Prime Minister Stephen Harper is applying a double standard by inviting President Benigno Aquino III. Last year, Harper cancelled his visit to Sri Lanka and closed the Tehran embassy because of human rights concerns. He refused to participate in a United Nations conference on disarmament because North Korea was the chair.

The government of President Aquino is a serious violator of human rights. The International  Coalition on Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) joins the Philippine community in Canada to strongly protest his visit.

In a report of Global Witness, the Philippines ranks third among countries with the highest number of assassinations of environmentalists. Fifteen Filipinos were killed in 2014 by state agents because the Aquino government considered their opposition to large scale mining and other destructive resource extraction projects a threat to the state. Under the guise of fighting rebels, the Philippine military is conducting intense military operations in indigenous communities to break their resistance to these projects. In Mindanao, massive numbers of indigenous peoples are forced to evacuate.

As a result of Aquino’s counter-insurgency program, Operation Plan Bayanihan, 241 civilians have been assassinated since he came to power, 491 are in political detention, 26 have been abducted and missing and 59,612 have been displaced from their communities. A study by the Impunity and Justice Research Center of the Universidad de las Americas in Mexico showing that the  Philippines holds the worst record of bringing perpetrators of violations to justice attests to Aquino’s lack of commitment to human rights.

Mary Jane Veloso, who was saved at the last minute from execution in Indonesia on April 28, is a victim of human traffickers, but more tragically she is a victim of the Aquino government’s dismal disregard for the rights of migrant workers. According to Migrante International, the Aquino government deprived Mary Jane of proper and sufficient legal assistance. Its 2011 appeal for clemency was passive and perfunctory. Mary Jane was abandoned by President Aquino but his government is now shamelessly claiming that his phone call to the Indonesian Foreign Minister led to the suspension of the execution. It is clear that Mary Jane was saved by the collective action of the Filipino people and the international community. Philippine groups point that President Aquino did not act until he was forced to by a new people power movement.

The temporary worker’s program is reportedly on President Aquino’s agenda during his visit. Large numbers of Filipino temporary workers are presently being forced to leave Canada under Prime Minister Harper’s law limiting their time in Canada to four years. Along with Migrante Canada and other migrant workers’ groups, we believe that any deal Aquino will negotiate would once again put the rights and welfare of Filipino workers secondary to consideration of the revenues going to the Philippine government’s coffers from their exploitation. There has been a history of lack of concern for the rights of Filipino migrant workers, and we worry even more could fall victims to abuse, like Mary Jane.

Reliable sources say that the Philippine consulate in Toronto is directly involved in organizing a public rally for President Aquino. Community organizations have apparently been directed to ensure their members show up in record numbers. Aquino obviously hopes to use the Canada visit to salvage his waning popularity in the lead up to the 2016 election by showing Filipinos back home that he enjoys the support of overseas Filipinos. His popular support has plunged to record low since the botched police operation in Mamasapano on January 25, 2015 that led to the death of 44 police troops, 18 MILF fighters and 7 civilians and for which President Aquino continues to refuse accountability. Investigations reveal that  the operation was planned  and supervised by U.S. forces in complete disregard of Philippine sovereignty, ultimately leading to an unnecessary slaughter and setting back ongoing peace talks between the Philippine government and Muslim forces.

Media reports have revealed that Aquino’s visit is viewed as an opportunity for Prime Minister Harper to court the vote of Filipino-Canadians ahead of this fall’s federal election. Mr. Harper is sacrificing Canada’s values for electoral gains by inviting President Aquino, whose human rights record clearly shows he does not embody the values of Canada, especially respect for people’s lives.

ICHRP invites Filipino Canadians and other concerned citizens to join us in frustrating the political designs of Stephen Harper and Benigno Aquino III by exposing their basic disregard for human rights and the devastating impact of their anti-people policies on the people of Canada and the Philippines.

ICHRP, in cooperation with international human rights organizations, is convening an International Peoples’ Tribunal on Crimes of the Aquino Government Against the Filipino People (IPT 2015) which will be held in Washington DC from the 16th to 18th of July 2015.

For more information,
please contact Malcolm Guy
at mguy@pmm.qc.ca,
telephone #1- 514-574-9906

Auckland Philippines Solidarity (APS) warmly congratulates the advocacy group Migrante International, the National Union of People’s Lawyers and their global network of supporters for the inspiring campaign to save the life of human trafficking victim Mary Jane Veloso.

The case provides a good opportunity not only to highlight the abhorrent nature of the death penalty but also the economic injustices which force migrants in desperation to seek work abroad.

Mary Jane is the daughter of a former agricultural worker in the Hacienda Luisita.  New Zealanders were among the international trade union activists who joined fact finding missions in the Hacienda following the 2004 massacre of protesting farm workers.  They saw first-hand the impoverished and desperate situation of the workers in this land owned by the family of President Aquino.

The land at the Hacienda Luisita needs to be finally distributed to its workers.

We call on President Aquino make real efforts to tackle the long-standing issues of landlessness and economic inequality in the Philippines. We believe this will ensure there are fewer desperate people for drug trafficking gangs and other nefarious groups to take advantage of.

Cameron Walker
Auckland Philippines Solidarity (APS)
phsolidarity@gmail.com

*Photos of Filipinos supporting calls to free MJV while cheering for Pacman yesterday. https://www.facebook.com/PhilippinesSolidarity

The continued disappearance of Jonas Burgos, who was abducted and disappeared eight years ago, is now the accountability of Pres. BS Aquino, said rights group Desaparecidos (Families of the Disappeared for Justice).

Other relatives of desaparecidos joined the Burgos family and handed over a letter today at the Aquino residence along Times Street, with a statement telling Pres. Aquino to “order your subordinates, the AFP-PA to follow the SC order and return Jonas to the family, at whatever state he is in.”

