PMA 78 generals shipped out in 3rd AFP revamp under Aquino

MANILA, Philippines – Two senior military officers belonging to a Philippine Military Academy (PMA) class identified with former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo were relieved of their posts and reassigned Friday in the third revamp undertaken by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in the 45 days since President Benigno Aquino III took office.

Rear Admiral Feliciano Angue has been taken out as chief of the National Capital Regional Command (NCRCom) and named commander of Naval Forces Western Mindanao based in Zamboanga City. He will be replaced as commander of troops in Metro Manila by Major General Arthur Tabanquero.

Major General Juancho Sabban, on the other hand, will be shipped out to Palawan to head the Western Command (Wescom) in Puerto Princesa City and will be replaced as commandant of the Philippine Marine Corps by Brigadier General Rustico Guerrero.

Angue and Sabban, as as Tabanquero, belong to PMA Class 1978, which adopted Arroyo as honorary member.

One of their “mistahs” or classmates, retired general Delfin Bangit, was named AFP chief of staff by Arroyo, now representative of Pampanga’s second district, just before she stepped down from the presidency. However, Bangit opted for early retirement after Aquino declared, before his inauguration, that he would not be keeping the general at the head of the military.

Before his reassignment, Angue found himself on the spot after exposing an alleged attempt to bribe him and the officers he commanded to help rig the results of the 2004 elections, which Arroyo won in circumstances that remain questioned, and the May 10 polls. He also criticized the alleged patronage system that controls the promotions and assignments of military officers.

The latest revamp came two days after a “white paper” was circulated in Camp Aguinaldo, military general headquarters, accusing Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, himself a former general, of influencing the promotion and assignment process within the AFP.

“From a systems-oriented era of having civilians at the helm of the Defense Department, we now have a retired military officer whose concept of defense is antiquated as he is and who only looks after the welfare of men who once served under him,” the white paper, purportedly authored by “concerned military officers,” said.

But the AFP Public Information Office, in a statement, said the revamp was implemented after Aquino approved the new tranche of assignments for senior officers.

“Further changes in the military hierarchy have been approved following the previous tranches of orders issued by the Malacañang, designating the new assignments of some senior military officers,” the AFP statement said. “This after the Board of Generals has submitted to President Aquino through the Honorable Defense Secretary Gazmin their recommendation for the following appointments last July 26.”

Two days after assuming office on June 30, Aquino installed Lieutenant General Ricardo David (PMA 77) as AFP chief, replacing Lieutenant General Nestor Ochoa, who was chosen acting chief by the Board of Generals following Gazmin’s retirement.

David once served under Gazmin, who headed the Presidential Security Guard (PSG) during the term of the late former president Corazon C. Aquino, the incumbent’s mother.

In mid-June, another revamp happened when Lieutenant General Reynaldo Mapagu (MA 78) was relieved as Army chief and named AFP vice chief of staff. Although technically a promotion, many officers see the post as a “freezer.”

Mapagu was replaced as Army chief by Major General Arturo Ortiz (PMA Class 79), a Medal of Valor recipient and former commander of the Army’s Special Operations Command (Socom).

Friday’s AFP revamp also saw the movement of other senior military officers, with Major General Artemio Orozco, formerly of the Air Force’s 1st Air Division, named the new AFP deputy chief of staff.

Rear Admiral Mario Catacutan, AFP deputy chief of staff for Logistics, is now the new AFP Inspector General, replacing Major General Jovencio Magalso, who was named deputy chief of staff for Reservist and Retiree Affairs.

Catacutan will be replaced by Commodore Teddy Pan, outgoing chief of the Western Command. While, Rear Admiral Roberto Estioko has been raised from acting to full-time vice commander of the Philippine Navy Vice Commander.

Commodore Edgar Abogado, commander of the Naval Logistics Center, has been named chief of Naval Forces Northern Luzon, while Commodore Jose Luis Alano, commander of the Service Force of the Philippine Fleet, is the new chief of Naval Staff.

Army Colonel Benito Antonio T De Leon, previously Senior Military Assistant to the Secretary of National Defense, now heads the AFP Command Center and Major General Mario Chan of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division Army’s will now head the 8th Infantry Division and be replaced by Major General Victor Felix, deputy chief of staff for Civil Military Operations.

Felix will be replaced by Brigadier General Nonato Alfredo Peralta Jr., commandant of the PMA Cadet Corps, a position to be be taken over by Colonel Maximo Caro, commander of the 303rd Infantry Brigade

Brigadier General Carlos Luces will be promoted from deputy commander to commander of the Army’s Light Armor Division based in Capas, Tarlac.

At the Philippine Air Force, Brigadier General Pedro E Rieza Jr., the 355thAir Engineering Wing commander, has been named commander of the Air Logistics Command.

Major General Jesus Fajardo will command the 2nd Air Division while Brigadier General Virgilio Domingo will command the 205th Tactical Helicopter Wing.

David emphasized that the promoted and reassigned officers were nominated by the Board of Senior Officers of the major services to the AFP Board of Generals, which then submitted their names to the Office of the President through the Secretary of National Defense.

“That ensures that the officer who is most appropriate and fit for a position will be designated to it, and will are all natural processes of growth and evolution of the military organization, just like any other organization,” David said.

“Everyone who qualifies is being considered for these positions that have to be filled in. Who will assume these critical positions in the military hierarchy will be extremely significant for the achievement of goals of the AFP as a military institution,” David said. (Dateline Philippines - Anthony Vargas)


Link: http://dateline.ph/?p=5691

Troops, rebels guilty of abuses – AI

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Fighting erupts anew in Maguindanao province

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / July 13, 2009) – Government forces clashed Monday with Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels in the troubled southern Philippine province of Maguindanao.

The fighting broke out after rebel forces attacked army troops trying to breach an MILF stronghold in the village of Meta in Guindulungan town.

“Gun battle started as MILF guerilla units fired at advancing AFP troops toward upper grounds of Meta. Firefight lasted for almost an hour as both forces disengaged from fighting. No casualty was reported on either side,” the MILF said.

The village of Meta leads to the MILF camps Omar and Badre’, scene of bloody fighting in recent months. The MILF also referred to the army soldiers as occupation Armed Forces of the Philippines.

The MILF is fighting for the past three decades for a self-determination in Mindanao. (Mindanao Examiner)

No more treatment for ex-Philippine leader Corazon Aquino: Report

Former President Corazon Aquino. Time Woman of the Year

MANILA, Philippines - Former President Corazon Aquino, who is battling colon cancer, has decided to forgo further chemotherapy or any other medical treatment, her spokeswoman was quoted Thursday as saying.

