Rights body accuses military as top abuser

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Victims of Philippines dirty war

Concepcion Empeno, left, and Erlinda Kadapan with posters of their missing daughters. (AFP / Getty Images)

"Unarmed students, farmers, even priests are being executed in a brutal campaign to silence opposition".

It was 2 am when Karen Empeno, 24, and Sherlyn Kadapan, 23, were dragged from their beds by armed men. They were tied up and thrown into the back of a jeep. That was on 26 June 2006. The girls' families have not seen them since.

Karen and Sherlyn were university students who had been interviewing peasant farmers for a thesis on social conditions. They had also been campaigning against government corruption. Witnesses have testified in court that the men who abducted them were Filipino soldiers.

Their families believe the girls are among the 199 people who have been "disappeared" and the 933 who have been killed in extrajudicial executions over the past seven years in a secret war. Human rights groups say the battle is being waged by the armed forces of the Philippines against left-wing organisations.

Trade unionists, social activists, farming organisers, journalists and priests are all being targeted, according to the Philippines' leading human rights group, Karapatan. "We think the government is trying to terrorise people so they will cower in silence and be driven to inaction," said the group's spokesman, Ruth Cervantes.

The Philippines' President, Gloria Arroyo, is one of the West's most loyal allies in US President George Bush's "war on terror". In the eight years to the end of this year, her government will have received more than £230m in direct military aid from America to target Islamic extremists linked to al-Qa'ida in the south of the archipelago. Activists say that the money is funding a war against organisations campaigning for better conditions for workers.

The army denies the charge. But it does not deny monitoring community groups it believes could be acting as fronts for a communist rebellion led by the renegade New Peoples' Army. It is this campaign that Filipinos fear is leading to the disappearances and extrajudicial killings.

"Once you are an organiser, once you are an activist, they call you a communist," Karen's father, Oscar, said. "Once you are a communist, that means you are an enemy of the state and once you are an enemy of the state they can abduct you, they can harass you, they can kill you, anything. That's the killing machine of the President, of the military."

The New People's Army is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines. Getting to them is not easy. But high in the forested Cordillera mountains of northern Luzon, a camp is home to the guerillas' many young recruits. Some have just finished university.

Their spokesman, Simon Naogson, wanted for multiple murder and insurrection, explained why they had taken up arms in a democracy. "History has shown when we tried through peaceful political means our leaders were jailed and executed," he said.

The government accuses the rebels of killing state employees and imposing "revolutionary taxes" on companies, especially mining firms.

Mr Naogson admits that rebels do tax companies and fighters kill state officials: "These are soldiers, police, spies and people in the pay of the government," he said. "They are legitimate targets." This low-level conflict is claiming the lives of hundreds from both sides every year.

Karapatan accuses the army of widening its targets to include non-armed, non-combatant members of legitimate, left-leaning organisations. "All 933 cases of extrajudicial killing that we have documented are people who've been killed by state security forces," said Ruth Cervantes. "They are not armed combatants."

A document released by the army lists dozens of civil society groups which it thinks are fronts for rebels. It includes organisations representing teachers, lawyers, students, fishermen, farm workers, women's groups, human rights workers and priests.

The assistant chief of the human rights division of the armed forces, Major Pipito Lolor, admits that the army has units whose job it is to identify trouble-makers. "We have units in charge of identifying those groups, whether they belong to the left-wing group or not. As part of the campaign to attain our goals as mandated by our commander-in-chief, we need to identify all of these groups." He denied that the military was behind the 933 killings and 199 disappearances. "The communist is very good at using propaganda," he said.

The United Nations does not agree. Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings to the Philippines, held an investigation last year. His key finding was clear. "The armed forces remain in a state of denial of its need to respond effectively and authentically to the significant number of killings which have been convincingly attributed to them," Mr Alston said. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the US State Department all agreed in separate reports that state security services are responsible.

Oscar and Connie Empeno were recently invited to meet a man called Raymond Manalo. He said he been held in captivity in a military base for several months. He says that Karen and Sherlyn were held with him. The military denies holding them. But Mr Manalo said the girls had been tortured and raped. He added that he thought they had been killed. Oscar refuses to believe Karen is dead. "This is a wound that will not heal until I see my daughter again," he said.

Divided islands: The elite and the insurgents

* President Gloria Arroyo rose to power after protests led to the ousting of her predecessor, Joseph Estrada.

* Under her, the Philippines has allied itself closely to the "war on terror", using US military aid to combat Islamic separatists. The Muslim minority lives mainly on the island of Mindanao.

* A separate, smaller, insurgency has been conducted in rural areas of the main island for more than 40 years by Maoist rebels of the New People's' Army. This movement grew steadily thanks to peasant unrest under Ferdinand Marcos and his wife, Imelda. Ms Arroyo's unpopularity and persistent poverty have helped it to continue.

* Of 88 million inhabitants, around a third live in extreme poverty (income of around $1 a day) while wealth is concentrated in the hands of a small elite. (Evan Williams, The Independent - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/victims-of-philippines-dirty-war-1015855.html)

Surveillance Continues Against An Activist Allegedly By Military - AHRC

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information from the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) that an activist has continuously been under surveillance allegedly by the military. After having his case reported police authorities have conducted an inquiry about his current situation but they failed to provide him any protection.

UPDATE INFORMATION: (based on information received from Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR))

As earlier reported in our previous appeal, Dante F. Senillo has since been receiving serious threats from the military in Ormoc City, Leyte since April 2004. He, however, was afraid to report to the police as he believes the military may come to know of his whereabouts instead. (See further AHRC-UAC-044-2008).

