Freedom of Information: Good Theory, Bad Practice

Journalists are among those usually denied access to public information despite the Constitutional guarantee. Information is either confidential or no longer available, leaving them and more so the people clueless on how their country is being run. (Photo by Claire Delfin)

MANILA, Philippines (Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project / August 13, 2009) - In the Philippines, free access to information is guaranteed by the Constitution – but not yet codified by law: The result is the right to information is very much protected in principle – but not in fact. Despite judicial affirmation of such a right, the lack of a clear and defining law has helped to ensure denial of access to official information remains widespread across the country.

The trend has moreover widened under the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo according to Attorney Nepomuceno Malaluan, co-convenor of the Access to Information Network (ATIN).

“While the long-standing problems cut across all previous regimes, this current administration has displayed an alarming swing towards institutional secrecy,” Malaluan says.

For instance, party-list group Akbayan was met with flat denials to access the text of the proposed agreement during the recent negotiation of the controversial Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement, a bilateral trade and investment treaty between Japan and the Philippines.

The same also happened to the Transparency and Accountability Network (TAN), which was refused access to the report of retired Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. on electoral reforms. The report was seen as significant for TAN, which advocates for electoral reforms.

Malacañang Palace likewise sought to restrict access to the report of the Independent Commission to Address Media and Activist Killings, but eventually gave in after persistent calls from cause-oriented groups.

Denials of access to various government loan agreements and government contracts has been a consistent practice despite a specific provision in the Bill of Rights that requires information on foreign loans obtained or guaranteed by the government to be made available to the public.

Journalists, too

Journalists are not exempted from routine refusals to block access to information despite the country being perceived as enjoying a relatively free press.

“Every journalist who’s had to look for information from public agencies has a horror story to tell -- or at least a frustrating and infuriating tale which usually includes being given the run around and being told outright that certain public records are ‘confidential,’ or that the particular agency just does not release the information being sought,” writes journalism professor Luis Teodoro in his article on access to information - The Key is in the Exemptions.

In most cases, he says, journalists have to settle with non-traditional and informal approaches in getting the required information.

Ed Lingao of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) agrees and adds: “Parang utang na loob mo pang mabigyan ng impormasyon (It’s like you owe them a debt of gratitude if you’re given the information).”

In the last 10 years, PCIJ has documented 14 major instances when they were met with “flimsy excuses” from 12 national agencies in their effort to secure public information relating to its investigative reporting.

In its article entitled “Multiple requests for access to info meet with flat denials,” PCIJ says these requested data and documents included civil work contracts, contractors of government projects, loan agreements, and the assets and liabilities and net worth (SALNs) of justices of the Supreme Court, generals of the Armed Forces and the political appointees of Malacañang and other executive agencies.

Requests for information were made in writing three to five times, and were followed up by as much as 18 to 21 phone calls to the agencies concerned. PCIJ also had to deal with 6 to 9 various officials in the same agencies, and had to wait for 56 days to six months to get any response on its requests.

The situation for those journalists in the provinces is worse. Typically they are referred by local agencies to the national office to obtain public documents.

Things got worse for journalists on February 24, 2006 when President Arroyo issued Presidential Proclamation 1017 which placed the country under a state of emergency amid an alleged plot by “military adventurists.” The order sought to limit the functions of the press to report issues that the government deemed to be precarious to national security.

It went on with a statement from then chairman of the National Telecommunications Commission, Ronald Solis that the government could shut down any television or a radio station during a state of emergency.

President Arroyo lifted the proclamation a week later after reported pressure from economic advisers who maintained the country’s business reputation was suffering.

Red Batario, executive director of the Center for Community Journalism and Development, says information kept secret is a legacy of Marcos martial rule that has lingered on.

Harder for ordinary folks

Ordinary members of the public meanwhile have an even harder time securing their rights to public information than journalists.

“The poor are still chained to the shackles of ignorance. Aside from organized citizens groups and people’s organizations, a large majority of poor Filipinos are unable to claim their rights simply because they don’t know how, and what these are, to begin with,” writes Batario in his article “Our Right to Know.”

Batario adds that information, when democratized and made widely available, allows citizens to actively participate on issues that have serious repercussions for governance.

“The ouster of Joseph Estrada midway through his presidency illustrates the potent power of the information when citizens, shocked by the proceedings of the impeachment trial covered extensively by the press, took the streets to call for his resignation.”

But Batario also lauds certain practices in some places in the Philippines. The Ulat sa Banwaan (Report to the People) of Albay province and Batad in Iloilo are few examples of how active citizen participation has opened up information flows and helped to ensure greater transparency in local government processes.

Information Law

But as these models come in extremely short supply, a Freedom of Information Act becomes necessary, says ATIN.

It adds it is only through an informed press and citizenry that Filipinos can effectively and reasonably participate at all levels of social, political and economic decision-making.

The proposed law was passed in the House of Representatives last year, but it has languished in the Senate.

Among others, House Bill 3732 provides clear, uniform, and speedy procedure for public access to information. It also provides mechanics for the compulsory duty of government agencies to disclose information on government transactions.

The bill enumerates a narrow list of clearly defined and reasonable exceptions. While the general rule is that all information in the hands of government must be accessible to the public, it adds that there are times when it is in the public interest to keep some information confidential – for example ongoing criminal operations.

But the bill also allows an opportunity and right for citizens to override an exception whenever there is greater public interest in the disclosure of information.

It provides clear criminal liabilities for violation of the right to information, and at the same time, adequate and accessible remedies when cases of this nature arise.

And more importantly, the bill spells out numerous mechanisms for the active promotion of openness in government, which is seen as a vital safeguard against rampant corruption that has weighed down the country’s economic performance.

“Secrecy in government has given public officials a wide room for maneuver and greater cover for corruption,” says ATIN’s Malaluan. It is widely reported and accepted that more than 20 per cent of the country’s annual budget is lost to corruption and mismanagement, thanks to an annual budget process that is so lacking in transparency and oversight.

Nevertheless, ATIN remains optimistic that the bill can still be passed before the 14th Congress ends next year. The Senate may be lacklustre and sluggish but it does not, so far, harbour any strong opposition against the bill.

And that is a good sign for advocates to push the bill’s passage much forward. After all, there is no better time -- than now -- to claim that most basic of rights, the right to information.(By Claire Delfin. The author is a television news reporter of GMA Network, Inc. and is a regular contributor of special reports on women, children, education, health, human rights, and the environment to the network’s news website GMANews.TV.)


Link: http://www.rightsreporting.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6998&Itemid=130

How Many Extrajudicial Killings Have There Been So Far This Year?

MANILA, Philippines (Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project / June 22, 2009) - In Geneva recently speaking in front of the Human Rights Council, UN Special Rapporteur on Summary, Extrajudicial or Arbitrary Executions Philip Alston reported a 70 per cent decrease in the number of unexplained killings since his February 2007 visit here and in his subsequent report.

The highest number of previously reported killings reached 94 in 2007 and 64 in 2008, compared with 220 in 2006, Alston said in his April 2009 report.

In an effort to see if that reported decline is continuing, leveling off, or perhaps even increasing, the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project briefly and very unscientifically scanned through national media reports on extrajudicial killings (EJKs) since January 1, 2009 through until a few days ago. We are of course just two weeks short of a full half year.

It is important to stress that just as our review is by no means a scientific or methodical one, neither did we seek to measure ‘like with like’.

In trying to work out an indicative figure from January to early June on reported suspected EJKs – unexplained killings in Professor Alston’s term- we deliberately sought to include members of the military, the police and the administration who were targeted and killed –some very possibly by armed insurgents.

Developing a list comprised only of activists and so-called “Leftists” we believe will only help ensure the issue remains a very political bone of contention and dispute.

And so we have included agents of the state and also those “accused” of being informers. We have included politicians –but we have specifically not included victims of probable death squads. The number of people who may have been victims of vigilante-style summary justice in and around Southern Mindanao, the Visayas, Manila and elsewhere in the first six months of the year, does though seem very alarmingly high.

Our quick count suggests the Philippines has already suffered around 36 cases of alleged EJKs or summary killings this year. Again, to clarify that at first glance this seems higher than the same period last year – but then last year’s figures counted only activists, journalists and so-called ‘Leftists.’

We should also clarify again that this review is simply based upon what the national media are reporting – yet the national media did not immediately pick up on the shooting on March 31 in Sorsogon of a young widow, Eden Jolloso-Jerus who turned campaigner in the wake of her activist husband being killed two years earlier. Her murder was first reported by Bulatlat.com and then followed up by the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project which published a story that was then widely disseminated in the mainstream media.

There will of course never be an exact figure of how many summary killings happen every year until agreement between competing groups and interests is reached over what exact methodology and criteria should be used.

A proper database and monitoring system is also needed. Even so, the figures each year would remain an approximation –but they would be commonly agreed upon and accepted as the most reliable count available. We ourselves and we suspect many others would very much like to see this happen so as to put the issue and question beyond political debate once and for all.

We hope this may happen in the near future. Such a intervention is sorely needed.

Our tally does though clearly show that there remains a very serious ongoing problem – and a problem that cannot wholly be blamed upon the state. It also reveals clear “hot spots” of alleged EJKs -- in Negros Oriental in central Philippines; the Davao region in the south; and Batangas and Sorsogon in Luzon. (Analysis by Rorie Fajardo in Manila and Alan Davis in London / Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project)

Transparent As a Moonless Night: The Budget Process and Spending

MANILA, Philippines (Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project / June 22, 2009) - With national and local elections now less than a year away, presidential hopefuls have been speaking out on one issue after another.