The 76-year-old Aquino, who led the Philippines from 1986 to 1992 after the fall of Ferdinand Marcos, was admitted to a Manila hospital last week, and is reportedly being fed intravenously.

"The country's icon of democracy is fighting the hardest battle of her life," spokeswoman Deedee Siytangco wrote in an article published in the Manila Bulletin.

Siytangco said Aquino had been moved to a private room, in a decision "she and her children made in consultation with her doctors." Family members have rushed to her bedside, she added.

"She is no longer receiving any chemotherapy or any other medical interventions," she said, quoting a family member.

Members of the Aquino family and the former president's doctors were not immediately available for comment. Reporters who converged at the hospital were asked to leave, an AFP photographer said.

Aquino has largely remained out of the public eye in recent months, with doctors fearing she may contract infections in her fragile state.

She had been undergoing chemotherapy and was previously hospitalized from March to May.

The murder of Aquino's husband, Benigno Aquino Jr., in 1983 led to widespread street protests that culminated three years later in the toppling of Marcos, who had ruled the Philippines for 20 years with an iron hand.

Aquino was installed as president shortly thereafter.

She is regarded as a symbol of the country's return to democracy, although her six-year term was marked by several bloody coup attempts.

Aquino is also known as a moral crusader after her term ended in 1992, she continued to fight for various causes, including anti-corruption efforts.

Aquino helped mobilize street protests against president Joseph Estrada, a self-confessed former womanizer and heavy drinker who was ousted in 2001.

She reconciled with Estrada last year, and both of them joined street protests against current President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, whose family has been accused of massive corruption. (AFP)

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/

Military reports, propaganda lamang - MILF

COTABATO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / June 13 2009) – Binansagan na propaganda ng Moro Islamic Liberation Front ang ulat ng militar na 10 rebelde ang nasawi sa labanan sa magulong lalawigan ng Maguindanao sa Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Sinabi ni Eid Kabalu, isang senior MILF leader, na pawang mga palabas lamang ng military propagandists ang ulat at wala umano itong katotohanan.
"Every time the 6th Infantry Division comes out with a press release, you see MILF casualties in their reports. Even activities by criminals are blamed on the MILF. That's not psychological warfare, but propaganda to cover up for the military's human rights violations and its failure to defeat the MILF," ani Kabalu.

Idinagdag pa nito na walang maipakitang body counts o mga bangkay ang 6th Infantry Division sa bawat balitang ipinamumudmod nito sa media. Tinukoy pa ni Kabalu ang mansion ng isang pulitiko sa Maguindanao na illegal na kinupkop ng mga sundalo sa hinalang pagaari ito ni MILF commander Ameril Kato.

Sinabi ng 6th Infantry Division na 10 rebelde ang nasawi kamakailan sa labanan sa Maguindanao at nauna doon ay 30 rin ang inulat nitong napatay ng mga tropa. Ginagamit umano ng 6th Infantry Division ang media sa propaganda nito.

Sa kabila nito ay inanunsyo naman ni Pangulong Gloria Arroyo na bubuksan nitong muli ang naudlot na peace talks sa MILF. Bumagsak ang peace talks matapos na madiskaril ang Muslim homeland deal na nilagdaan ng peace panels sa Malaysia nuong Hulyo ng nakaraang taon.

Ngunit ayon naman sa ibang mga MILF commanders ay taktika lamang ni Arroyo ang pagbubukas sa peace talks upang makapagkampanya ang mga administration candidates sa ARMM at ibang bahagi ng Mindanao para sa halalan sa susunod na taon. (Mindanao Examiner)

Military accused of human rights violations in Mindanao

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Philippine rebels vow to seek justice for brutal murder of leader's daughter

Some 3,000 people join Rebelyn Pitao's funeral march in Davao City. (AKP Images)

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Apr. 15, 2009) – Communist rebels on Wednesday vowed to seek to justice for the brutal murder of a young Filipino woman by government soldiers.

Rebelyn Pitao, 20, was abducted in Davao City in the southern Philippines on March 4 and her naked body was found the next day floating in a shallow creek in the village of San Isidro in Davao del Norte’s Carmen town. Her body bore torture marks and was believed raped before she was stabbed in the chest.

She was a teacher by profession, who led a simple and quiet life with her family in Davao City.

Some 3,000 people joined her funeral march. Many were chanting anti-government slogan and blaming the military for the murder of the woman, whose father Leoncio Pitao, also known as Kumander Parago, is chieftain of the New People’s Army (NPA) Pulang Bagani Command.

Pitao tagged 11 military agents as behind the murder, an accusation strongly denied by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

“Today we are remembering Rebelyn on the 40th day of her violent death. We grieve her passing and are united in fighting for justice for a beloved daughter, friend and teacher. With the same purpose, we are also fighting for justice for all victims of state terrorism under Gloria Arroyo,” he said.

He said the past few weeks after the murder of her daughter, the state has engaged in a deceptive campaign in an attempt to pacify the people's outrage on the savage murder of Rebelyn.

The Army’s 10th Infantry Division and the Eastern Mindanao Command have repeatedly denied any involvements of soldiers to the murder. Police also put up Task Force Rebelyn which is investigating the killing of Pitao’s daughter.

But Pitao said the police task force is insignificant.

“Its sole purpose is to do the bidding of the criminal Arroyo regime. It has only proven the public perception that it was hastily set up to instantly absolve the criminal agents of the 10th Infantry Division-Eastern Mindanao Command-AFP for masterminding and executing Rebelyn's abduction, torture, rape and murder,” he said.

“The Zarzuela of the 10th Infantry Division-Eastern Mindanao Command-AFP during the Commission on Human Rights public hearing and the lies it has propagated related to Rebelyn's death are just the tip of the rottenness of the AFP organization. The duplicity and criminal deeds of Arroyo's running dogs has long been exposed here in Southern Mindanao. It comes as no surprise that the rotten state is not on the people's side, but on the executioners, the killers, the minions of the 10th Infantry Division-Eastern Mindanao Command-AFP,” he said.

The NPA has ordered the arrest of all those involved in the killing of the woman while the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) also held Arroyo and the AFP responsible for the murder.

“These fascist agents are believed to have carried out this dastardly crime in accordance with instructions from higher ups in their desperate campaign to shatter the determination of Kumander Parago and his fellow NPA Red fighters in advancing the people’s revolution. These suspects should be sought and arrested so they could undergo investigation by duly authorized revolutionary authorities and face criminal charges.”

