutionary courts”.

The NPA which has promised to release Cammayo before Christmas, also recently “apologized” for the killing of a five-year-old girl, Kyle Manegro who was shot during its attack on the military.

Besides flatly denying an army policy of extrajudicial killings, Colonel Luga wholly rejected any possibility of errant death squads operating within the military as he did suggestions similar squads might be responsible for a recent spike in killings in nearby Davao City.

According to Davao City police in a statement released last week, there have been “at least 221 killings”‘there between January and October this year. Many have reportedly been petty criminals and victims of robberies.

But human rights groups like Karapatan insist there have also been a spate of political killings directly related to Oplan Bantay Laya 2.

It is a claim they cannot substantiate.

Kelly Delgado, secretary general of Karapatan South Mindanao Region says his group only travels into Compostela Valley in teams of 20 to 30 strong.

“It is a high militarized zone and it is not safe for us to go there alone or even in small groups,” he said from his first floor office in Davao City inside a church compound.

According to a Karapatan map and report prepared at the scene of the Antolihao killing, two gunmen were dropped by a third accomplice on a motorcycle at the entrance to a thick banana grove and walked up to his house, knocking the door and claiming to be his neighbor Manggoy.

Karapatan claimed the gunmen would have passed directly in front of Guadalupe Chapel and a small military camp from the AFP 60th Infantry Battalion behind it. The camp is just 50 meters from the victim’s house according to the map.

Colonel Luga confirmed that the army’s standing orders require soldiers to immediately respond to any shooting incidents. According to Karapatan however, the soldiers in Kapalong remained at their post.

“It was early evening and it is a very quiet and isolated place,” Delgado said. “It is impossible that they did not hear the shooting.”

According to a police report filed on November 11 by senior officer Jose Tanduyan of Kapalong police, the scene of the incident “was already totally altered and contaminated due to the presence of several curious persons.”

The police found a slipper and pair of sunglasses near the shooting and have linked them to the case, but report the motive of the killing “is still to be ascertained.”

The police also recovered several .45 bullet casings and one “deformed 0.45 slug,” according to their own report.

Karapatan also claimed a 0.45 caliber pistol was used to kill Qualbar -- though no documentary evidence was provided.

Roel Dotarot, 33, was one of two Bayan Muna organizers killed in Monkayo town alone within four months.

Less than two weeks after the Antolihao killing, three unidentified men interrupted an evening meeting of farming activists in Paquibato District just outside Davao City on November 22 before they shot and killed Vicente Paglinawan, vice-president of Pambansang Kilusan ng Samahang Magsasaka (PAKISAMA), a national confederation of 28 local peasant and farmers’ groups.

Delgado said that his group was still trying to investigate that incident.

The Karapatan Southern Mindanao Region secretary general says he himself received a death threat after publicizing the killing of well-known local activist and peasant leader Celso Pojas in May this year.

Delgado was one of the first to arrive on the scene after Pojas, KMP secretary general was gunned down in front of his office located less than two kilometers from Karapatan’s own modest headquarters here.

Pojas was reportedly preparing to go to Compostela the following day and had allegedly received a series of death threats before his killing. He was a highly vocal critic of the Philippine army and its operations in the valley.

Delgado, who took a series of photos of the body and drafted the initial report into Pojas’ killing, claims he in turn started receiving death threats the following day after appearing on a radio show in Kidapawan City to talk about the case.

The text that threats to put Delgado “in the ground” were sent to local Charm Radio station and were relayed to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Free Expression Ambayi Ligabo.

The UN sent letters to both the Philippine Foreign Ministry and Davao City police which resulted in Delgado being called into the headquarters there on August 1 and offered police protection.

“The three texts accused Karapatan of being a front for the NPA and said I would be the next one to be eliminated,” Delgado said. “They said that was what was wrong with NPA supporters.

If something happens to the NPA they immediately blame the soldiers, but if a soldier dies, they don’t speak out. They said I was already six feet under the ground.”

Despite the threats, Delgado rejected the offer of police protection.

“Nobody would talk to us freely if we turned up with a policeman,” he said. “We couldn’t do our job like that.”

At the same time, Delgado takes the threats seriously as Karapatan’s policies for traveling into Compostela Valley suggest. He also claims the group in Davao is being monitored by people in a black 4 x 4 Lancer with the license plate PPN 665.

“It follows us around – especially when we have events like pickets or assemblies,” he said. “We don’t know who is inside it as we are afraid to go up and knock on the window.”

Given the recent spate of killings, Karapatan members may have good reason to be both cautious and alarmed – both for themselves and for the communities and people they claim to be serving.