According to the information newly obtained, two police officers, one of whom identified as Sergeant Bereso, had visited his house at around 1pm on 4 April 2008. The officers told him that they have received a letter regarding his situation. They also asked him some questions about his current situation. They asked him whether he is still experiencing harassments from the 19th Infantry Battalion (IB) presently and that he had witnesses to prove the incidents regarding the threats mentioned in the copy of letter they had.

They also questioned him about his current job; when he started affiliating with the National Federation of Labour Union -Kilusang Mayo Uno (NAFLU-KMU) and whether he is still actively communicating with the said federation, amongst others. However, there has not been any actual assistance or adequate protection provided to him so far.

Meanwhile, at around 9:45am on April 9, Dante took a ride on a van going to Isabel, Leyte to attend the monthly board meeting of NAFLU-KMU. He arrived in Barangay Libertad, Isabel around 11am. As he entered the Gate 2 of Philphos Company, he noticed someone had been following him. Upon reaching the canteen inside the premises of the company, the man whom Dante suspected following him, had approached.

The man then asked Dante some dubious questions like where he is going, what his job is and what he is doing in that company. According to Dante, the man was wearing a short and fatigue shirt with the abbreviation PA printed on it, which means Philippine Army.

At exactly 12:30, the company bus service came to pick up the company employees who were waiting in the bus stop. He rode on the bus and went to the union office. However, he was not sure if the man who approached him also followed him on the bus up to his destination.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

The high number of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines is a result from far higher level of threats and intimidation on the human rights defenders in the Philippines. Killings and threats to the human rights defenders in fact reflect that fear is manifested in the society and the government rules people by fear. Many times, the victims who receive serious threats from the military or police do not report their cases to any government authorities fearing that their location would be exposed. The circle of serious threats often ends only after a victim is arrested or killed. (See further: AHRC-UAU-011-2008, AHRC-UAC-010-2008)

In the Philippines, policemen are seen as adversaries by the activists for having been involved in carrying attempts on their lives and for their inaction in affording them any form of protection. Often, when an activist faces and receives threats to his or herself, going to police station and concerned authorities is not an option. They rather take upon themselves any arrangement for protection.

The AHRC has in recent times has expressed serious concerns over the continuing violence and the lack of protection to activists facing threats in the Philippines. Please refer to AHRC-STM-016-2008, AHRC-STM-014-2008, AHRC-STM-009-2008, AHRC-STM-007-2008.

Regarding hindrances and difficulties for a victim to get justice are described in the chapter on the Philippines in 2007 country report of the AHRC.

SUGGESTED ACTION:Please write letters to the government authorities urging them to investigate this continuing surveillance allegedly by military against Dante.

Filipino Artists Gather For DC Concert To Promote Human Rights In Philippines: Report

Washington, DC - Responding to the Philippine Congress's implementation of the Human Security Act (HSA) in July, Filipino groups along the east coast will be converging for a concert in Washington DC on Friday, September 28, one week after the 35th anniversary of Martial Law as declared by former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos in 1972.

The concert, organized by the Filipino-American alliance BAYAN USA and featuring Filipino-American hip-hop sensations Blue Scholars and Kiwi Illefonte, aims to bring awareness to the repercussions of the newly-passed and controversial bill, and connect with the overall issue of increased US military spending to places where US troops are present, such as the Philippines.

The concert will also be featured as part of a one-week encampment organized by the Troops Out Now Anti-War coalition, that will culminate in a march to Capitol Hill on Saturday, September 29th. A similar encampment will also be held in Los Angeles on the same dates.

"The HSA is a disaster for domestic security in the Philippines. It will cause the endangerment and the termination of innocent lives," states Valerie Francisco of Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment, or FIRE, a community organizer who recently returned from the Philippines to protest the HSA.

FIRE, along the Anakbayan, the Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, under the banner of BAYAN USA, and local DC groups such as Katarungan will be sponsoring the mini-concert set outdoors and following next-day anti-war march near Capitol Hill.

The Fil-Am groups have also warned that US-based advocates and supporters of the broad Arroyo opposition under the HSA are also subject to the measures of the state with such a vague definition of terrorism.

This comes in light of reports on extra-judicial killings, increase in forced disappearances throughout the country, and a watch-list of names provided by the Bureau of Immigration and Department of Justice jeopardizing travelers from abroad that speak out against Arroyo's domestic policies.

"These days, to oppose the Arroyo regime is the most genuine act of security. To highlight this issue during the Martial Law anniversary is fitting and appropriate, because the Philippines is still under undeclared Martial Law," states Jonna Baldres of Anakbayan.

The groups have also been calling for restrictions on US military aid to the Philippines, in line with its human rights work. September also marks continued Congressional deliberations on US military spending for 2008.

Nearly 50 US solons have signed a petition letter calling for Arroyo to handle the human rights crisis in the Philippines.

In response to a recent US Senate hearing and Congressional deliberations on the fate of US military aid to the Philippine government this past year, the Arroyo regime has resorted to deflecting possible aid reduction by pushing for an all-out war in Mindanao, the southern-most island, claiming Al-Qaeda cells exist, much to wide public disagreement.

Following the public reports of UN Rapporteur Philip Alston, and Amnesty International, the Philippine military has been identified as the key perpetrating group of extra-judicial killings and forced disappearances. In 2001, President George Bush declared the Philippines the Second Front to the War on Terror.

Since then, the Philippines has remained the fourth largest recipient of US military aid in the world and the largest in the Asia-Pacific region.