The CPP said the murder of Pitao’s daughter highlights the Arroyo regime’s innumerable crimes against unarmed civilians who are invariably regarded by the military and its counter-insurgency strategists as combatants in the raging civil war.

“Ultimately, it is Gloria Arroyo and her top fascist henchmen who are to blame for the crimes against Rebelyn Pitao. Arroyo’s Oplan Bantay Laya 2 has long regarded civilians as targets of military operations including killings, abductions, torture and other forms of fascism. This has now been most hideously extended to apply as well to loved ones and relatives of armed revolutionaries the fascists cannot get hold of,” the CPP said.

Oplan Bantay Laya is the government anti-insurgency campaign in the country.

As for Pitao, he said: “The people have long despised Arroyo, the mastermind of the killings, the chief implementer of the counter-revolutionary Oplan Bantay Laya, and the main representative of the rotten social system.

Arroyo's criminal regime and its running dogs are extremely isolated from the people.”
He said that genuine justice can only be achieved through revolutionary struggle.

”The revolutionary legal and judicial processes of the people's government, the continued strengthening of the people's revolutionary government in the countryside and the tactical offensives of the New People's Army strongly serve the people's interest and the interest of genuine justice,” he said.

Communist rebels broke off peace talks with Manila in 2004 after the United States listed the communist groups as foreign terrorist organizations and froze their assets abroad on government's prodding. (Mindanao Examiner)

Rights body accuses military as top abuser

Political activists led by different Moro human rights groups rally in Cotabato City in Mindanao on Wednesday, December 10, 2008. The rally was led by KAWAGIB Moro Human Rights and Suara Bangsamoro and participated also by different progressive organizations and civil society organizations namely, Liga ng Kabataang Moro, Suara Talyawid, Suara Bangsamoro Women, ANAKBAYAN Cotabato, Gabriela Cotabato and Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society.

MANILA, Philippines - Commission on Human Rights Chairman Leila de Lima on Wednesday said the military ranks number one among perpetrators of political and extrajudicial killings in the the Philippines.

At Malacañang, President Glo­ria Arroyo issued an administrative order aimed at strengthening government policies and programs for the effective promotion of human rights.

“As to suspects or alleged perpetrators, political and extrajudicial killings are attributed to military, police and civilians alike. Significantly, the military ranks number one among identified perpetrators of such killings,” de Lima said.

The 24-page summary of the rights body’s yearend report that was read by de Lima during the celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights showed that the military’s human rights abuses are “based on accounts of witnesses.”

However, she also said that rebel groups are also among the suspects and perpetrators of human rights violations.

The Commission on Human Rights has documented some 142 cases of politically motivated extrajudicial killings in the country from 2007 to the third quarter of 2008.

“From the total of 142 cases, 30 cases occurred in Region 12, followed by Region 11 with 29, Region 8 with 20, Region 6 with 15 and Region 5 with 12 cases. Almost all victims with a total of 180 were affiliated to certain activists’ group, labor organizations and other political associations,” de Lima said.

The report showed the rights body documented 37 cases of enforced disappearance, abduction or kidnapping during the same period.

De Lima also lauded Chief Justice Reynato Puno for being the “close ally of the Commission” for his critical efforts in addressing human rights issues in the country.

She also stressed that “it must be emphasized that the state of the human rights situation of the nation is a reflection, not just of the performance of the President [Gloria Arroyo], or of any other politician or government official for that matter, but of the performance of each of the 91 million individuals who call this country his or her home.”

For her part, US Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney said that every Filipino can make a difference and become a champion of human rights by assuring that everyone’s rights are protected.

But Manila Archbishop Gau­dencio Cardinal Rosales said that the exercise of basic freedoms are not yet in reality in the country since the government lacks the political will to implement international norms they have willingly accepted.

“There are many mistakes and shortcomings . . . I feel sad and I feel bad because many are still doing it [human rights abuses],” he said.(Manila Times - Ira Karen Apanay With Angelo S. Samonte And Anthony Vargas)

5 Civilians Wounded In Military Offensives In Mindanao

COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Nov. 4, 2008) – Four civilians were wounded in a series of military bombardment in the southern Philippines, where troops are battling Moro rebels after the peace talks collapsed in August.

Another victim said he escaped from a military assault, but was wounded after he was shot by a soldier in Maguindanao, one of six provinces under the Muslim autonomous region in Mindanao.

Mindanao Tulong Bakwet, a Filipino relief organization, said four of those wounded were hit by shrapnel fired by soldiers from howitzer cannons since Friday.

Fighting between troops and Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels the past months have displaced more than half a million people in the Muslim autonomous region and surrounding provinces in central Mindanao.

Fairuds Ebus, MTB executive director, said all the victims were Muslims. She said Abdulrahman Gandawali, 40, a war refugee, was hit by shrapnel Oct. 31 near a market in the village of Libutan in Mamasapano town.

On Nov. 01, troops also fired cannons towards MILF positions, but a farmer, Muslim Lumban, 80, was hit by shrapnel while fixing rice bags in the village of Kalipapa in Datu Piang town.

A 55-year old Saguira Ibrahim was also wounded while crossing a highway Nov. 2 in the village of Sakbu in Datu Saudi Ampatuan town. And Morsid Guino, 25, was hit by shrapnel Nov. 3 outside a refugee shelter in nearby Dapiawan village.

Relief workers were also forced to stop their operations in Dapiawan village on Monday after cannon hit a water source just 20 meters from the refugee shelter.

“We have to stop the issuance of food tickets because the refugees were so afraid,” said Aldan Agom, head of the MTB relief team.

The MTB said another refugee, Esmael Adam, was shot by soldiers, but survived to tell his tale about how he escaped from certain death. Adam, who was reported missing since Oct. 21, was rescued near a swamp a week later by villagers in Datu Saudi Ampatuan.

Adam said army soldiers, who were searching for MILF leader Ameril Kato, opened fire on his house in Dapiawan village.

Ebus said seven children were also hurt when a bomb exploded Sept. 26 near the Datu Gumbay Elementary School, which served as a temporary refugee shelter in the town.

Seven people, including five children were also killed Sept. 8 after a military plane fired on a civilian boat in Datu Piang town in Maguindanao province.

The military denied all allegations of human rights violations and blamed leftist and militant organizations for what it called black propaganda. “We need to verify all these accounts and other allegations of human rights violations, but as far as the military is concerned, the duty of the soldiers is to protect the lives and properties of civilians,” said Lt. Col. Julieto Ando, a spokesman for the Army’s 6th Infantry Division.