Yet none of them has so far mentioned anything at all about the national budget process which independent observers claim provides huge opportunities for corruption.

Given seemingly endless allegations of fraud and financial mismanagement of public funds that plague the Philippines and see it scoring so poorly in all number of international reports and surveys, one could be forgiven for expecting contenders for the highest public office to volunteer their ideas and plans for reform: At the very least one might expect them to be challenged to provide them by a media that constantly finds itself reporting on one financial scandal after another.

With the issue of corruption so inextricably linked into the issue of transparency and accountability –people are asking why budgetary reform is not already a key election issue – and how it could be made to be.

It is the main question being asked by the likes of Social Watch Philippines (SWP) – a nongovernmental group pushing for national budget reforms in Congress. It leads the Alternative Budget Initiative (ABI), a campaign involving 60 NGOs which has been trying to monitor the budget process in the legislature since 1996.

SWP claims that public money is routinely stolen for election campaigns, thanks to a less than transparent budget process that government has done nothing to address.

This year’s budget is an all-time high of PhP 1.415 trillion (USD 21 billion) and was set and allocated in a bid to stir economic activity in the midst of a global financial crisis. It includes an economic stimulus fund, which can easily be morphed into a re-election fund, according to SWP co-convenor Leonor Magtolis-Briones.

About 30 per cent of PhP 300 billion (USD 6.4 billion) earmarked for economic stimulus measures has been allocated for non specific infrastructure projects. Such an allocation is on top of what has been provided for the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), which is perceived to be one of the most corrupt of government agencies. The agency is thus enjoying an increase of PhP 17 billion (USD 361 million) in its budget, making it the biggest gainer this fiscal year.

The national budget also includes PhP 3.4 billion (USD 72 million) in additional so-called ‘pork barrel’ allocations to individual legislators to essentially spend as they see fit.

Budget process

According to SWP, the country’s annual budget process is so lacking in transparency and oversight it effectively helps to ensure huge amounts of public money is lost through corruption and mismanagement.

The budget cycle is a long process that for the most part is hidden from public view: Given the space and time it subsequently devotes to covering alleged financial scandals, the media has shown surprisingly little interest in scrutinizing it in any serious way.

Budget preparation runs from January to July when the administration engages in vigorous planning and debate with the different government agencies.

“The President determines the allocation and those who are close to the President get a better deal,” says Magtolis-Briones.

Former budget secretary Emilia Boncodin adds that while agencies are free to propose their own budgets, it is the chief executive who calls the shots. Usually, this depends on the President’s priority programs for the year, the expected revenue targets, and amount of debt the government can source out to fund the budget.

Aside from the allocation granted to DPWH, budgets of the Departments of Agriculture and the Social Welfare and Development also increased by 61 percent and 114.3 percent, respectively this year.

In 2008, the budget was about sustaining economic momentum, according to Malacanang Palace. This came as the Philippines posted a gross domestic product growth rate of 7.3 percent a year earlier, making the country one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia.

The budget was consequently strong in investments for infrastructure, education, health, housing, as well as for science and technology.

The authorization stage of the budgetary process for the following year runs from August through to December when it is presented to and piloted through Congress.

Under the Constitution, Congress is given the “power of the purse.” In reality however, only a few legislators scrutinize the entire budget. It has been widely observed that the Arroyo administration has a very compliant Congress with the majority of members allied to the President.

To all extent and purposes therefore, from a practical point of view, by the time it reaches Congress, the real work has been done and only amendments are made.

“As long as they get their pork barrel, they’re okay. They don’t look at the total picture. The result is a blank check for Malacañang,” claims Magtolis-Briones.

“Only the chairs of the Senate committee on finance and of the House appropriations committee meet regularly to discuss the budget,” she says. “There are no minutes of these meetings.” As a result, serious mistakes are sometimes made – like that of the controversial C-5 Road Project, which was reportedly twice awarded PhP 200 million (USD 4.2 million) within the 2008 budget.

January to December is the execution stage when the budget fort that year should have already been approved, released and used as appropriated by Congress.

The accountability stage is supposed to run concurrently – and yet it is often disregarded because by then the agencies are busy preparing for the new budget: So the budget cycle starts all over again.

Reenacted budget

Even if a noncompliant Congress rejects the budget, the President is allowed a veto. And in the event no budget is approved, the administration can, under the Constitution, reenact – re-spend- the preceding national budget.

At the end of the day, it remains the President’s budget. And a reenacted budget favors the chief executive even more than one that is approved.

“A reenacted budget is like getting away with murder,” says Bukidnon Rep. Teofisto Guingona III.

Apart from the fact that a reenacted budget no longer conforms to the cost of goods and services of the current year, it also leaves new projects unfunded.

In cases of those projects that have already been funded the previous year, it means the allocated funds appear automatically as savings. Yet these savings are not necessarily channeled back to the national treasury. The sitting president is instead allowed to use these ‘savings’ to fund things which may not be identified in the national budget. This can be done without first securing Congressional approval.

Since President Arroyo stepped into office in 2001, there has not been a single year that her administration did not operate on a reenacted budget for at least part of the time. For six years -including 2009- the government operated on a reenacted budget for up to four months of each year. The three other years -- 2001, 2004 and 2006 -- the government used a reenacted budget for the entire fiscal year.

For Rep. Guingona, a reenacted budget is a “badge of shame” for lawmakers. Given the many working hours, it’s a shame that they are not able to pass a very important legislation, the General Appropriations Act, he says.

“But this is purposely done. It’s with a sinister purpose, and not out of laziness,” claims Guingona.

2001 was when then president Joseph Estrada was ousted from power and vice president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo took over. 2004 was an election year. It was the same year when Arroyo ran for the presidency and was declared winner, but not without subsequently facing impeachment claims and charges that she was responsible for engineering a massive electoral fraud. 2006 started the campaign season for the 2007 elections.

“You can only guess where the savings of the reenacted budget went,” claims Guingona.

Impounded budget

Alongside the reenactment of budget, impoundment is another common practice that can be used as a mechanism to funnel funds into savings, all for presidential use.

Impoundment is the refusal of the Chief Executive to release and spend funds that have already been appropriated.

Typically, when the phrase ‘savings,’ are mentioned, it is not so much about funds that have been managed so effectively that there remains money left over – but that the money has not actually been released to pay for what was intended.

During the Arroyo administration, the highest savings were registered in 2005 and 2007 -- 17.36 and 16.71 percents, respectively, of the national budget.

In 2007, over-all savings totaled PhP 106 billion (USD 2.2 billion).

According to Dr. Rosario Manasan of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in that same year were under-funded by PhP 95 billion (USD 2 billion).

MDGs are of course the eight international development goals that 192 United Nations member-states including the Philippines have agreed to achieve by the year 2015.

The MDGs include the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, providing primary education services to all, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing the incidence of death among children, improving maternal health, fighting diseases like HIV/AIDS and malaria, ensuring environmental sustainability, and developing global cooperation for development efforts.

These are not controversial goals. They are seen to offer real improvement in the lives of millions of poor Filipinos. That year, the fiscal gap could have been easily met by the budget “savings.”

Mis-prioritization

Budget reform advocates also complain about the mis-prioritization of funds and claim the practice is rampant.

In 2008 for example, PhP 100 million (USD 2 million) was allocated in the budget for the Department of Health for the purchase of autoclaves –machinery for sterilization- in public hospitals.

For reasons that are not fully clear, the President did not release the funds, and automatically that went into her savings for that year.

That same year, President Arroyo spent PhP 1.2 billion (USD 25 million) on two presidential helicopters that were not in the budget.

“You can see where the real priorities are,” laments Guingona.

It comes as no surprise to many observers why the Philippines has fallen behind the United Nations' benchmark to spend five percent of gross national product (GNP) on health, and six percent on education.

The Philippines spends 2.5 to 3 percent of the GNP on health, and no more than 3.8 percent going on education.

With school classes here again, Rep. Mong Palatino of the party-list group Kabataan blames the sorry state of public education on government mis-prioritization.

Data from UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics show that Philippine classrooms are among the most crowded in Asia. Their figures reveal that class size in the Philippine public elementary schools (43.9), pales in comparison to Malaysia (31.7), Thailand (22.9), Japan (28.6) -even India (40).

According to Palatino, the national classroom shortage last year was estimated to be 41,905. “This figure will surely balloon as students of age to attend school increase by 2.3 percent yearly.”

Department of Education data shows that public schools nationwide are in decrepit conditions. Some 80 percent of them have no running water, 60 percent have no toilets, 40 percent have no ceilings and 50 percent have no electricity. And there is a need for 30,000 additional teachers.

Corruption

The problem of mis-prioritization is aggravated by rampant corruption. The Philippines routinely scores very poorly in international surveys on corruption and transparency in government, and the government was recently warned that future loans from the World Bank would be at risk if improvements are not forthcoming. Ironically of course, the Asian Development Bank has its headquarters in Manila.

The Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC), a government body tasked to investigate and hear administrative cases and complaints against erring presidential appointees, claims that 20 percent of the country’s annual budget is lost to corruption.

PAGC chairperson Teresita Baltazar says that money could have done “a great deal to fund spending for social services like education, healthcare, housing and livelihood capital, and infrastructure.”

The poorest who depend the most on public services are also the hardest hit according to the United Nations Development Program.

In its 2008 Asia Pacific Human Development Report, the UNDP says many forms of corruption are hidden and get less media attention than they should.