Regardless of whether Karapatan and like-minded groups are or are not linked in some way to the NPA, it is a pattern of some sort that surrounds the killings –and it is a pattern that demands investigation.

At the very least, the victims and their families deserve that much.

None of the local police forces have clear descriptions of the killers, but they do have all the spent bullet casings and so can examine whether the same gun was used in two or more of the shootings. That in itself would point to some kind of conspiracy: Even if tests came back negative, it would at least show the authorities were taking the series of incidents seriously.

Until they do, Bayan Muna members, peasant groups and human rights activists here in Southern Mindanao are probably right to feel scared and wonder what is behind all the killings and who may be next. (Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project / Alan Davis. The author is Director of the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project and also Institute for War and Peace Reporting special projects.)

Human Rights Forum Held In Basilan Island

Photos sent to the Mindanao Examiner by the Suara Bangsamoro show students listen to human rights speakers during a forum Monday, July 14, 2008 in Basilan island. And Marie Enriquez, of the human rights group Karapatan, gives out a phamplet on human rights to students.

BASILAN, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / July 15, 2008) – Human rights advocates and former victims of military abuses held a forum in Basilan province and urged citizens to stay vigilant and protect their rights.

The forum, sponsored by the Liga ng Kabataang Moro, also commemorated the military crackdown on local Muslims in 2001 in Basilan during an all-out campaign against the militant Abu Sayyaf group.

The forum, attended by students and teachers, became a reunion for human rights activists, who in 2001, sought families of human rights victims and help them get justice through a fact-finding mission that led to a congressional inquiry into military abuses in Basilan.

More than 500 mostly innocent Muslims were arrested and tortured by soldiers on suspicion they were supporters or members of the Abu Sayyaf group during the crackdown.

Amirah Ali Lidasan, national president of the human rights group Suara Bangsamoro, said ten people were summarily executed and more than 70,000 more displaced by the military operation.

Marie Enriquez, a veteran human rights fighter and also the chairperson of Karapatan, told the students of Basilan State College and families of the victims on how her group reported the cases of abuses to the United Nations and different human rights organizations abroad.

Enriquez also described how Basilan became a laboratory for the military as a precursor to the implementation of Oplan Bantay Laya I and II, a codename used in military operations against insurgents in Mindanao, which became a crackdown against activists and human rights defenders nationwide.

Civilians Flee As Troops Step Up Hunt For Rebels In Southern Philippines

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Apr. 23, 2008) – Hundreds of villagers have fled their homes after government soldiers pursuing communist insurgents occupied a state-run school and a chapel in the southern Philippines, a human rights group said.

The group called “Karapatan” said more than 200 soldiers have been using the school and the chapel as their camp in the village of Ngan in New Bataan town in Compostela Valley province since the operation against the New People’s Army began early this month.

It said more than 300 people had fled their homes because of the presence of soldiers. The group did not say if there were civilians arrested by the military, but the Karapatan had previously accused soldiers in the area of harassing civilians and human rights violations.

But Maj. Raymundo Aguada, a regional army spokesman, denied Karapatan’s allegations and said the NPA is using so-called human rights groups to malign the military.

“There is no truth to that report. The rebels are using these so-called human rights groups to malign our good soldiers and to destroy the military and the democratic government so they can continue with their abuses and terrorism,” he told the Mindanao Examiner newspaper.

Last week, the military announced the capture of six NPA camps in New Bataan where troops had recovered explosives and munitions left behind by rebels.

The rebel camps were so far the largest that troops have captured this year.

The NPA, military wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the National Democratic Front (NDF), is fighting for nearly four decades now to topple the government and install a Maoist state in the country.

The United States and the European Union blacklisted the CPP and NPA, including its political wing, the NDF, on Manila's prodding and froze their assets abroad. (Mindanao Examiner)

Writ Of Amparo Gives New Hope To Human Rights Groups In RP

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 1, 2007) — A Filipino human rights group on Monday praised the Supreme Court for upholding the Writ of Amparo that would protect citizens from human rights abuses and extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances in the Philippines.

Kelley Delgado, Karapatan Secretary General, said the Writ of Amparo is a remedy made available for the victims of human rights abuses and to the worsening human rights situation in the country.

“As human rights defender, the Writ of Amparo is a welcome step particularly to the victims of human rights abuses. This will block the military to invoke in their defense the ‘presumption of regularity’, Delgado said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.