Several Filipino human rights groups have blamed both government soldiers and MILF rebels in the escalation of hostilities and the mounting crisis in Mindanao.

Moro rebels were also being blamed for deadly attacks against civilian targets in Mindanao provinces in August after the MILF, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group, failed to sign a homeland deal with the government.

Because of the attacks, President Gloria Arroyo scrapped the Muslim ancestral domain deal with the rebels and disbanded the government team negotiating with the MILF. (Mindanao Examiner)

Groups Release Findings Of Humanitarian Mission In Southern Philippines

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Body believed to be of missing UP students exhumed in Pangasinan

The female body believed to belong to one of the missing University of the Philippines students was exhumed Thursday in Labrador, Pangasinan for DNA examination.

It was brothers Raymond and Reynaldo Manalo, who were allegedly abducted by the military on February 2006, who told human rights group Karapatan that a body of a woman burned found in Labrador in August 2007 could belong to Sherilyn Cadapan.

Cadapan and fellow UP student Karen Empeño and farmer Manuel Merino were abducted allegedly by the military. The three were reportedly seen in the rest house of Master Sergeant Donald Caigas of the 24th Infantry Battalion in Barangay Banog, Bolinao, Pangasinan in 2006.

The Commission on Human Rights, some forensic experts and families of Cadapan and Empeño were present when the burned body was exhumed.

The body will be flown to Manila to gather DNA samples.

Forensics experts from the National Science Research Institute of the University of the Philippines (UP-NSRI) and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) were the ones set to gather the DNA samples.

The UP-NSRI team was said to be headed by forensics experts Dr. Ma. Corazon Ungria and Dr. Raquel Fortun, while the CHR group is led by Dr. Renante Basas. Human rights group Karapatan also brought in Philippine Health Alliance for Human Rights medical expert Dr. Reginald Pamugas.

The Manalo brothers raised this possibility after Manuel Merino, a farmer who was reportedly abducted with Cadapan and fellow UP student Karen Empeño, was purportedly burned by members of the military in Limay, Bataan in November 2006. Raymond said he witnessed the killing of Merino.

Reports of sightings of Cadapan, Empeno and Merino in the rest house of Master Sergeant Donald Caigas of the 24th IB at Barangay Banog, Bolinao, Pangasinan in 2006 also pushed Erlinda Cadapan, mother of Sherlyn, to request for the DNA examination.

Karapatan said that the delayed response from CHR stalled the examination. Public information officer Ruth Cervantes stated that they requested assistance from CHR in October last year, but did not receive any feedback.

Erlinda then sought the help of NSRI in December. NSRI agreed to dispatch their forensics team, but also required the participation of CHR. They said that government representation is part of the protocol in cases where the body is still unidentified.

Search for missing UP students, farmer may end in Bataan

Hopes of finding the remains of two missing UP students and other victims of extra-judicial killings were raised Monday after a former military detachment in Bataan was identified as the place where they may have been killed or buried.

Raymond Manalo, who escaped from an alleged forced detention by elements of the 56th Infantry Batallion of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), led a fact-finding team Monday in identifying three graves of possible victims of extra-judicial kilings in a purported former Army detachment here in barangay Bliss, Limay, Bataan.

Manalo said one of these graves is where Manuel Merino, a farmer who was reportedly abducted by the military along with missing UP students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño last June 2006, was buried.

Manalo said he saw members of the 24th Infantry Batallion burn Merino's dead body in a vacant area inside this former Army detachment in Bataan.

"The soldiers led Tatay Manuel [Merino] out of the room where they held us in chains. They said [Gen.] Palparan is just going to talk to him," Manalo said in relating the incident. After a few minutes, however, Manalo heard somebody groan followed by gunshots. Merino was reportedly killed June 10, 2007.

Manalo and his brother, Reynaldo, were allegedly seized by members of the 56th Infantry Batallion on February 14, 2006. They stayed in this Bataan detachment along with Merino, Cadapan, and Empeño from November 2006 to June 2007.

The excavation in this village in Bataan is expected to be finished tomorrow.

If a body is found in one of the graves, it will be sent to the National Forensic Science Research Training Institute for DNA examination.

Forensic pathologist Dr. Rachel Fortun of the University of the Philippines will oversee the DNA testing.

Search for evidence

In a press statement, the human rights group, Karapatan, said Raymond provided them with a sketch of the site where "according to the survivor, he saw Merino being burned and where other captives were killed or brought dead by soldiers."

The Commmission on Human Rights Chair Leila de Lima and representatives of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights joined the fact-finding team led by Karapatan.

"Excavation will be made in search of evidence that could further corroborate the credible testimony of Manalo and help trace the victims and their identities," Karapatan secretary-general Marie Hilao-Enriquez and public information officer Ruth Cervantes, said.

"Manalo's survival is strong evidence that state security forces who formerly occupied the site have used the place as detention area as well as a place to torture and keep incommunicado the victims of enforced disappearance," they said.

The Supreme Court recently upheld a Court of Appeals (CA) ruling which granted a writ of amparo to "escaped desparacidos" Raymond Manalo and his brother, Reynaldo.

The two escaped from their "military abductors after 18 months of detention," Karapatan said.
The CA decision had said "there is now a clear and credible evidence that the three missing persons, Sherlyn Cadapan, Karen Empeño and Manuel Merino, are being detained in military camps and bases under the 7th Infantry Division. Being not held for lawful cause, they should be immediately released from detention."

Karapatan said that "three days after [the CA decision], on September 20, the Philippine Army spokesperson, Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner issued a statement that the three missing persons were nowhere to be found in any Army camp where their relatives and supporters claimed they were detained."

Survivor revisits site where UP students abducted

Manuel Merino reportedly died a few steps away from the last place where he spent most of his remaining days– in a kitchen, where he and fellow alleged abductee Raymond Manalo cooked adobo and kaldereta for the soldiers of the 24th Infantry Battalion in a makeshift detachment at Barangay Bliss, Limay, Bataan.

“We were assigned to cook,” Manalo said. “We made viands from the cows that the soldiers stole,” he told abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak.

Aside from preparing and serving meals, the two of them, along with Manalo’s brother Reynaldo, also cleaned the 300-500 square meter camp and gathered firewood.

The Manalo brothers met Merino in the camp at the same time they were introduced to missing UP students and suspected New People’s Army members Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño. That was in November 2006.

Cadapan, Empeño and Merino were reportedly abducted by members of the military in Hagonoy, Bulacan on June 26, 2006.