“These include the passing of laws and regulations which allow corruption to be conducted within legal bounds,” it says in its report entitled “Tackling Corruption, Transforming Lives.”

Pork barrel

So-called “pork barrel,” – the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) is widely seen as an old-style fiscal instrument still employed in the budget that helps to foster continuing graft and corruption.

Every year, members of the House of Representatives receive a PDAF worth PhP 70 million (USD 1.4 million) each. A senator meantime receives PhP 200 million (USD 4.2 million). The money is for wholly discretionary spending.

As the name suggests, the PDAF is intended for priority development projects such as clean water, education and health care, and poverty alleviation. However, many legislators end up spending their allocations on trivial projects like waiting sheds or basketball courts.

Trivial or worthy, the use of pork barrel funds allows ample opportunities to defraud the state by irregular contracting procedures; by inflating prices – or by agreeing and securing kick-backs – where the winning contractor will illegally return a percentage of the funds paid out.

Yet according to Guingona, the country’s pork barrel is merely the tip of one enormous problem as it represents around one percent of the entire national budget.

Look at the beef too

There is a much more consequential instrument in the national budget – the Special Purpose Funds: These are lump-sum appropriations governed by special provisions and their release is again subject to presidential discretion.

“The beef has always been that SPFs, being ‘lump–sum’ rather than ‘line budgeted’ items, are less transparent and are one of the main faults why a national budget can become less effective, less ethical and less equitable,” according to Zoilo Dejaresco III, Financial Adviser of the Philippine Center for National Budget Legislation.

From 2002 to 2008, the trend in the administration was to increase the amount that came under the category SPFs.

According to Guingona, had it not been for the World Bank which stepped in to criticize the practice, the percentage of funds allocated under SPFs would have increased this year.

“The World Bank intervened and told the Philippines to reform. The government listened for it is beholden to the World Bank. It’s where we get our loans,” says Guingona.

Un-programmed funds

Dejaresco says that so-called Un-programmed Funds sit within the questionable SPF allocations and that these are standby appropriations which authorize additional agency expenditures for priority programs and projects in excess of the original budget.

Like everything inside SPF, they require presidential approval.

In 2008, Un-programmed Funds hit a record high PhP 114 billion (USD 2.4 billion), representing a hefty hike from only PhP 67 billion (USD 1.4 billion) in 2007. 2009 however sees it drop to PhP 76 billion.

Making the SPF more controversial is the Contingency Funds, which are separate from Un-programmed Funds. PhP 800 million is available in this Fund for 2009.

We made repeated attempts to reach Budget Secretary Roland Andaya to solicit his comments on the budget process and current allocations. Unfortunately neither he nor his office responded to any of our requests for an interview.

Budget reform bills

Former Budget Secretary Boncodin emphasizes the faulty budget process originated from budgetary laws passed during the years of martial law which have not yet been repealed.

“The law has never been amended, benefiting not just President Arroyo, but all the presidents starting with Ferdinand Marcos,” she says.

Budget reform bills have been filed in Congress, but none have yet been passed. The bills include those aiming to prohibit un-programmed funds, bills providing guidelines for reenacted budgets and for national budget savings. There are also bills seeking transparency in bicameral meetings – as well as a bill that pushes for people’s participation in budget deliberations.

“Ownership of the budget must be returned to the people by enabling them to take part in the budget process,” says Magtolis-Briones.

But since these bills are expected to clip the powers of the President, and as majority in Congress are allies of the incumbent chief executive, advocates of reform do not hold out much hope of seeing any change before 2010.

But from the sounds of it, those vying to replace her do not appear to be impatient to challenge a process that encourages massive waste and corruption.

One reason of course may be the huge power of patronage it provides the lucky incumbent.

According to former Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno who believes a delayed economic crisis is about to hit the Philippines, it is crucial for any presidential “wannabe” to understand what may lie ahead and to realize that serious budget reforms are essential in saving the economy.

“The best-case scenario: a new set of leaders is elected in 2010 in a relatively honest, open, and peaceful elections… the new administration has a strong, forward-looking, reform agenda that includes tax and spending reforms to ensure fiscal sustainability, and has the political will to implement the same,” he says.

But the question is how can we make such a scenario happen? (Claire Delfin / Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project. The author is a television news reporter of GMA Network, Inc. and is a regular contributor of special reports on women, children, education, health, human rights, and the environment to the network’s news website GMANews.TV.)

Denying Women’s Reproductive Rights: An Executive Privilege or Human Rights Abuse?

A mother plays with the youngest of her nine children as the rest of the family share their meal of noodles and rice in Tondo, Manila. A local executive order banning the use of modern contraceptives here has stripped women of means to control their desired number of children. (Photo by Jes Aznar)

MANILA, Philippines (Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project / May 20, 2009) - What happens when women are too poor to pay for their own contraceptive supplies and long for the government to step in an offer simple support for an operation that would stop their unwanted pregnancies and enable them to take control of their lives?.

The answer is perhaps Ma. Victoria Pesimo, 30, one of 20 petitioners launching a suit against the government and the Manila City authorities who spoke out at the Forum For Family Planning and Development (FFPD) event here in January in Quezon City.

She carried her youngest baby, two-year-old Adrian, in her arms as she told listeners her story and how she and others were trying to change the law as a result.

Pesimo told the forum she had been denied contraceptive pills at the health center in her neighborhood because of Executive Order No. 003 issued by Former Manila mayor Jose L. Atienza, Jr.

Because the order encourages natural family planning and has not been rescinded, it has impacted negatively on Pesimo, who does not have any money to buy condoms. Nor could she afford to pay for ligation– a simple gynecological operation to prevent pregnancies. The family is dependent on her husband who is a seasonal construction worker without a steady job and so money is scarce enough as it is and barely enough to feed them.

Former civil servant Benjamin de Leon, now executive director of the FFPD is insistent that the government has to do more. “Family planning saves lives,” he says, and the poor will benefit if the government steps in to help. He was speaking at the 22nd Usapang POPDEV (Talks on Population and Development) forum last February 18 in Quezon City.

Pesimo explained how she was daunted by the cost of ligation offered at the Philippine General Hospital and had to go to Malabon where she heard that a health advocacy and services group Likhaan offered ligation.

Also speaking at the 22nd Usapang POPDEV, Dr. Junice Melgar, executive director of Likhaan, echoed De Leon’s complaint and argued it “was the obligation of the government to protect reproductive health rights and to make services available as a matter of human rights.”

“The Philippines,” Melgar claims, “is one of 60 countries where 4,000 women die each year through complications in giving birth.”

Just last week, the UN formerly requested the Philippines to improve its record on its mortality in childbirth.

According to Clara Rita Padilla, a lawyer and executive director of EnGendeRights, Inc., Pesimo is only one of countless poor women in Manila affected by the executive order. Poor women of childbearing age have taken “the brunt of former Mayor Atienza’s policy,” she says.

Padilla recalled asking the Family Planning Services of the Manila Health Department “for a measly PhP 5,250 (USD 112)” to provide medicines for 35 women who wanted to undergo ligation only to be told the department did not have the funds. “These are clear incidents of denial of women’s access to reproductive health care,” she says.

Padilla adds: “There were also many adolescents who started childbearing at 14-18 years of age and then continued childbearing successively. I have interviewed a 21-year old adolescent who had no access to sex education; no access to reproductive health education, no information and no services - and now she has six children: At 21!”

Hopes for change?

Unfortunately, the plight of Pesimo and those like her did not end when Alfredo Lim succeeded Atienza in 2007 and was reelected mayor.

“Every mayor has his priority,” said Dr. Mary Lorraine Sanchez, chief of the Manila Health Department by way of emphasizing the tough choices her boss is forced to make.

“Mayor Lim is the first to make health a priority. But he is grappling with a PhP 1.4 million (USD 29,787) deficit from the previous administration, and as a man of honor, he has promised to pay it (back). And so, rather than buy artificial contraceptives, he would rather buy essential medicines, vaccines and equipment,” she said.

But Albay Representative Edcel Lagman who is trying to shepherd his own reproductive health bill through Congress told the forum that the city “is not cash-strapped to help in responsible parenthood.”

In response, Sanchez and Dr. Enrique Samonte, another medical officer of the city, also say that artificial methods have always been accessible.

“Anybody can buy them from drugstores in the entire Manila area or to go to the national hospitals that surround Manila,” says Dr Samonte.

But that doesn’t much help those who can ill afford to buy them.

Legal challenges

Executive Order No. 003 did not go unchallenged –although it took eight years for a case to reach the Court of Appeals. Lawyers Elizabeth Pangalangan and Harry Roque represented the case on behalf of Pesimo and others in January last year. The court, however, ruled that the petitioners had failed to prove their poverty by their failure to include any income tax returns and that it was the wrong venue for the case.

Then the petitioners filed a motion for reconsideration which was denied and, they then filed a petition for certiorari at the Supreme Court, which threw it out last November saying one of the 20 petitioners had failed to sign the verification. Pesimo claims the woman who failed to sign was simply too sick to come and sign.

The petitioners have filed for reconsideration. They are refusing to give up and are trying to prove popular sentiment is against the executive order remaining in place.

A survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) in December and termed 2008 Manila Omnibus Survey on Health, had its findings presented at the Usapang POPDEV conference in February. It claimed a clear majority (85 percent) in Manila supported the Reproductive Health Bill – a law which would give women like Pesimo more control over their own bodies.

Lawmakers believe the recent survey by the respected SWS group is an important milestone and achievement.

