Karapatan mourns with the family and friends of political prisoner and NDFP peace consultant Eduardo “Eddik” Serrano who passed away on January 8, 2016 due to cardiac arrest. Karapatan shares the grief and rage of the detained peace consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, other political prisoners, and inmates of Ka Eddik, with whom he spent the last 11 years of his life.

The 11 years of suffering in prison of Serrano, 62, for trumped-up criminal charges meant for another person is unpardonable. Serrano was detained for 11 long years for criminal charges for ‘Rogelio Villanueva’. The Philippine government is accountable for the Gestapo-style abduction, torture, and detention, and eventually, Serrano’s death.

Ka Eddik’s abduction and detention spanned two regimes. He was abducted and detained by the Arroyo regime in May 2004. BS Aquino, who supposedly promised to correct the wrongs of the Arroyo regime, failed to right the wrong. BS Aquino continued the practice of criminalizing political activities, arrested and detained peace consultants, and completely shut out the peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.

Serrano was a farming consultant and lecturer-trainer-adviser to farmers’ organizations and rural cooperatives when he was arrested. He was held incommunicado for one week, deprived of the right to counsel and access to and by his family and human rights organizations. He was then presented before the members of the media as ‘Rogelio Villanueva’ a member of the New People’s Army. Later, the military brought Serrano to the 204th Infantry Brigade, headed by “The Butcher” Gen. Jovito Palparan, in Oriental Mindoro and to the Regional Trial Court Branch 40 in Calapan, Oriental Mindoro for inquest. For three years, he was jailed at the Mindoro Oriental Provincial Jail.

While in jail, as a true servant of the people, he assisted inmates with their ailments through acupuncture. He initiated a number of prison reforms and established a cooperative store. He gave paralegal advice to inmates and jail guards alike.

In 2007, Serrano was transferred to PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame. All his cases were also transferred to the Quezon City Regional Trial Court. While at the Custodial Center, he took up a Environment and Natural Resources Management at the Open University of University of the Philippines. He finished the course on May 2009.

Last year, 2015, Serrano and several other political prisoners were arbitrarily transferred to Special Intensive Care Area-1 (SICA-1) in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City, a detention place far worse than Camp Crame Custodial Center. SICA-1, a four-storey detention facility, is cramped and unventilated. A detainee will have to share a small cell with 12 or more other inmates.

Last year, after more than 11 years in detention, the Court of Appeals finally ordered the QC RTC Branch 98 to first resolve the identity of Eduardo Serrano—whether he is truly Rogelio Villanueva. On October 22, Judge Marilou Runes-Tapang of QC RTC Branch 98 ruled that Serrano is NOT Villanueva and must be immediately released.

After a month, on November 26, QC RTC Branch 100 acquitted Serrano from charges of multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder saying the case is trumped-up. Serrano left two trumped-up criminal charges of multiple frustrated murder at QC RTC Branch 215 and kidnapping at Branch 97, both as ‘Rogelio Villanueva’.

On December 16, Serrano was rushed to Taguig General Hospital from SICA-1 due to heart attack. He was later on transferred to Philippine Heart Center where he underwent angioplasty.

Ka Eddik was a gentle and loving person. He gifted his friends, colleagues, and supporters both here and abroad cross-stitched crafts. He made greeting cards and sent them to friends to let them know he thought of them. Ka Eddik’s heart may have failed due to his sufferings in jail, but his principles and convictions remained steadfast to his last breath.

With high respect, Karapatan salutes Ka Eddik for standing up for the rights of the farmers and Mangyan tribe in Southern Tagalog, specifically in the island of Mindoro and in the Quezon-Bicol regions. The Government of the Philippines robbed 11 years of Eduardo Serrano’s life with them.

The GPH should answer for the injustice committed against Eduardo Serrano—for the warrantless arrest, for violation of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and the International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), for the trumped-up charges that kept him in jail for 11 years, for refusing to release political prisoners, and stalling the peace talks with the NDFP.

Reference:
Cristina “Tinay” Palabay
Secretary General
+63917-3162831

Angge Santos
Media Liaison
+63918-9790580

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Earlier this week Auckland Philippines Solidarity sent the following letter to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Sadly political prisoner Eduardo Serrano died yesterday at 8:10am Philippine time, while receiving treatment following a heart attack. The tragic death of Mr Serrano, after being aquitted by several courts of trumped up charges, simply reiterates the need for the Philippine government to free all political prisoners.

The Aquino Administration risks being remembered as a failure on the issues of human rights, peace and development unless action is taken to end Lumad killings and free political prisoners.