Raymond and his brother were allegedly seized from their house in Idlefonso, Bulacan by suspected members of the civilian armed forces geographical unit on February 14 of the same year.

Based on Raymond’s account, the five of them separately made the rounds of the military’s camps and safe houses in Central Luzon before they were taken to the detachment in Barangay Bliss where they spent around seven months holed up in huts that they themselves made.

Almost two years after, however, only one of them would return to the camp alive. The Manalo brothers were able to escape from their captors in July last year.

Raymond retraced his steps to the Bataan detachment Monday to look for the body of his fellow “cook” and friend, whom he fondly calls ‘Tay Manuel.

What detachment?

Death seemed close, according to Raymond, two days after Cadapan and Empeño disappeared from the camp in the first week of June 2007.

“Karen and Sherlyn were put in a bodega (storage room) where their feet were both chained. I saw them because I brought them food,” he said.

Raymond marked the torture site in the almost nonexistent camp Monday, one of the almost 15 areas he located in the green expanse where the detachment was built.

Some of the markers read “kubo ni Kim,” “kubo ni Robin,” kubo ni Edwin and Marnak,” with the names standing as pseudonyms for the soldiers who allegedly held them captive.

The bodega was sandwiched between two mango trees. Raymond said it was the only structure made of hollow blocks, as the rest were made of bamboo and cogon.

The other one which was also made of concrete material was the place of Master Sgt. Donald Caigas in the detachment. “He was the boss in the camp,” Raymond said.

These materials were hardly present in the area, however. Aside from one or two slabs of cement that stuck out from an otherwise prevalent mass of brown soil, there were no other signs which showed that a camp did exist in Barangay Bliss.

It was the same argument that the Armed Forces of the Philippines would raise. They denied that they had a camp in the said site.

Last July 2008, when Leny and Lolita Robiños inspected army camps in Bataan to look for their relative Romulos Robiños and friend Ryan Supan, both reportedly abducted by elements of the 69th IB in Angeles City, Pampanga on November 17, 2006, local army members crossed out Barangay Bliss from their list.

“They were told that the army only has one camp in Bataan. That’s in Barangay Dalae,” Ruth Cervantes, spokesperson of human rights group Karapatan said. Karapatan is currently helping the families of Robiños, Cadapan, Empeño and other loved ones of alleged members of human rights violations find their missing kin.

But Raymond was adamant. He said that he could clearly recall each nook and cranny of the detachment, from the hut where they slept, to the area where Merino was allegedly burnt and buried.

Private land

The detachment, however, was never really that of the army’s, or at least the land where it was built.

One of the reasons why the excavation did not easily push through was the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), the government agency which has the authority to probe human rights violations, had a hard time ascertaining who the owner of the camp site is.

“Lands where camps stood are not owned by the military. They are just leased to them. Sometimes there would not even be lease documents,” CHR Chairperson Leila de Lima explained.

Cervantes said that they requested for assistance in the fact-finding mission from the CHR in a dialogue with De Lima last July. After three weeks without response, they sought additional help from Sen. Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero, who heads the Senate human rights committee.

CHR and the Senate committee on human rights eventually found out who the owner was and asked for his permission to dig his land to search for Merino’s body.

It was not clear, however, if the owner of the land knew that the land he leased to the army was turned into a camp site.

Local folks in Limay reportedly said that they saw soldiers enter the area. SPO1 Honorio Esplena, one of the police officers who guarded the site during the excavation earlier, said that he did hear people talk about a detachment site in Barangay Bliss.

He, however, did not personally see it nor did he chance upon any soldier who belonged to the 24th IB.

No family

Now with thick foliage surrounding the area, it’s almost hard to see the far end of the site, a good 20 meters away from the supposed gate one of the detachment, where Merino was allegedly buried.

But Raymond said there was not much grass and plants last year, not enough to block his view of the camp’s exit, at least.

“I could see through the space in the bodega’s ceiling,” Raymond said, as he relayed what transpired the night Merino died.

After Cadapan and Empeño disappeared from the camp, the three of them – Raymond, Reynaldo and Merino – replaced them in the storage room. They were also bound in chains, he added.

They were in the room less than two nights. Then Merino was dragged outside, naked, handcuffed and blindfolded. Raymond said he heard the soldiers told the distressed farmer that then Maj. Gen. Palparan would just talk to him. He was led to the second guard house, which was just a stone’s throw away from the kitchen.

But Merino never returned. The last time Raymond saw him, his body was allegedly engulfed in flames.

Raymond easily saw the spot where Merino was reportedly buried. He went on to identify two other graves, which were almost 5-10 meters away from each other.

The 27-year-old Bulacan native said that he witnessed the soldiers of the 24th IB bring 6-8 people to the camp, some of them already dead, some of them yet to be allegedly killed, raising the possibility that other bodies could be found in the area.

As of Monday, items such as shoes, seven bottles, and burnt cloth were found from two of the sites. No body has yet been found.

Aside from Raymond, however, no other person has expressed an earnest desire to recover Merino’s body. Cervantes said that up until now, no one has stepped forward and introduced themselves as Merino’s family member or friend.

“It’s hard to locate his family. Remember that we just included him in the petition for the writ of amparo for Cadapan and Empeño because no one would file a petition for him,” she said.

Closure

The current fact-finding mission came seven months after a cadaver believed to be either that of Cadapan and Empeño was exhumed in Barangay Bolo, Pangasinan.

Results of a DNA examination by the University of the Philippines-Natural Science Research Institute revealed that it belonged to neither, however.

Dr. Rachel Fortun would oversee the DNA testing of the bodies that would be found in Limay, Bataan.

Erlinda Cadapan and Concepcion Empeño, mothers of the two missing UP students, said they are prepared to see the bodies of their daughters from the graves.

“We have already accepted the fact they could already be gone,” Empeño said. “What we need now is just closure.”

For Raymond, however, closure could come only in two ways: that Merino’s body be found, and the military admit that it once used Barangay Bliss, Limay, Bataan as a prison for their alleged captives. (With reports from Atom Araullo and Purple Romero / ABS-CBN, Newsbreak)

Davao City Council Members Under Threat

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 11, 2008) – Three members of the Davao City Council are allegedly the target of assassinations in Mindanao, the official Philippine News Agency reported Saturday.

It said Davao City Deputy Mayor Sara Duterte will meet with security officials in a bid to confirm assassination plots against the trio.

Duterte said City Councilor Arnolfo Ricardo Cabling reportedly is in the hit-list of the New People’s Army (NPA) and an assassin had been sent down from the mountains of Paquibato district to carry out the hit job.