“I hope the Congress people of the six districts of Manila will see the light,” says Rep. Lagman. “The views of their people are almost unanimous. This poll should convince them. We are not responsible for the financial meltdown worldwide, but it is overpopulated countries like the Philippines which will have a harder time coping -an additional impetus to Congress to pass this bill.”

Expanding the advocacy nationwide

How else might the executive order be overturned? Another option is to pass a national level law that will repeal local and metropolitan laws contrary to it.

Such a law has been introduced by Lagman and passed to the House of Representatives and the Senate Technical Committee Working Group.

The Working Group invited the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to its deliberations but Father Melvin Castro, executive secretary of the CBCP Episcopal Committee on Family and Life and other representatives of the Commission walked out of initial hearings in February.

Castro said at a press conference the day following his walk out that the CBCP would stop participating “if only to avoid being misconstrued as giving consent to the passage of the bill.”

Pampanga Bishop Paciano Aniceto meantime has called for protestors to respect the views of the Catholic Church and of its allies.

He has said the bill is “a violation of the right of the families of the pro-life movements, NGOs, basic ecclesial communities, all family organizations. So, it’s no longer just the fight of the bishops … it’s the fight of the Filipino family.”

Bring in the world

Advocates are now talking of trying to drum up international support in an effort to change the local executive order. Melissa Upreti of the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights says that women’s groups in the US have been closely watching the struggle in the Philippines for reproductive health rights.

Upreti who is Senior Regional Manager and Legal Adviser for Asia, urges the Manila executive order to be seen through the lens of human rights and science above anything else.

She says: “It is problematic from a human rights perspective to use an ideological lens for public health. It can confuse people when morality is seen as a goal of the policy. People must have the right to decide on their problems and pursuing this right has economic and social implications. It is immoral to rob them of this right.”

Still globally, the executive order could be considered by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) which urged the Philippine government back in 2006 to increase its promotion of reproductive health.

CEDAW experts have already suggested strengthening measures aimed at the prevention of unwanted pregnancies, including making a comprehensive range of contraceptives more widely available and “without any restriction.”

Yet another option is to “complain” about the executive order within the revocation by US President Barack Obama of his predecessor’s Global Gag Rule which stopped US funds from reaching international family planning groups that perform abortions in cases other than a threat to the woman's life, rape or incest.

Obama, who signed the repeal on January 23, 2009, said family planning issues should not be politicized and has won praise from activists.

While these national and global currents surround his mother, Adrian Pesimo plays on regardless. He is seen toying with a handful of 1 peso coins that have been given to him by his mother’s equally-poor co-petitioners.

They are probably unaware –or possibly they are simply all too aware of just how many of each is needed to buy just one contraceptive which would allow them and so many others to claim just a fleeting, momentary control of their lives for the first time ever. (Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project - Jes Aznar. The author is a freelance reporter specializing on women, children, reproductive health and religious issues.)

Link: http://www.rightsreporting.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6296&Itemid=130

Excited, Anxious First-Time Voters

Excited, anxious: Teenagers Cezar Anthony Valencia, left, and Arvin Jasper Mañalac register to become first-time voters in 2010. (Photo by Sweet Cawicaan)

BARAS, Rizal (Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project / May 20, 2009) - Seventeen-year-old cousins Achilles Jerome Mañalac and Cezar Valencia are excited. Before the year ends, both of them will turn 18 and just like all of their age, they are looking forward to the benefits of adulthood - including the right to vote.

Achilles Jerome and Valencia are among the estimated 1.9 million first-time voters turning 18 in time for the May 2010 national and local elections, according to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Valencia, who celebrates his birthday on November, registered last week in the local Comelec office alongside with Achilles Jerome’s older brother, Arvin Jasper. Achilles Jerome says he will register in the next few days.

Mixed emotions

“I am very excited about the prospect of voting,” says 19-year-old Arvin Jasper. “So much is at stake next May - because we will choose leaders from the president down to the kagawad (village councilors).”

Another first-time voter Mariano Casaclang III, 20, is just as excited.

“I know that I can make a difference by exercising my right to vote,” Casaclang says.

But alongside demonstrable excitement is a similar wariness.

“I don’t know what the candidates can really do for the country,” adds Achilles Jerome.

Prized right

For many Filipinos, the right to suffrage is highly-prized. In theory at least and baring any irregularities, everybody becomes equal on Election Day regardless of education, status, age, sex, religious, political and other beliefs.

The people in Baras seem particularly keen on elections. Baras is one of the smaller towns in the province of Rizal. Occupying 8,492.64 hectares and is located at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Mountains and its funnel-like shape dips into Laguna de Bay.

“The town registered a 74 percent voter turnout in the last May 2007 elections,” according to Joseleo Tibay, Baras’ assistant election officer.

Officials are also expecting a high voter turnout next year.

As of April 20 this year, Comelec has registered a total of 16,511 voters from the 10 local barangays (Concepcion, Evangelista, Mabini, Pinugay, Rizal, San Jose, San Juan, San Miguel, San Salvador and Santiago). This figure is 52.4 percent of the town’s population of 31,524 based on the National Statistics Office’s 2007 Census.

Comelec records show 555 new registrations since January 19 this year.

Baras’ former election officer, Yolanda Rio, said Comelec is expecting another thousand or so new registrations before October 31, the last day first-time voters can ensure they get on the electoral roll.

Youth power

The local Comelec does not have records of youth voters. Nor does the Municipal Planning and Development Council have updated data on age demographics – but based on the 1995 census, the town’s population is relatively young— 42.2 percent of the total population or 8,461 people were between 15 to 39 years old.

And it is much more than likely this has increased – probably substantially since then.

Nationally speaking, the First Time Voters Network said roughly 60 percent of the 2010 electorate will come from the age bracket of 18 to 40 years old.

The national Comelec earlier this month indicated 2010 would see around nine million new voters joint the electorate —a very sizeable audience which many politicians acknowledge can hardly be ignored.

All four first-time voters we spoke to suggested that the youth vote could help to reshape Philippine politics.

Apathetic about elections

Equally however, they suggested that a sizeable percentage of the young are indifferent about voting and think it will change nothing.

One of these is Joanne Peñaranda, 23, who has not voted—nor registered—despite having been eligible for the past two elections, in 2004 and 2007.

“Don’t get me wrong: I want to exercise my right - I just think it will be useless,” she says.

Peñaranda said she has been disillusioned of the elections because most of the candidates lack experience, capability and political will. She also questioned the morality and stature of those who put themselves forward for either local or national office.

“Politicians are all the same. Corruption remains rampant. Paulit-ulit na lang (It is a cycle). And then there is overwhelming problem with vote buying.”

Vote buying issues

Casaclang says he heard about vote buying here back in 2007. So too did assistant local election official Tibay. The local Comelec office however says it did not receive any complaint about it.

“Not reporting vote buying activities is understandable because people fear for their safety if they do so,” suggests Arvin Jasper.

A source who refused to be named told us how some of her relatives were offered PhP 500 (USD 11) each in exchange for their votes at the last election. She said she didn’t know who to be more angry with – the person who offered the money –or those of her relatives who accepted it.

Many observers are increasingly saying that corruption and vote buying will only end when people on all sides refuse to become complicit to it regardless of the scale. Some say offers of vote buying should immediately encourage those approached to support the other candidates in clear protest at the attempts to subvert the democratic process

Worthy candidates

“Those planning to run in next year’s election should have concrete platforms for economic development. Providing jobs for people must be a priority,” says Casaclang.

“And on local issues, I think officials have to be stricter in implementing the law. Even though crime rate is low in this area, there have been instances of gang fighting with drunken teenage members,” he says.

Valencia meanwhile says the country’s new leaders should be “pro-poor.” They should also serve as the “voice of youth.”

Call for youth voters

“I still believe the youth is the hope of our country and we should encourage them all to become active and to exercise their rights,” he says.

Tibay advised all new voters to go to the local Comelec offices to register –making sure to bring with them a valid ID.

All four first time voters agreed that attending local miting de avance and watching political rallies and debates will help them choose the best candidates.

According to Arvin Jasper it is wrong to simply vote for somebody because he is a relative or friend or shares the name and is part of a famous political dynasty. Voting for people like that who promise personal help if they get elected is part of the country’s continuing problem with political patronage, he says.

Casaclang adds that those people looking to vote for incumbents should first look to see what they have actually achieved in office before paying any attention to any new promises of action.

Just as the millions of first time voters should be wise in exercising their vote – so politicians whether national or local should be wise not to take anything or anybody for granted. Increasingly, actual ideas, platforms and policies –not mere names– are starting to matter. (Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project - Sweet Cawicaan. The author is a freelance journalist.)


Link: http://www.rightsreporting.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6302&Itemid=130

Widow of Murdered Activist is Killed in Front of Children

Who killed her and why? Activist Eden Jolloso-Jerus was killed in front of her children March 31 under almost the same manner her husband was killed in front of her two years back. (Photo courtesy of the Jolloso family)

SORSOGON CITY, Philippines (Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project / May 15, 2009) – Celebrations marking Women’s month were marred here after the 37-year-old widow of a murdered activist was herself shot dead by a motorcycle gunman in front of her two young and now orphaned boys.

Edelina “Eden” Jolloso-Jerus was tending her sari-sari (variety) store in front of her house in Barangay San Juan-Roro when she was shot at least five times – including twice in the face– by a man wearing a helmet and using a .45 calibre pistol at around 10 a.m. on March 31.

News of the shooting failed to make the national media despite the fact she was the widow of an activist who was himself killed under almost identical circumstances almost exactly two years before.