The presumption of regularity, he said, is often used as an excuse by the military that official duty has been regularly performed to evade responsibility or liability and will further bar officers in judicial proceedings to issue denial answers regarding petitions on extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

He said as the writ of Amparo which will take effect on October 24 will compel state agents to look for the missing person or surface those who are believed to be in their hands.

“The decision will hopefully make the military and its cohorts to rethink their attacks against human rights, if not really stop them from perpetuating these abuses,” Delgado said.

Chief Justice Reynato Puno officially announced the approval of the Writ of Amparo last month.

Amparo, a Spanish word that means protection is a Mexican legal procedure that aimed at protecting human rights. The "recurso de amparo" is an exhaustive remedy which originated from Latin America's Mexican, Chile and Argentina legal systems.

Mexico's Amparo is found in Articles 103 and 107 of the Mexican Constitution -- the judicial review of governmental action, to empower state courts to protect individuals against state abuses.

"The law now allows kin of human rights victims to file and invoke the petition before the Regional Trial Court of the place where the threat, act or omission was omitted. The writ shall be enforceable anywhere," Delgado said.

Karapatan said that since President Gloria Arroyo became president in 2001, there have close to 1,000 extra-judicial executions and hundreds of abductions, mostly political activists.

Amnesty International and the United Nations Special Rapporteur Philip Alston have reported similar findings.

Militant and left-wing groups have blamed the military for the killings and other human rights violations as part of the government’s counterinsurgency program.

The United States also expressed concern that US aid to the Philippine military and police is being used to commit the killings.

Fear Grips Militant Groups As Manila Prepares To Impose Anti-Terror Law

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 12 Jul) - Human rights advocate, Karapatan, urged the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) to put pressure on the government to stop implementing the Human Security Act of 2007, or the Anti-Terrorism Law.

Even a group of lawyers calling itself the Union of People’s Lawyers in Mindanao (UPLM) questioned and bring the matter before the Supreme Court (SC). “UPLM and other civil libertarians will question the HSA before the SC,” said Beberly Musni, Karapatan’s regional head.

Musni said the HSA is another attempt of GMA and her allies of human rights violators to perpetuate state terror after her Presidential Proclamation 1017, Eexecutive Order 464 and CPR (Calibrated Preemptive Response) were thrashed by the Supreme Court for being unconstitutional.

“The Philippine Constitution expresses the ultimate well being envisioned by the Filipinos for the Filipinos,” said Musni.

Musni said HSA attacks humans well being by legitimizing warrant less arrests in indefinite detention, house arrests, restriction of travel, wiretapping, electronic surveillance, seizure of deposits in proscription of people’s organizations.

Musni said the UPLM has challenged the IBP and other lawyers’ groups to standby and defend the bill of rights. Karapatan earlier praised the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) for its stand on the Human Security Act of 2007.

The CBCP has urged the government to review the Anti-Terrorism Law, citing apprehension among lawyers and other sectors. The militant group and the CBCP even condemned the soon-to-be-implemented Act as “even worse than PP1017, CPR and EO464” accordning to Musni “HAS is an attack of the constitutional guarantee and equal protection of the laws,” said Musni.

The opposition said the law could be abused and worst used against President Gloria Arroyo's political opponents. Arroyo said the law will not be used against the public and legislators, specifically members of the opposition and civil society, who air their views in the spirit of democracy.

She said the HSA has enough built-in safeguards against violations of human rights such as warrant-less arrests, eavesdropping and wiretapping, illegal sequestration of properties and tracing of assets.

In enforcing the law, law enforcers should follow specific rules on the conduct on its enforcement by first securing a permit from the "assigned and designated" Court of Appeals officer, as well as an authorization by the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) before they conduct surveillance on a suspected terrorist or terrorists.

Government spokesman have repeatedly appealed to the public to read and assimilate the provisions of the law so as not be carried away by doomsday warnings on perceived dangers of the anti-terror statute.

The HSA's intent is to safeguard the security of the people, the government and the communities as a whole so that way of life of the people will be protected. (With a report from Ben Balce)

Human Rights, Peasant Groups Accuse Philippine Soldiers As Behind Killing Of Old Man

COMPOSTELA VALLEY (Mindanao Examiner / 10 Jul) – Militant groups accused the Philippine military as behind the killing of a septuagenarian accused by soldiers as a member of the Maoist New People’s Army in Mindanao.

The human rights group, Karapatan, said two suspected soldiers barged in the house of peasant leader Alfonso Capiales, 72, in Nabunturan town’s Magsaysay village in Compostela Valley province and shot him several times.

Before he was killed, the military summoned Capiales, chairman of the Magsaysay Farmers Association and treasurer of the Nagkahiusang Maguuma sa Nabunturan, after accusing him as a rebel. The two groups also condemned the attack.