City Councilors Peter Lavina and Angela Trinidad, known for their leftist bent, are also the subject of the same operations apparently by soldiers.

Cabling said he does not know why he could be in the hit list, saying he has no debt to the people. Cabling is the chair of the committee on housing, rural and urban development, and has lately been praised for his efforts to provide socialized housing to the homeless urban poor.

On the other hand, Lavina has deplored reports saying he has a house in far-flung Barangay Tamayong in Calinan district that he loaned out to communist rebels.

Trinidad has complained she is being tailed by suspicious persons and that allegedly could only be from the military.

Trinidad, daughter of the late militant firebrand Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) chairperson Erasto Librado is a ranking official of the leftist Bayan Muna, branded by the military as a legal front organization of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

Christians, Muslims Assert Peace Amid War Mongering: Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project

MANILA, Philippines (Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project / Sept. 25, 20080 - The prospect of serious renewed fighting breaking out in Mindanao after the end of Ramadan has got Christian and Muslim organizations trying to work out how best to help keep the peace and kick-start renewed talks while helping out in the huge relief effort needed.

According to Bernie Aquino, secretariat member of the Peace for Life, a global solidarity interfaith network of peace advocates and the National Council of Churches of the Philippines (NCCP), the biggest federation of Protestant churches in the Philippines, her group will visit the conflict affected areas in the coming days.

Members of the Bantay Ceasefire (Ceasefire Watch) worry what the coming weeks may bring. The group was formed in 2003 after the last crisis in Mindanao to help monitor and facilitate relations between the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

They consider their work up until now to have been a great success. “We have created a space for peace,” insists Omar Unggui, barangay (village) captain of Dalingaoen in Pikit, North Cotabato. The five-year-old initiative started in the adjacent barangay of Nalapaan, eventually attracting six other neighboring villages in Mindanao.

Through the group, the communities maintained a continual dialogue throughout the past five years with both the military and the MILF leaders to avoid renewed clashes.

An uneasy truce held until the recent clashes in August. Now Unggui’s message to government and all concerned parties: “Don’t give us food, give us peace.”

But it will be a tough call. Pikit is hemmed in by many MILF camps, foremost among them Camp Buliok and Camp Raja Muda, both of which are now army targets.

Renewed hostilities after the government’s botched signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) has already killed 83 people and injured 101 people, according to the government’s National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC). The real figure though could be higher.

Dialogue with the President

Representatives of the more than half a million evacuees in Mindanao have traveled to Manila in mid-September to meet and petition President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in Manila to order a halt to the military operations pursue new round of peace talks.

They included representatives of the Mindanao Peoples Caucus (MPC), a tri-people alliance of Christians, Muslims and Lumads (indigenous peoples).

“We fully supported the process that was designed to bring peace to Mindanao. However, some were not ready and some were not consulted,” said lawyer Mary Ann Arnado, MPC coordinator. “The situation calls for a deeper reflection on our peace advocacy,”

Ironically, many evacuees in the 17-man delegation who met with the President had visited her earlier after the last crisis in Mindanao in 2003. Many maintain it was this meeting that helped Arroyo decide to call a ceasefire that led to peace talks and ultimately the failed MOA-AD.
Their positive experience in 2003 explains the evacuees’ high spirits, even while noting that President Arroyo claimed the number of evacuees from this fighting to be a tenth of the number the NDCC is reporting.

The group also expressed concern and apprehension over the military’s denial late last week that the president directed a halt to the air raids amid Ramadan.

Father Edward Vazquez, one of the delegation members from Pikit raised the issue of the evacuees’ mental and physical well-being.

His own congregation had already donated more than PhP 100,000 (USD 2,174) worth of relief goods and is now mobilizing other parishes to support the displaced.

“We are still preparing for what might happen after the end of Ramadan,” he told the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project.

NDCC data indicates that the fighting between government soldiers and the MILF that started in some 15 villages in four towns in North Cotabato has spread to over 68 municipalities and five cities in 11 provinces across Central Mindanao.

In an update, NDCC administrator Glenn J. Rabonza, reported that internally displaced persons (IDPs) in 123 official evacuation centers had already reached 528,053 during the peak of evacuations. But by September 21, the number of IDPs here had reportedly decreased to 14,048 families or 69,450 IDPs.

“Many of the displaced took the risk of either returning to their communities or moving into the interior areas to stay with relatives. With homes, schools, mosques and chapels burned, those who cannot be accommodated in the formal evacuation centers set up informal, makeshift or house-based evacuation sites outside the formal evacuation centers,” said Dakila Aquino, a staff of the Citizen’s Disaster Response Center, a non-government organization that joined a government-NGO relief mission in August and September.

Some 51,258 families or 253,255 persons were staying outside evacuation centers as of September 21, according to NDCC. This was an increase from the 48,601 IDP families, or 239,979 persons, registered on September 17.

The increase in the number is parallel to increase in the number of evacuation centers from 107 to 123 due to newly opened evacuation centers in the towns of Datu Anggal Midtimbang, Datu Piang, Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Shariff Aguak and Talayan in Maguindanao.

The IDPs now face problems of high morbidity and mortality brought by inaccessibility of areas due to safety and security reasons, congested evacuation centers and lack of medical services.
NDCC figures showed the total cost of damage to now stand at PhP 121.5 (USD 2.6 million). Of this figure, PhP 38.5 (USD 836,956) are in infrastructure and PhP 83 million (USD 1.8 million) in agriculture. Some 275 houses are listed as totally or partially destroyed.

The combined financial assistance provided by government agencies, local and international NGOs, and United Nations agencies now stands at PhP 89.3 million (USD 1.9 million). More than PhP 50 million (USD 1 million) of this has been provided by government agencies, local government units and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

Relief missions

The Council for the Welfare of Children Sub-Committee on Children Affected by Armed Conflict and Displacement (CWC-SC CAACD) called on local NGOs to help out in North Cotabato after fighting broke out there last month.

In their report, the entire team expressed fears that if conflict and displacement continue, the distress and anxiety experienced by children may worsen. The team fears the impact of suspended schooling will force students to drop out of the system for good, affecting their future chances to find jobs and livelihoods.

The group also reported on the voluntary separation of Muslim and Christian evacuees in some centers in Pikit and Aleosan, apparently caused by mutual distrust attributed to the conflict. They noted that some evacuees stayed in their villages during the day but went to the evacuation centers at night for safety reasons.