Exactly 12 hours after she was shot dead and in a move that has baffled the police, an officer from the Philippine Army in Sorsogon sent a text message to local media here blaming the New People’s Army (NPA) –alleging she had angered them for refusing to act as a lookout.

The NPA denies the claims and local human rights groups say they are part of army attempts to deceive both the police and public.

Eden was a member of advocacy group Hustisya (Victims of Arroyo Regime United for Justice) –an association of families of victims of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

Adrian and Nathaniel -her two sons, ages 10 and 8, witnessed her murder as they did the killing of their father Willy on April 16, 2007 while he was watering plants in front of their house.

Willy’s widow suffered at least five gunshot wounds - two in the face, one in her chest and two in her lower back according to her father, Edgar Jolloso quoting the embalmer. The exact number of gunshot wounds could not be confirmed as Jolloso says he could not afford the cost of an autopsy.

The killer reportedly posed as customer who bought a coconut at the victim’s store, handing her a PhP 100 (USD 2) bill.

Sources said Eden asked Adrian to get her purse inside the house so she could give the man change. But as he did, the gunman opened fire from less than three feet away.

The shooting was also witnessed by her other son Nathaniel as he returned home from an errand to buy meat.

None of Eden’s neighbors claimed to have witnessed the killing despite it happening mid-morning and on the street. Police believe neighbors are possibly too nervous to speak out given what happened to both her and her husband.

The victim was rushed to the Sorsogon Medical Mission Group Hospital but was declared dead a few minutes later. She was already in the morgue when her relatives arrived.

Tearful reunion

Edgar Jolloso said the family were doubly saddened given the brutality of the shooting.
“She was not a criminal - why did they do it to her?” he asked.

Jolloso said his daughter came to her ancestral home just two days earlier in Barangay Pangpang, Sorsogon City to ask if he could organize a family reunion for April 5 and invite her siblings home from Manila.

“I never imagined we would all have a reunion –but that it would be for her wake,” he told the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project through his tears.
He said his daughter never mentioned any threat on her life.

Asked as to who could be responsible, he suggested it could be the person –or people – responsible for killing her husband in April 2007.

Husband’s killing

Willy Jerus, a leader of the Samahan ng mga Magsasaka ng Sorsogon (SaMaSor), a peasant organization allied with the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Peasant Movement in the Philippines), and a member of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, was shot dead while watering plants in front of their house on April 16, 2007 by a man on a motorcycle.

An initial investigation into that killing by Sorsogon City Police named a Roberto Ricartes as chief suspect and a case was eventually filed in Regional Trial Court 52. But a re-investigation of the case conducted by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) as part of Task Force Jerus subsequently found the name Ricartes to be fictitious.

The CIDG investigation identified a new suspect – a named soldier from Camarines Norte whose name and rank is confirmed by documentation available from the government’s Task Force 211 website. The case, listed as Task Force 211 file number 1061 is reportedly ongoing and the suspect still at large according to official records published last year. He still remains at large today according to the local police.

The soldier who was alleged to have used a motorcycle with the license plate number EM-5718 was positively identified as the killer by two witnesses who were shown photos.

The suspect was said to have been an intelligence agent of the Military Intelligence Command (MICO) at the time –but this has not been confirmed.

The head of MICO in Sorsogon reportedly survived an ambush attempt by alleged members of the communist NPA one week before Jerus was killed. The incident happened close by the Jerus home.

Task Force Jerus redux

The Sorsogon police provincial office has created Task Force Jerus anew to try and investigate the killing of Willy’s widow Eden - but its spokesman admitted they were having difficulties.

Chief Inspector Fred Nierva, police community relations officer and spokesman said they had no witness so far save the two young boys.

Nierva added that the investigation was looking into all possible angles including the obvious one that it was linked to the shooting of her husband.

Bullet casings taken from outside the sari-sari store do not match those retrieved during the investigation into the killing of Willy which obviously rules out the possibility that the same gun was used.

Army’s version

Nierva told us he did not know the source of information behind a text message sent out to local media by a representative of the army’s 901st Infantry Battalion just hours after Eden’s killing.

The text message was sent to different media outlets in Sorsogon by Captain Razaleigh Bansawan, civil-military relations officer of the 901st IB based at Barangay Villahermosa, Daraga, Albay. He claimed the NPA was behind her killing.

In the message, Bansawan said her refusal to act as a look-out or poste for the NPA was the reason she was shot.

The full text of the message sent out read: "March 31, 2009 at 9 :45 a.m. a certain Edelina Jerus y Jollosa, 37 yo, widow and resident of brgy. Roro san juan, sorsogon city, widow was shot while inside her sari-sari store by a member of the sparu of the communist terrorists NPA riding in motorcycle. Victim was pronounced dead on arrival by the attending doctor at sorsogon doctr this city."

Accrdng to the witness, the victim was shot since she refuse orders fm the NPA to serve as their look out (poste) in the area and contrary to the claimed of the NPA allied communist mind organizations pointing their fingers to the afp regarding this brutality wherein in fact they are the one who responsible for this as proven by their numerous atrocities such cellsite bombing, killing of innocent civilian in catanduanes and Masbate province and intimidating the civilian just to give in to their demand.

The text message was received by the media in Sorsogon March 31, 2009 at 10 p.m. Karapatan Bicol spokesperson John Concepcion rejected the army’s claims in an interview on Radyo Natin’s Banwaan Aramon Ta program.

Concepcion maintained the claim was simply designed to “deceive the public” and lead investigators away from the real culprits.

He chided the military for their fast conclusion describing it as “a ready-made statement.” He added it was surprising that while the police investigating the case had yet come up with any official statement, the military was already blaming the NPA.

No supporting evidence

Deputy police provincial director and Task Force Jerus head Superintendent Elmer Ferrera said he had talked to Bansawan about his text message but had failed to find any actionable information.

Fererra said that while Bansawan confirmed releasing his report to local media, he was unable to confirm its accuracy.

He also refused to reveal his source, Ferrera said. Consequently the official investigation is not yet giving any credence to the army’s claims.

“We’d rather work on it slowly than pin down a group or an individual with nothing to do with it,” Ferrera added. “We will not deliver justice simply by putting a fall guy on trial.”

While the Task Force is refusing to make any definitive link connecting the husband and wife killings it says there is a strong possibility they are connected. The fact that the guns used were not the same means little, investigators say.

Fererra said his team is continuing to work on both cases and claims the soldier suspect in Willy’s killing has reportedly been discharged from the service and is already somewhere in Mindanao.

“We are liaising with our colleagues there”, adds Ferrera.

NPA’s response

In a press release issued by the NPA’s Celso Minguez Command the insurgent group denied any hand in the killing of Eden.

Samuel Guerrero, Bagong Hukbong Bayan-Celso Minguez Command spokesperson, said the army report was “a pure lie meant to mislead the public about the truth story behind Eden’s death.”

He alleged Eden was killed by an army “death squad” after she refused to have the case of her husband settled out of court.

Guerrero claimed the killing of Willy Jerus was a strong proof of the existence of a death squad which is why the army wanted “a settlement” with Eden.

“The army bungled in their effort to cover-up their crime and just succeeded in exposing their own misdeeds,” he stressed.

Hustisya

Janet Frivaldo, head of Hustisya-Sorsogon meanwhile said the killing of Eden would not cower them into silence.

She said they would continue to press for justice as well as meeting soon to discuss whether there were new safety and security concerns to be addressed in the light of their colleague’s murder.

Frivaldo is herself a sister of Max Frivaldo, a Bayan Muna leader and municipal councilor in Irosin town, who was shot dead inside his house - and sister to Cris -a law student and Bayan Muna leader who was killed ten months later in February 2006.

As with the killings of Eden and Willy, the cases of the Frivaldo brothers remain unsolved as of today.

Family plight

Eden’s father said the family now faces the grim reality of having to look after Adrian and Nathaniel who are now orphans. He said he would be switching their schools and bringing them to live with him.

He said he worries about their mental health since both are already showing signs of trauma.
“Whenever they see someone on a motorcycle they now instinctively hide until it is gone,” the boy’s grandfather told us.

As of now no government agency or private organization had offered the children any kind of counselling.

The boys’ grandfather said the family would welcome any help – especially any offer of support that would help in their education.

The local office of Karapatan says they already have plans to help the boys but would not yet elaborate. (Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project / Bobby Labalan. The author is the editor of the weekly newspaper Bicol Gazette.)

Military Intelligence Primary Suspects, Not Cooperating –Task Force Rebelyn

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project / Apr. 23, 2009) - Despite the military’s insistence that it shares the widespread outrage over the brutal killing of Rebelyn Pitao between March 4 and 5 and its promises to cooperate fully with police and show it has nothing to hide, the commanders and agents of two army intelligence units appear to be doing no such thing.

Elements in the military seem to be obstructing justice by insisting that repeated written requests from police for information and cooperation “do not have any legal basis,” - and six weeks on, those in charge of the investigation told the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project they have yet to be granted access to any of the 13 army officers they consider primary suspects.

The police have not even been sent photographs of seven of those they want in for questioning.

Task Force Rebelyn, the official police body investigating the case is headquartered at the regional Philippine National Police headquarters at Camp Catitipan at Barangay (village) Buhangin in Davao City. The Task Force comprises eight collaborating law enforcement groups including the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). It does not include any military unit as some people have both suggested and feared.

We visited Davao and the surrounding countryside last week in an effort to find out what progress was being made in the investigation. Rebelyn was a 20-year-old elementary school teacher at the St. Peter’s College of Technology when she was killed. Her partially-naked body was found floating in an irrigation ditch in Barangay (village) San Isidro in Carmen District in Davao del Norte on Thursday March 5.