In recent months the horrific murder of Lumads by state backed paramilitary groups in Mindanao has received international condemnation.   Last September 1st the Magahat-Bagani Group, a state backed paramilitary group, murdered Emerito Samarca, director of the Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development; Dionel Campos, a leader of a Lumad organisation and his cousin Datu Juvillo Sinzo.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) uses brutal groups like the Magahat-Bagani as part of their counter-insurgency programme.  Aquino should use his final months in power to ensure state backed paramilitaries, including Magahat-Bagani, are finally disbanded and no longer given state support.

Furthermore, we call on President Aquino to grant amnesty to political prisoners languishing on trumped up charges in jails around the country.  Of particular concern is the case of Eduardo Serrano, a consultant to the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.  Mr Serrano has been detained in Camp Crame since 2004, on multiple charges of murder, frustrated murder and kidnapping.  Recently the Quezon City Regional Trial Court ordered his immediate release noting he was originally arrested on a warrant intended for the arrest of another man wanted on those charges.

Sadly Serrano is yet to be released.  He faces outstanding trumped up charges filed in other regional trial courts.  On December 16th he suffered a heart attack while in custody.  For the sake of both justice and his health Mr Serrano should be released.

During his Administration, human rights advocates from Australia and New Zealand have continuously appealed to President Aquino for the release of political prisoners and an end to extrajudicial killings.   Now in his final months in office there is still time for action on these important issues.

The environmental activist group Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) joined the huge International Human Rights Day protests today to raise concern over the worsening plight of climate refugees under the past five years of Pres. Noynoy Aquino.

“Millions of families have been displaced by powerful typhoons and other climate-related disasters and subsequently neglected under Aquino. Their number keeps growing as the hazards rise in frequency and scale. Disaster survivors and other climate refugees suffer through the corruption-driven disaster response systems of the government. Some are even subjected to harassments, deprivation or discrimination when they organize to assert their rights,” said Leon Dulce, campaign coordinator of Kalikasan PNE.

Four of the five most destructive typhoon disasters in the history of the Philippines, including typhoons Pablo (Bopha) and Yolanda (Haiyan), occurred during the term of Aquino, accounting for a total of P185 billion in damage costs and 2,074,203 households either destroyed or badly damaged.

Homeless twice over

“More than two million households, or an estimated 8-12 million climate refugees, were displaced by these typhoons. Rehabilitation and recovery remain a pipe dream for many of the Philippines’ climate refugees years after, like the survivors of Typhoons Pablo and Yolanda. They have been rendered homeless twice over by the Aquino administration’s land-use policies and militarization operations in typhoon-affected areas,” explained Dulce.

In their inability to come up with appropriate resettlement plans, the Aquino government came out with a ‘No-Dwelling Zone’ (NDZ) policy that directly displaced 200,000 survivors from the sites of their original homes. The NDZ potentially covers a total of 10.8 million coastal citizens across the country, not yet including the upland villages that are also located in landslide-prone areas that are also considered unsafe zones.

Pres. Aquino recently shared his personal account of Typhoon Pablo during his speech at the United Nations 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) climate negotiations in Paris, France. Ironically, the Aquino government’s armed forces were causing a mass evacuation of Pablo survivors as he spoke.

“Aquino has the gall to speak of Typhoon Pablo at the COP21, even as hundreds of indigenous Lumad people from Compostela Valley, themselves Pablo victims who still have to recover, were evacuating to Davao City. The Pablo survivors were fleeing the militarization that came after they held a people’s barricade to oppose the mine exploration of Agusan Petroleum and Mineral,” said Dulce.

The Agusan Petroleum and Mineral Corporation is a subsidiary of the Cojuangco-owned San Miguel Corporation, which covers 12,444 hectares in Compostela Town, are within the ancestral domains of the Mandaya and Mangwanon Lumad tribes.

Hold Aquino accountable

The Philippines remains to be among the most dangerous places for environmental advocates in the world, including climate refugees who have organized themselves to demand redress over their plight. Since 2001, at least 86 environmental advocates have been killed, of which 50 occurred under the Aquino administration.

“Leaders of Typhoon Pablo survivors such as Cristina Morales Jose, Pedro Tinga, and Marcelo Monterona have been killed for asserting their rights against corrupt government officials and big mining companies that abused their plight. Disaster responders such as Dutch development worker Willem Geertman and Engineer Delle Salvador were killed by military operatives in spite of having delivered aid, and precisely for empowering climate refugees to confront big mining and other development aggressions that further erode their capacities to adapt to the impacts of climate change,” said Dulce.

“The Aquino administration has accumulated a long string of cases of human rights violations against climate refugees and environmental advocates. The bloodied ‘Daang Matuwid’ must end, and Aquino must be prosecuted and jailed,” ended Dulce.

Reference:
Leon Dulce
0917 562 6824

Clemente Bautista, National Coordinator
Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment
26 Matulungin Street
Central District, Diliman
Quezon City, Philippines, 1100
Tel: +63 (2) 433 0184
E-mail: secretariat@kalikasan.net
Site: www.kalikasan.net