In Pikit, about 30 percent of IDPs have reportedly now returned home mostly to the villages around Aleosan and Midsayap. Those staying behind are mostly those who have lost their homes to the fighting and those staying with relatives or simply camping rough. (Nora Gamolo, the author is a columnist and former senior desk editor of The Manila Times and was a finalist of the 2007 Jaime V. Ongpin Award for Excellence in Journalism. Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project)

Rebels, Troops Clash Anew In Mindanao

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Soldiers Rescue 2 Kids Kidnapped In South RP

A photo released by the Philippine military show the two rescued children and their parents in Sulu province.

SULU, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / September 21, 2008) – Government soldiers rescued Sunday two children who were reported kidnapped in the southern Philippine province of Sulu, police said.

Police said two people were also arrested after soldiers swooped down on a house in the village of Anuling in Patikul town where the children – Ben Austine Doyola, 3, and his brother Benedict, 2, - were being held.

The children were allegedly kidnapped last week in the family’s home in Jolo town and their captors reportedly demanded P 1 million ransom. It was not immediately known if the kidnapping had to do with old debts.

Police said the parents of the children Elena Doyola, 26, and Bienvenido Doyola, Jr, sought the help of authorities in rescuing the two kids.

Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan has ordered police to file criminal charges against those arrested, Julmina Hatae and her father Jamiri Jalisan and other who were involved in the kidnapping of the children.

“Justice must be served and let this be a warning to other criminals that authorities will eventually catch up on you, sooner or later,” Tan said.

The military tagged the woman’s husband, Hajal Hatae, as behind the kidnapping, but it was not immediately known whether he has links with rebel groups or not. (With a report from Nickee Butlangan)

RP Troops Assault Mosque Where MILF Rebels Pray, Military Denies Accusations

COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / September 13, 2008) –

Philippine troops attacked a mosque where rebels were praying in the restive region of Mindanao, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front said, but the army denied the accusations Saturday.

The MILF said security forces launched the attack while rebels were praying Friday in the village of Daliao in Sarangani's Maasim town where the MILF maintains several encampments.

The MILF said one rebel was killed in the noontime assault and condemned the attack on the mosque. The assault triggered a fire fight that killed ten government soldiers, the MILF said. A military said at least 20 rebels died in the clash.

"Firing at mosque, a sacred religious symbol of the Muslims, is an attack to all the Muslims the world over. This is an act totally disrespectful of the cultural and religious symbols of the Muslims," the MILF said in a statement.

It was not the first time that government forces attacked mosques while battling rebels in Mindanao, the MILF said. It said security forces also attacked mosques in 2003 during an offensive against the MILF.

Army Lt. Col. Roland Bautista, spokesman for the 10th Infantry Division, said two soldiers were wounded in the clash with about 100 rebels. He also denied troops attacked any mosque in the village.

"The rebels were advancing toward civilian areas and soldiers stopped them from getting near those areas. We deny MILF accusations that troops attacked the mosque," Bautista told the Mindanao Examiner.

He said troops also overran a rebel encampment in the village and destroyed several bunkers.

Manila suspended peace talks with the MILF after rebel forces mounted a series of deadly attacks last month in Mindanao that left dozens of civilians dead. The rebels launched the attacks after the aborted signing of the homeland deal which would have granted some four million Muslims their homeland in more than 700 villages in Mindanao.

President Gloria Arroyo eventually scrapped the deal and abolished the government team negotiating peace with the MILF.

Although the seven-year old peace talks were stalled, a fragile cease-fire still exists in the restive region, but sporadic clashes between rebels and troops are also threatening the fragile truce accord. (With a report from Romy Bwaga)

Extrajudicial Killings And The NPA

MANILA, Philippines (Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project / September 11, 2008) - Whenever the subject of extrajudicial killings comes up in the media, roundtables or public events, the focus is typically on the role of the military, the security services or aligned paramilitary forces. Seldom is the spotlight put on the actions of the New People’s Army (NPA).

This is understandable but up to a point only. As legal guardians of the State, the government and its agencies have the greatest responsibility to observe the law. Those people who believe they cannot trust the armed forces and the police to protect and serve without favor or discrimination will turn elsewhere for support –to the NPA perhaps.

The NPA claims the State is not on the side of ‘the people’ and so is fighting to protect their rights –defending them against injustices it believes are committed by the government and its operatives.

But when – if ever – does one injustice justify another? Should the media tread lightly and allow the NPA to avoid charges that it is abusing human rights simply because the State is too? Because it considers itself revolutionary does that mean it can pick and choose what laws, if any, to observe? And what of international laws if not Philippine laws?

A GMANews.TV story on September 8 reported a denial by an NPA spokeswoman that it had castrated a government militiaman in Bicol before ‘executing’ him on August 10. “Such a dastardly act is not the way of the NPA,” Theresa Magtanggol, NPA Nerissa San Juan Command spokeswoman was quoted as saying. While reportedly confirming the execution, she maintained the NPA “adheres to the Comprehensive Agreement for the Respect of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and the Geneva Convention”.

The GMANews.TV reporter might have politely but firmly interrupted her then and there highlighting the contradiction in her statement. Allegations of mutilation aside, it is not possible for the NPA to admit ‘executing’ Ryan Samonte, a member of the Citizen’s Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) while claiming it is abiding by the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law.

“As it is prohibited to kill protected persons during an international armed conflict, so it is prohibited to kill those taking no active part in hostilities which constitute an internal armed conflict,” so ruled the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in November 1998. Even when it is unclear whether a situation is an armed conflict, human rights law forbids extrajudicial “executions.”

In their claimed killing of Ryan Samonte, those responsible are plainly guilty under international law. That needs to be reported and made absolutely clear by the media. The fact that somebody claims to be abiding by the Geneva Conventions or international humanitarian law doesn’t make it so – especially when they have just ‘admitted’ their forces killed somebody in cold blood.

I use the word ‘killed’ and the phrase ‘in cold-blood’ deliberately because using the word ‘execution’ is to give Ryan Samonte’s murder a degree of legal legitimacy it simply doesn’t have.

Let us give Theresa Magtanggol the benefit of doubt for argument’s sake and say that while referring to international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions, she is not in fact familiar with them. But it will benefit us all if media practitioners can immediately pick up upon and challenge statements such as these in the future.

Again, put aside for the moment the issue of alleged castration and the questionable morality of trying to remedy injustices against one group or community while committing them against others. The fact is however much the NPA or state death squads and vigilantes try and dress up or justify what they do, they deny justice, commit murder, and are guilty under international humanitarian law. What they do does not bring security any more than it brings justice or fights injustice. What they do helps only to perpetuate a climate of fear, impunity and continuing sense of lawlessness.