She had been tied up and gagged, punched in the face, raped with a blunt object and finally stabbed five times in the chest with an ice pick after being snatched off a tricycle the night before by four armed men at gunpoint while riding home from work.

“There were rope markings around her neck and mud all over her body,” her mother Evangeline told the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project when we first met her last month. “She was like a carabao.”

As well as meeting with senior police officers from the task force and the regional director of the Commission on Human Rights, we interviewed the Pitao family and were able to track down and speak to a former senior instructor of 22-year-old Rio Pitao, who claimed Rebelyn’s elder sister was the subject of extensive military surveillance during her final year at a nursing college in the city.

With the help of several officials from the regional Land Transport Office (LTO) in Davao, we were also able to independently identify, track down and speak to the former owner of a white van with a license plate remarkably similar to the one given to police by a witness who also spoke of a white van and has since disappeared.

While local police reportedly examined and cleared that van which was sold on a week after Rebelyn’s killing, the officers in charge admit the coincidence is “unusual.” The van was used for business purposes in a town close to where her body was found and the owner said he sold it on in fear - precisely because of the near identical license plate and its color.

He categorically denied any knowledge of the case except for what he has heard from the media. The Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project is keeping his identity, address, town, occupation and description of his new vehicle fully confidential for safety reasons.

A total of 13 military intelligence agents have been publicly accused of direct involvement and complicity in the killing of Rebelyn by her father, Leoncio Pitao, a.k.a Kumander Parago of the New People’s Army (NPA) who claimed the same men were behind the killing of his brother Danilo, a security guard in Tagum City last June.

Task Force Rebelyn officers confirmed their own 13 suspects are the same 13 agents Kumander Parago named in a local radio broadcast aired the week after Rebelyn’s death. At the same time, investigators say their work is complicated by the fact that serious feuds within the NPA mean they cannot rule out the possibility she was the victim of an internal revenge attack. Her father has been accused of being behind numerous killings including NPA members suspected to be military informers.

The 13 soldiers were all ordered under threat of legal sanction to appear in front of a one day special hearing into the case organized by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in Davao on April 1. Eleven of them did so –“appearing” and answering questions from CHR chair Leila de Lima from behind a makeshift interview room away from the public at the Royal Mandaya Hotel. One has subsequently issued a writ of amparo through his lawyers against De Lima and the CHR on the basis they have put his personal security at risk.

The regional director of the CHR, lawyer Alberto Sipaco Jr., has called the writ and a local judge’s agreement to uphold it, bizarre. “We are not holding him, so there is no case to answer,” Sipaco told the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project in an interview in Davao on April 15.

No as ‘lucky’

For reasons that are not yet fully clear, the officers of Task Force Rebelyn have not been so “lucky” as the CHR and have yet to be granted access to any of their 13 primary suspects. The latter have all invoked their constitutional right against self-incrimination on the advice of their own personal lawyers according to senior regional Philippine National Police (PNP) lawyer Rey Manug, chief of Police Regional Legal Service for Region 11.

So far, the officers in charge have only been able to verify the identities of six of the main suspects. The remaining seven from a different intelligence unit have all refused to send in photographs and the investigation seems unsure as to where to go next. Frustrated by the military, they now seem to be looking into possible NPA feuding. Officers are saying they are receiving “some” cooperation from one of the intelligence units concerned – the Military Intelligence Battalion (MIB) through its army command. The second unit is reportedly not responding to any police requests at all.

The police say they have heard from a named senior army source that this second unit’s regional commander, Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Cacayuran asked superiors in Manila for instruction on how to respond to written police requests to make seven of his agents available for interview - but did not receive any response back.

The unit concerned is the Military Intelligence Group (MIG) 11 which reports directly to the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) which is headquartered in Manila. While seven of the suspects belong to MIG, the other six belong to the MIB which falls under the 10th Army Infantry Division and ultimately, the Eastern Mindanao Command of the AFP.

The missing seven photos appear to have made a mockery of police attempts late last month to see if two of three witnesses to Rebelyn’s physical abduction could identify any of the four men involved in taking her at gunpoint. Two of them reportedly rode a tricycle as passengers with Rebelyn - and two allegedly sat waiting in a parked white van with a reported license plate LPG 588 in the early evening of March 4 on the road approaching Bago Gallera D’oro Subdivision.

The two witnesses, tricycle driver Danny Pelicano and fellow passenger Dina Talaboc failed to positively identify anybody from the 150 photographs they were presented on March 29. The AFP provided the 150 photographs, say the police. A third witness, who provided police with the vehicle description and license plate which has since proved not yet to have been issued by the Land Transportation Office, has since disappeared. Police told the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project they believe that Bambi Ajuas who was the driver of a tricycle in front of Danny’s is “somewhere in Cagayan.”

A crime too far

Rebelyn’s killing appeared to have shocked a country well used to arbitrary and political killings and disappearances. The manner of her death and the fact that one way or another, she may have been targeted simply for being her father’s daughter, has elicited deep concern and condemnation throughout the media, human rights and activist communities, the political and diplomatic communities and Malacanang Palace. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has urged the case solved.

Military heads and the defense chief also lined up to condemn the killing and were quick to acknowledge that many would immediately –and “unfairly”– accuse them of complicity. Major Randolph Cabangbang, spokesperson of the 10th Infantry Division was widely quoted last month as being adamant there would be “no whitewash –even if the suspects turn out to be from the military.”

He promised the army would give the investigative authorities a “free hand on this,” claiming the attack was “beyond the fighting between the AFP and the NPA, but was an attack against humanity.”

He was quoted as saying he spoke, not simply as a military man, but “as a father.”

But Cabangbang also flatly denied the military conducted surveillance on the Pitao family.

Yet this was challenged last week by the Pitao family speaking to us at the rooftop of Davao City Hall during a small mass held among family and friends to mark the 40th day since Rebelyn was killed. Their claims are backed up by the recorded testimony given to us by the senior consultant nursing adviser at the John Paul II College in Davao City, where Rebelyn’s elder sister studied, when we finally tracked him down. The senior consultant nursing adviser, Manny Sagaral, who says he has yet to be interviewed by the police, said Rio was under surveillance from sometime in 2006 until she graduated in March 2007.

He claimed a clinical instructor at the school told him and other staff that two men on a motorcycle had come looking for Rio and asking her whereabouts.

“Rio had already gone home at that time,” he said. “There was also a time when they came asking for her schedules, but they did not tell people who they were and so we did not tell them anything. We already knew that Rio was Kumander Parago’s daughter -so we were especially careful about divulging information we believe might endanger her life.

“There were also people looking for her before that time – 2006. We were asking those people who they were, but they would not tell us. A clinical instructor was also very specific and told us that people had also gone to the Mercy Medical Mission Hospital where she was training to find her.


“They were approaching different people at the school so we could not pinpoint if they were the same people. But it happened on several occasions.”

Sagaral went on. He claimed:

“I have a clinical instructor here who is married to an intelligence agent and one of his subordinates said ‘Oh you are a clinical instructor there? We were trying to case a student there,’ – referring to Rio.”

If true, Sagaral’s testimony flatly contradicts claims made by the 10th Army Infantry Division that the Pitao family was never put under surveillance.

The senior nursing consultant and teacher added however that while “there was a very strong perception among us [the teaching staff] that those people casing her were military intelligence,” he was also sure they were acting legally.

“It is probable that it was a legal operation coming from the higher ups,” he said. “They were casing the daughter to catch the father and it is also probable that this operation was not connected to the operation against Rebelyn.”

Asked his thoughts about what might have happened to Rio’s sister and whether he thought the military was involved, he said: “There is a very strong possibility that it is not within the mainstream. There are always units which do dirty jobs. That is what I believe –but those people casing Rio were not the same people.”

Sagaral added he thought it “a shame” Rio had been forced to quit her new job as a nurse for safety reasons. “She studied here from 2003 to 2007 and was a very diligent student. Even in school she had a very positive outlook on life,” he said. “Davao Medical Center would have considered her as an asset. She wanted to contribute to society and I hope she does. I believe she does not share the ideology of her father.”

Reports that Rebelyn Pitao’s elder sister was being ‘cased’ while she was still a student nurse surfaced when the family was asked after last week’s 40th day mass for Rebelyn if they could point to anything suspicious or unusual that might help the investigation. Rio told us how she had been informed by her then teachers that people were asking about her. She says she never saw those allegedly tracking her, but that staff in the hospital where she was on work placement alerted her school after two unidentified men claiming to be relatives came asking for information on her.

We initially went to the small busy hospital down by the waterfront to speak to the staff. However nobody was available to talk and they requested we try and find her former tutor instead.

“We told her she had to be careful with her life,” said Manny Sagaral, senior nursing consultant back at Rio’s former school.

Police investigators at Camp Catitipan said they had heard reports the sister had been followed at one point but they did not follow it up. They said they did not think the individuals were military.

“It was an internal problem within the New People’s Army,” said regional Philippine National Police spokesperson Superintendent Querubin Manalang – “maybe some of his [Kumander Parago’s] comrades were doing it.”

In the wake of Rebelyn’s killing and given a possible continuing threat against her family, Rio quit her new nursing job in the city while her brother Redford has been pulled out of school. They have since moved house and now live in an undisclosed location with their mother Evangeline.

Another brother, Ryan, reportedly left the family to join his father’s NPA unit in 2005 after allegedly being accosted in a Davao street by two men armed with knives.