Capiales was also the provincial coordinator of the militant group Anakpawis, previously tagged by the military as an NPA front.

Karapatan has condemned the weekend killing.

“We hold the Arroyo government and the Armed Forces of the Philippines responsible for the killing of Capiales,” Kelly Delgado, the group’s spokesperson, said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.

A U.S.-based human rights group recently accused the Philippine military of engaging in a “dirty war” in a campaign to silent political activists in the country.

In an 84-page report released late last month, the Human Rights Watch said Manila should aggressively prosecute members of the security forces responsible for hundreds of extrajudicial executions in recent years.

Filipino militant groups said more than 800 people had been kidnapped and murdered since President Gloria Arroyo rose to power in 2001. Most of the killings, they said, pointed to the military as the culprit.

The extra-judicial killings in the Philippines continue unabated despite the investigations of the United Nations and the independent Melo Commission. Both investigations point to soldiers as allegedly responsible to most of the murders, an accusation strongly denied by the Philippine military.

The United States Senate is also investigating the extra-judicial killings in the Philippines. Summary executions are also rampant in the southern cities of Zamboanga, Davao, Digos and Cebu in the central Philippines. (With a report from Juan Magtanggol)

Human Rights Group Hails Catholic Bishops Stand On RP Anti-Terror Law

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 10 Jul) – A human rights group on Tuesday praised the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) after it called for a review of the Human Security Act (HSA) of 2007, or the anti-terrorism law, citing apprehension among lawyers and other sectors.

The militant group and the CBCP even condemned the soon-to-be-implemented Act as “even worse than PP1017, CPR and EO464.” “We welcome the timely objection of the CBCP to the HSA implementation on July 15,” said Karapatan regional head Beberly Musni.

The CBCP expressed concern over the “morality dimension” of the law which is set for implementation on July 15. Earlier, the militants urged the CBCP to issue statements condemning the implementation of the said Anti-Terror law.

“We hope the other faiths and sectors will follow suit,” said Musni adding people should expressed on the widest and strongest condemnation to the HSA.

Musni said, like the opposition of the multi-sectors on Charter Change will compel the GMA regime to abandon the HSA.

“This is like impact on the peoples’ freedom of expression and peaceful assembly and in right to liberty and privacy,” she said. Last year, the Supreme Court declared Executive Order 464 and Presidential Proclamation1017 as “unconstitutional and partly unconstitutional.”

“Our outrage over the attempted charter change should be again being expressed on the HSA,” said Musni. Musni also urged the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro, headed by Archbishop Antonio Ledesma, to support the CBCP stand. President Gloria Arroyo said the HSA will take effect on July 15.

“The new law could be used to abuse the rights of government critics,” said Musni. Musni claimed that it is ironic that instead of making the people feel secure, the law would most likely cause chaos and insecurity.

The CBCP called for the suspension of the implementation of HSA. "Since we, as pastors, have to look more into the morality of this law and make a pronouncement in that level,” said in a CBCP’s statement however, reiterated their pursuit for peace as well as condemnation of terrorist acts.

On Monday, acting Defense Secy. Norberto Gonzales maintained that the public has no reason to fear the HAS. "If you are not planning anything illegal then the law is for the protection of human rights and not for its (human rights) violation," he said.

Arroyo was in Cagayan de Oro City on Monday where she spoke at the Mindanao Peace and Security Summit.

Cagayan de Oro Mayor Constantino Jaraula said the country needs the new law to address the threat of terrorism.

Gonzales said the government is seriously considering tagging the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army as terrorist organizations. The United States and European Union also listed the CPP and NPA as foreign terrorist organizations on Manila’s prodding.

Arroyo initiated the summit through the National Security Council (NSC) and was attended by multi-sector groups in Mindanao, local government officials, the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Armed Forces of Philippines (AFP), ulamas, priests and even representatives of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), members of the academe and the President’s Cabinet who hold positions in the security cluster committee.

Arroyo has defined the government's target in the next three years, which is for the AFP to give strategic defeat to insurgency and other rebel groups, modernize the military, advance the protection of human rights, a sustainable peace in Mindanao and expand alliances for regional and global security.

She also signed Executive Order 546, stating the important role of local officials in preparing internal security plans in their localities and the making of PNP as co-equal partner in the effort of combating insurgencies and terrorism in the country.

Peace initiatives and development are also starting to pour in with the optimism of foreign donors supportive of the government peace initiatives in Mindanao. (With a report from Ben Balce)