As media practitioners, just as we need to make sure we do not employ derogatory terms such as ‘Reds’, so too we must make sure not to allow people to misappropriate the word ‘execution’ or provide groups of any kind a platform to speak out unchallenged when, through their own admission, they are guilty of human rights abuses.

While we owe it to Ryan Samonte and his family, we ultimately owe it to ourselves if we are sincere in trying to build a more just and humane society.(Alan Davis / Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project)

Mindanao War, The Battle For Propaganda

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / September 10, 2008) – Mindanao Island in the southern Philippines has become a battle ground, not only of skirmishes between Filipino troops and Moro rebels, but of their propaganda.

Militant groups and political activists, including leftist organizations opposed to President Gloria Arroyo’s rule, have also joined in the propaganda war. Communist rebels too, are now calling the Filipinos to topple the US-backed democratic, but scandals-laden Arroyo government.

Politicians who wanted publicity also are issuing statements about the situation in Mindanao. And civilians are paying a high price for the senseless wars in the restive region.

Since fighting broke out last month, more than 200 people had died and over half a million more are in temporary shelters put up for war refugees in Mindanao and the hostilities continue.

Seven mostly Muslim civilians, including children and a pregnant woman, who died Monday from a military air strike Maguindanao’s Datu Piang town added to the long list of war victims in the southern Philippines.

And the latest casualties had been used both by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Philippine military in their propaganda.

The rebels accused the government forces of killing innocent civilians and the military insisted those killed were either MILF members or had been used as shield by guerrillas fleeing the offensive. And this happened during Ramadan, Islam’s holiest month.

Militant groups and other allied organizations were quick to condemn the killings and at the same time pursued calls for Arroyo to step down. And those calling for Arroyo’s ouster were tagged by police and military as communist rebels and if they are members of any Muslim militant groups, authorities would tag them as terrorists and listed as enemy of the state.

The Kawagib Moro Human Rights Organization on Wednesday said the attacks launched by the military troops were no longer against the MILF, but an attack to Muslim civilians and communities.

It said the military initially denied the incident, but later admitted that the air strike had killed the civilians. Security officials had insisted government plane used machine guns and rockets to put down the rebels and not bombs as reported by residents.

“Their statements contradict to what they are doing, and we are used to these lies of the military whenever they committed human rights violations. They denied they used bombs but later admitted they dropped rockets to scare MILF. They said those killed were rebels, but photos and reports showed that all the victims are minors and civilians,” Bai Ali Indayla, Kawagib’s spokesperson said.

“The government and its troops are again showing its military might and it seems that there is an undeclared Martial Law here. What the military committed is a big violation to the International Humanitarian Law, the Protocols of War and Human Rights and the military officials in command should be held accountable and for disrespecting the rights of the Muslim civilians to peacefully observe the holy month of Ramadan,” Indayla said.

The Philippine Army in Maguindanao province branded the slain children as “child warriors” of the MILF.

The Children’s Rehabilitation Center (CRC), a non-government organization helping children in armed conflict cope with trauma, also deplored the military’s aerial attack on the civilians.

“It is doubly appalling that the military persistently use the ruse of branding children as child warriors whenever they are made to account for their human rights violations. How can these young kids mistaken for children warriors?” asked Maria Esmeralda Macaspac, CRC executive director.

Macaspac scored the military’s penchant for branding children they had killed in their operations as “child warriors.” “The women and children were already fleeing from the military operations in their barangay (village) when they were hit. Would their lives be considered as mere collateral damage?”

She said that it is already inexcusable that the military continues to fail to draw the line between civilians and combatants in their military operations. “Many civilians have already been killed and hundreds of thousands more have been forcibly displaced by the military operations. Every time the government declares war, the civilians are the first to be killed and be displaced rather than be the first to be put to safety,” Macaspac said.

The Maoist-inspired Moro Resistance and Liberation Organization also urged citizens to rise up against Arroyo.

“The Moro Resistance and Liberation Organization urges the Moro people to live out the spirit and call of the Qur'an to pursue peace and justice and fight against oppression and tyranny by intensifying the struggle for the self-determination and frustrating the attacks of the US-Arroyo regime.”

“The MRLO urges the MILF to continue to pursue the path of revolutionary armed struggle and to unite with other revolutionary forces to fight the fascist US-Arroyo regime. The struggle for the right to ancestral domain must continue and commanders who are engaged in tactical offensives against the AFP and the interventionist US troops must be fully supported,” Omar Mukhtar, the group’s leader said.

The outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines also condemned the killings of the civilians in the air strike and put the blamed on the Arroyo government and the US military for the fighting in Mindanao.

“The people must concentrate their anger and condemnation on the US-Arroyo regime as directly responsible on the deaths and damages of the people in Mindanao caused by the escalation of the armed clashes between the AFP and the MILF.”

“The problem can be rooted to the US-dictated two pronged militarist policy of the regime which is the all-out war against the revolutionary movement led by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) while neutralizing the Moro secessionist movement of the MILF thru a deceptive and bogus peace process to finish the revolutionary movement in 2010,” rebel spokesman Frank Fernandez said.

The MILF is the country’s largest Muslim rebel group which is currently negotiating peace with Manila, but talks had been suspended after a series of rebel attacks led by Ameril Kato and Abdurahman Macapaar killed dozens of civilians in North Cotabato, Lanao del Norte, Sarangani, Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat provinces.

The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, including the Organization of the Islamic Conference have expressed grave concern over the fighting and the humanitarian crisis in Mindanao.

Arroyo has ordered security forces to pursue Kato and Macapaar, but at the same said that “violence must stop, order must be restored, and peace must be our goal. There is no room for wanton violence against innocent civilians.”

“It is in the best interest of all Filipinos, Muslims and Christians, to end the violence that has held that part of our country back,” she said.

“Continued fighting and war is no alternative to a lasting peace. The government is on the side of peace and needs the support of all Filipinos, Christian and Muslim alike, if this opportunity for peace is to be realized and if the country is to prosper.”

“We must now secure peace, order and stability in the region and then reassure all the people that we can then move ahead with any broad-based discussion on the peace process – this includes bringing relief to affected refugees and victims and bringing to justice those purveyors of violence,” Arroyo said, but for political activists the statement was just another government propaganda aimed at masking the real situation in Mindanao, where over half a million hungry war refugees are housed in temporary shelters. (Mindanao Examiner)