Speaking to us at the rooftop of Davao City Hall last Wednesday after mass and prayers for her daughter, Mrs. Pitao told us she was not happy with the official investigation saying it was not “independent. “ But neither did she seem too happy with the one-day public inquiry conducted earlier this month by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR).

“Everybody knows who we are,” she said indicating her two children. “We don’t hide our faces – so why did they hide theirs?” she asked referring to 11 of the 13 military officers who were forced by subpoena to testify on April 1 and did so from behind a makeshift interview room away from the public at the Royal Mandaya Hotel.

Mrs. Pitao, who wrongly believes the army is part of the official police investigation, also complained that the family was not being kept informed about the case.

That is neither accurate nor fair according to Colonel Aaron Aquino, chief of the PNP’s regional Criminal Investigation and Detective Management Division.

“After the death of Rebelyn, we wrote two letters to the family -one to Mrs. Pitao and one to her husband. The cell number of Task Force Rebelyn was given to them, but they are not collaborating. After the funeral, we wrote another letter –but it was unable to be delivered. We sent somebody to their house but found it all boarded up. They have moved and we cannot find them.”

Officers did not say if or how their letter to Rebelyn’s father, Kumander Parago, was ever delivered - but it was relatively easy for us to find and speak to the Pitao family ourselves. We did so two days before our meeting with the police investigators and within a day of arriving in Davao. To be fair, it is not clear what kind of welcome the police might get from the family - even though the task force and city mayor Rodrigo Duterte have jointly offered a reward of PhP 500,000 (USD 10,638) for information that can help catch the killers.

Range of motives

The investigation also has another critic alongside Mrs. Pitao.

“I have been in investigation for 20 years including work with the office of the Ombudsman, working on graft cases and working as a special prosecutor,” CHR regional director Alberto Sipaco told us from his office on Quimpo Boulevard. “If I were in charge, I would have it solved. Investigation is very tedious but it is not good enough for the authorities to say -as they have been saying- they are facing a blank wall. You should never stop. Not give up. Not ever.”

To be fair, the police do not seem to have used the “blank wall” expression or anything similar. Instead, they reiterated they were still looking into “a range of different motives.”

One of these remains the possibility that Rebelyn was killed because of an internal NPA vendetta.

But did Sipaco’s comments mean he thought the investigation was not doing enough?

“I would rather say that much and a lot more should be done to secure the objective,” he said.

“She had been raped twice, once by a man and once by a blunt object. When I went and saw her mother and heard what the autopsy report said, I could not believe anybody could do such a thing. You hear that kind of stuff and you begin to suspect everybody.

“When she was discovered there was no rigor mortis (stiffening of the body). Blood was still oozing from her wounds. It shows she had just been killed when she was dumped there around 3 or 4 a.m. Her body was still soft.”

That last statement appears in contrast to police claims made last Friday that Rebelyn’s body had been floating in the small canal “the whole day” before she was found. If it was ever there, no trace of semen was taken by forensic examiners that could have provided a lead according to police -precisely because she had been in the water for so long. “It would have been washed away,” said Colonel Aquino.

As well as being mildly critical of the investigation, Sipaco says he has also been disappointed by the reaction of the military –especially in response to the CHR’s own attempts to investigate what happened.

“We are looking for facts: Of the 13 men named, 11 were presented to us [during the April 1 hearings]. Our intention was to bring them to answer questions in public: We were set up and mandated by the Constitution to serve the public interest and this very much is in the public interest. But because we ordered them to testify under oath, the military argued there was coercion.

“One of the men mentioned –a sergeant in the army [the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project is not repeating his name] - has filed a case against the CHR –a writ of amparo that we now have to answer. It is silly. It is not for us to prove that we have a case to answer for, it is for him to make the case that we have transgressed his constitutional rights.”

And yet given suspicions, deep emotions and grave anger generated by the brutality of the crime and in the context of a continuing and grim conflict between the army and the NPA, particularly in Paquibato District, the danger is that anybody named as a possible suspect may well be targeted for attack.

The NPA have already threatened to “arrest” the military agents accused by Parago and put them on trial in a so-called “People’s Court.” There is little doubt that suspects whether innocent or guilty would receive summary justice from the wrong end of a gun.

We asked Sipaco whether the CHR was following any other leads –and while he claimed the search for the vehicle had reached an effective dead end, he did acknowledge earlier media reports saying residents in the vicinity where Rebelyn was found were claiming her body was not the first to be dumped there.

“I heard that too. I don’t know the dates or cases, - we are a small office and cover such a big region, but maybe the police know.”

Sadly the police didn’t – and yet they conceded it was useful lead to follow and promised to do so.

“One of our people at Task Force Rebelyn is head of police in Davao del Norte," Colonel Aquino told us. “And so we can follow up with him.”

He added the police were very keen to hear from those media which had information to share.

Vehicles

We asked officers what the possible connection of a black Toyota Hilux pick-up van was to the investigation.

The investigation team had no idea. And yet on March 11, Matina Police Station 3 in Davao City sent in a formal letter of request to the local Land Transportation Office (LTO) here in Davao to have the owner of a black Toyota Hilux pick-up van identified “in connection with the abduction of Rebelyn Pitao.” We saw the letter along with two others sent in by police.

They were shown to use by officials from the LTO whose names we are not revealing: Two letters came from Matina Police Station 3 and one was from the 11th Regional Criminal Investigation and Detection Group at Camp Domingo Leonor in Davao City. Two of the letters concerned the possible owner of a white van – one letter cited a Mitsubishi Adventurer – giving the license plate LPG-588 which turns out not yet to have been issued. The third letter asked for details on the owner of a black Toyota pick-up.

Task Force Rebelyn police say they have no idea why the request to investigate a Toyota black pickup was made and what the possible connection is. The pick-up is registered to a woman in Davao City.

The task force says it has a big folder full of pictures of different white vans but no exact match as of yet.

The LTO office meanwhile had no record of the police making any written request for details of the white van with the very similar license plate that we asked them to track down and put through their computer system.

A local media report published on March 17 - two weeks after Rebelyn’s death, claimed police were looking into that particular van but had yet to identify the owner. Yet when we spoke to the investigators, they said it was “looked over and came back negative”. The former owner, who sold it on a week after the killing because of his own security concerns, told us the exact same thing although he said the check was made just a few days after the killing and before he sold it for a “poor price.”

The former owner was wholly cooperative but clearly nervous when we spoke to him and asked how we had tracked him down –but so too would absolutely anybody in such a position given the violence linked to relations between the military and the NPA here.

When asked why the owner of the van couldn’t have just sought permission from the LTO to legally change the license plate in place of selling it - and so help protect himself from unwarranted reprisals - Task Force Rebelyn officers told us it would take “about a year” to do so.

Investigations are never easy and ones such as these given the political context are especially difficult. Yet confusion over the relevance of a black pick-up and dates over when and how a vehicle with a remarkably similar number plate was identified and formally or informally cleared suggest that communications and relations between the eight groups which together comprise Task Force Rebelyn could be improved.

At the same time, an inability to find and keep in touch with the Pitao family or to visit local residents who say Rebelyn was not the first victim of an extrajudicial killing who has surfaced there may also suggest the group do not have sufficient resources or personnel to deploy properly.

But contrary to claims of the regional CHR director, Task Force Rebelyn says it is not giving up nor will it ever. The group will not be formally disbanded until the case is solved.

If ever it is.

“We were just yesterday going down the list of motives and there are many,” said Colonel Aquino.

“Because of the work of Kumander Parago there are a lot of angles and motives that are being considered. We want to take them one by one: We have done the photo gallery presentation. We are now heading towards another angle. We are looking into the case of Roger Narvasa or Commander Mimi. He was an NPA commander under Parago and he was killed in front of his wife by Parago’s group in mid-February in Paquibato District. He was killed because he was suspected of collaborating with the military.

“Parago called the husband and accused him of doing such things and he wanted to meet up. When they reached the venue for the meeting, three of Parago’s men approached Commander Mimi and without saying anything, he was shot in the head. This is one angle we would like to check –revenge. Commander Mimi’s relatives may have a motive.”

The Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project sought a response from Kumander Parago and his colleagues late last week on the claims made by Task Force Rebelyn. Unfortunately we have yet to hear back. Fighting and occasional aerial bombardment is reported in the area and local NPA forces are not easily contactable. At the same time, Roger Narvasa’s widow is believed to have left Paquibato District for an unknown location. We hope to continue the investigation and speak to both parties to get their response as soon as possible.

And as for the 13 military intelligence suspects? Where will the official Task Force Rebelyn investigation go next and what hopes do police chiefs have that the brutal murder of the 20-year-old elementary school teacher and daughter of Parago will ever be solved?

Senior officers in charge acknowledge that while they had only so far received six out of the 13 photographs and the suspects’ constitutional rights were blocking the investigation, they could in principle go in to the army camps, arrest the suspects and then subject them to a line-up.

That would be a possible legal way forward.


It would also be a huge step for the investigation but a highly politically sensitive one. Invariably it would need some serious pressure from Manila.

So what is the status of the investigation now?

“As of now Military Intelligence Group (MIG) are the primary suspects,” Colonel Aquino told us in Camp Catitipan. “The six people presented [from the Military Intelligence Battalion via their photos] - are not yet cleared. They are still suspects until the time that we get their full cooperation.

“I think there is a big possibility this will be solved if the military will truly cooperate with us. The problem is we are having a hard time to investigate because these people accused by Parago are not cooperating. We are trying to ask the commanders to present these people – but I don’t know.” (Alan Davis. The author is the director of the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project and Special Projects of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting.)

Pre-teen Basilan Youth Arm Themselves against Kidnapping Gangs

BASILAN, Philippines (Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project / Apr. 21, 2009) - Ten-year-old Joey (not his real name), a public elementary student here, casually walks with his school backpack everyday. He frolics and plays like any normal schoolboy would do –except that his backpack contains a .38 caliber gun.

He carries it, he says, as a “matter of self-defense.”

Joey agreed to be interviewed after the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project confirmed his identity would not be revealed.

“My father told me to carry my gun every time I go to school so that I can protect myself against the bad people around,” said Joey in the local dialect.

“Bad people” for Joey and his family are the growing number of kidnap-for-ransom gangs operating on the island and nearby Sulu.

By all accounts, Joey is not the only elementary student who goes to school in Basilan packing a gun in place of a Batman lunchbox.

In this southern Philippine province where poverty is writ all over, banditry --particularly kidnap-for-ransom—is rapidly becoming a cottage industry. It seems to be gaining local “legitimacy” because of support from family members and the local community.

Basilan belongs to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), the country’s poorest region. More than half of the population here lived in poverty in 2006, according to the National Statistical Coordination Board. Basilan has the third highest poverty incidence of 31.7 percent next to Tawi-Tawi with 78.9 percent and Sulu with 46.5 percent.

A recent Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project maintained kidnap-for-ransom activities in the province were no longer the monopoly of the Abu Sayyaf (the Sword of God), which has been blamed for series of terror attacks on civilians, religious groups and the military in the country.

Lack of employment opportunities, absence of income sources and extreme poverty in the province have allegedly driven some locals in the area to turn to kidnapping as business. Different kidnap groups, observers say, operate on their own but somehow have learned to work together by passing one hostage to another as means to confuse government authorities.

But what concerns the local authorities, peace and security advocates, and more so the local community, is that these kidnap-for-ransom groups are no longer targeting the rich and influential. Even ordinary citizens are now becoming targets.

Public school teachers’ son

Nine-year-old school boy Chester Gruta was kidnapped on January 31 in Barangay Malinis in Lamitan City, 20 kilometers from here, while on his way home from buying vinegar in a nearby store. No one immediately claimed responsibility, but the Abu Sayyaf was immediately blamed.

Gruta, a Grade 3 student, is the son of public elementary teachers in Lamitan, whose average monthly salary each is merely PhP 10,000 (USD 213).

Gruta was only released on April 1 –after 60 days in captivity – on Capagu Island near Tuburan town in Basilan reportedly after series of negotiations led by Lamitan City mayor Roderick Furigay and with support from emissaries.

No ransom was paid, the mayor insisted. But earlier media reports said the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) facilitated the release by paying the kidnappers “no less than PhP 100,000 (USD 2,127).”

The MILF described Gruta’s kidnappers as “a group of jobless individuals who were hoping to get a huge sum of money” from the child’s family or the government. They originally demanded a massive PhP 10 to 20 million (USD 212,765 to 425,531) when they took the boy.

With the release of Gruta, the number of hostages in Basilan is now down to nine. The latest victim is Ernan Chavez who was seized with Cosme Aballes in Sitio Arco in Lamitan on Good Friday by suspected Abu Sayyaf and rogue MILF members. During the attack, a man identified as Jacinto Clemente was shot dead. Government troops in pursuit of the kidnappers found the beheaded remains of Aballes, 40 on April 13 in Lamitan.

Other captives are Sri Lankan peace worker Umar Jaleel, reportedly being held in Tipo-Tipo town; micro-finance firm employee Lea Patris, reportedly being held hostage by the group of a certain “Juhaidil alias Kik” in Sumisip town; and six public school teachers who were abducted on two separate incidents between January and March in the Zamboanga Peninsula.

Teachers Janette delos Reyes, Raphael Mayonada and Freires Quizon were abducted January 23 in Zamboanga City and were believed to have been brought immediately to Basilan. On March 13 in Naga town in Zamboanga Sibugay province, teachers Noemi Mandi, Jocelyn Inion, and Jocelyn Enriquez were taken. Unconfirmed reports said Mandi died in captivity due to complications from a recent medical operation.

In Sulu, six hours away by slow boat from here, the Abu Sayyaf is still holding hostage two foreign International Committee of the Red Cross workers since January 15. The third hostage, Filipina Mary Jean Lacaba, was released April 2 after 77 days in captivity and amid contested allegations that a large ransom was paid.

Commonplace

For people here, children being compelled to carry firearms as protection and self-defense are nothing but a consequence of the “culture of violence” in the province that usually hurt the innocent ones.

“Kidnapping is so common here that even children of ordinary government employees are no longer sure of their safety,” said businessman Jamju Rivera, executive director of the Basilan Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

He cited incidents in Maluso where ordinary children are allegedly kidnapped in “exchange for even just a month’s salary of their parents.” Many of these cases are no longer reported in the media.

The abductors, he said, would settle for a meager amount of PhP 10,000 (USD 213) as ransom, an indication that kidnapping has indeed become some people’s way to survive poverty and joblessness.

“That’s why people in Basilan including the young have to protect themselves in the face of these threats,” Rivera said.

Ping Ortega, a retired local government employee, told the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project: “Because the government cannot protect us, we have to protect ourselves by carrying firearms.”

In what he calls a case of “breakdown of law and order,” Ortega laments that not a single policeman or soldier is seen roaming and watching guard in the town at night time.

“It is ironic that there are so many military and police checkpoints around town yet the people feel so unsafe here,” he said, adding: “You cannot blame the people when they have to put into their own hands their safety which they feel the government cannot provide them.”

Loose firearms

It is difficult to track the actual number of firearms in the province. But it is public knowledge that in Basilan and elsewhere in Mindanao, the number of loose firearms continues to rise.

No less than National Security adviser Norberto Gonzales admitted during a peace dialogue in Davao City last year that there are around 200,000 loose firearms in Mindanao of which a fourth are in the hands of the rebels.

“In our estimate, we think that these armed groups in Mindanao have 50,000,” he said, adding that the estimated number of loose firearms could even be more.

He cited Sulu alone, where there is an estimated 100,000 guns circulating. This means that there is one gun for every seven people in the island, says the Geneva-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue which monitors peace and situation order in the island. In March last year, the mayor of Jolo, Sulu declared the town a ‘peace zone’ apparently to cure its image of conflict and lawlessness.

There is no parallel effort in Basilan, thereby raising more concerns on incidents of civilians arming themselves amid unabated kidnap-for-ransom activities.

Bishop Martin Jumoad of the prelature of Isabela feared the number of loose firearms in Basilan could even be rising, taking into account reports that children as young as grade school pupils have started arming themselves.

The outspoken bishop said in Maluso town alone, the use of guns is so widespread even among children, noting that “the problem of the young children and guns is significantly worse than before.”

“It is not good because we are already teaching people that it is normal to kill one another. We do not teach the value of life and that should not be the case,” the Catholic bishop in the predominantly Islamic region said. Catholics comprise only a third of Basilan’s population of half a million.

He said the people of Basilan -- Christians and Moro alike -- including children have realized the military and police could not secure their safety “so they prefer to arm themselves because there are so many lawless elements at this time.”

But Senior Supt. Salik Macapantar, Basilan police director, denied reports that children here have started arming themselves for self-defense and protection.

“There is no truth in those reports,” Macapantar told the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project.

While admitting that it is hard to control loose firearms in the province, the police chief said this is happening not only in Basilan.

“The problem of loose firearms is not only happening in Basilan. It is common in Mindanao and in other parts of the country,” he said.

The Basilan police, he claimed, are trying hard to enforce law and order as he vowed to look into the report of children who have started to arm themselves.

Trauma

In child psychology, the trauma from gun violence usually lead children to arm themselves for different reasons – for protection or as a means to desensitize themselves or lessen their hesitation in engaging in violent acts.

Children exposed to such environment would most likely grow to use violence as means to resolve problems or express emotions, expert studies showed. The community –including parents, school administrators, and mental health workers –has roles in protecting children and youth from exposure to gun violence and helping them overcome the effects of gun-related trauma.

But in the case of Basilan, the authorities’ apparent failure to ensure law and order has pushed parents to have their children armed when going to school. This, to many parents, gives their children the peace and protection amid the prevailing climate of fear and insecurity.

Eliseo, a 55-year-old rubber plantation worker who asked not to divulge his surname, felt it is “only right for us to allow our children to be armed while going to school.”

“Almost everybody here is armed. Why not allow the children to carry arms when they are the most vulnerable?” he asked.

Aside from giving guns to his own children, Eliseo revealed that he trained them how to use their guns properly “so that they will use them only to defend themselves.”

When asked where they get their guns, the 55-year-old worker said: “Buying guns here is just like buying fish or rice in the market.” A quick survey here showed one could easily get an M16 Armalite for minimum of PhP 15,000 (USD 319) and a handgun for as low as PhP 4,000 (USD 85).

Up until law enforcers completely protect civilians from lawless elements in the area, the province would see more children growing with loaded guns in their school backpacks.

Among them most likely is Joey, who, like his school friend Abdul, casually puts his gun in his backpack and walks home everyday before dusk, confident that he would be able to protect and defend himself when ‘bad people’ come his way. (Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project / Antonio Manaytay, the author is a freelance writer and researcher based in Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay. He regularly contributes to MindaNews, UCANews, CBCP News and GMANews.TV.)