Almost 50 members of the Philippine National Police blocked some 15 members of the Burgos family and supporters. “Which is not allowed, handing over a letter and airing our demands, or abducting and disappearing people? Tell us which is not allowed?” said Lorena Santos, Desaparecidos secretary general.

In the letter signed by Edita Burgos, mother of Jonas, she said “We have won the battle and yet we are losing the war… Jonas has not been returned to his family and nobody has been held responsible for this noncompliance of the Supreme Court order  dated February 2, 2014. Even the National Bureau of Investigation whom Your Excellency has ordered to investigate and to file the necessary cases as expeditiously as they can as warranted from the investigation, has not done anything after more than a year after your order was received.”

Santos said they have witnessed all the efforts of the Burgos family to seek justice for Jonas. According to Santos, “Together, we searched camps and elsewhere. We filed cases, appeals and demands before various agencies and bodies. The families of the disappeared have looked for justice, and their loved ones, since day one. Where is Jonas?”

“Like what happened to our kababayan Mary Jane Veloso, we hold the Aquino government accountable in the continued disappearance of Jonas. We are enraged of the negligence that Pres. Aquino has shown in the past five years on the lives of our people, while perpetuating a culture of impunity and implementing the same policy of repression including abductions and enforced disappearances,” said Santos.

Desaparecidos has documented 24 cases of enforced disappearances under Aquino.

Burgos, an agriculturist and activist, was abducted inside a mall in Quezon City on April 28, 2007, under the Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Reference:
Lorena Santos
Desaparecidos secretary general
+63908-8121982

Agrarian unrest and impunity linger in Hacienda Luisita, three years after the landmark Supreme Court  (SC) ruling for total land distribution.

Farm workers led by the Alyansa ng Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (AMBALA) and the national federation Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) once again trooped to the Department of Justice (DOJ) office in Padre Faura, Manila, today to demand land and justice for Hacienda Luisita farmers.

Even before the clamor grew with the DAP and the Mamasapano fiascos, Luisita farmers were among the first to call for Aquino’s resignation over sham land reform, human rights violations and violence unleashed by the state against supposed agrarian reform beneficiaries in the controversial sugar estate controlled by the Presidential kin for decades.

“It seems that it was not only in Mamasapano that Aquino gave a stand down order. It appears that even DOJ Secretary Leila de Lima was ordered not to act on the complaints we filed against the Aquino-Cojuangcos,” laments Florida Sibayan, AMBALA Chairperson.

During the past year, farmers have trooped thrice to the DOJ to seek justice for a string of atrocities committed by Aquino’s kin including his sister, Ma. Elena “Ballsy” Aquino-Cruz of the Tarlac Development Corporation (TADECO), their employees and goons, police officials, local government and Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) officials.

Complaints were filed by farmers on January 16, March 20, and October 10, 2014 for more than a hundred counts of various criminal offenses which involved the bulldozing and destruction of millions worth of crops, burning of homes, fencing of farm lots, theft of farm tools and animals, arbitrary arrests and illegal detention including that of a minor, assault, mauling and attempted murders over several incidents from September 2013 up to August of 2014.

After the last filing of complaints at the DOJ in October, Malacanang was quick to denounce AMBALA and even dared the beleaguered farmers to present evidence to the public to back their complaints. “We believe this is a strong signal from Aquino himself for the DOJ to ignore the cases we filed against his kin,” said Sibayan.

Despite several follow-up letters, the DOJ has yet to act on any of the complaints. Meanwhile, several farmers still face fabricated charges filed by the Aquino-Cojuangcos in local courts in their bailiwick Tarlac. Harassment of Luisita farmers and leaders continue to this day.

Even the DAR, the government agency mandated to carry out land distribution, weighed down thirteen (13) AMBALA members with absurd charges of violation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) which farmers see as a ploy to evict them from parcels of land they have been cultivating for years. Other pending cases against farmers and their advocates include a direct assault charge filed by police against nine (9) persons whom police violently nabbed whilst on a fact finding mission on September 17, 2013; a trespassing charge against Tarlac City Councilor Emily Ladera-Facunla, who was acting in her capacity as a public official to intervene in a bulldozing incident involving police and goons of the Aquino-Cojuangcos in December 2013; and physical injuries complaints against farmworkers Ofelia Hernandez, Marcelino Lugay and Romeo Corpuz, who ironically suffered near fatal injuries after a violent assault by Aquino-Cojuangco goons in March 2014.

Other fabricated cases against farmers have been dismissed by local courts or reverted to the DAR due to their agrarian nature, but not without tedious processes taking its toll on the victims.

On April 24, 2012, the Supreme Court issued a final and executory decision for total land distribution and the revocation of the Stock Distribution Option (SDO) land reform scheme in Hacienda Luisita. Three years after, farmers complain of the chaotic distribution process carried out by DAR. The SC also ruled for the Hacienda Luisita, Inc. to audit and return Php 1.33 billion to farmworkers for the sale of Luisita landholdings.

Without any clear development in the auditing process, the Aquino-Cojuangcos have been continuously maneuvering to hide and maximize land and company assets without the knowledge of the thousands of farmworkers who were once practically co-owners of the HLI under the SDO, and even the thousands of others who remain shareholders of the company per the 2012 SC ruling. The fencing of agricultural land, commercial development of certain areas within the estate, and the reported sale of the Central Azucarera de Tarlac sugar mill are examples of recent maneuvers of the Aquino-Cojuangcos.

AMBALA also filed motions to cite the DAR with contempt and indirect contempt of court in January last year, which includes a prayer to order the DAR to put a stop to TADECO’s illegal bulldozing and destruction of farmers’ livelihood. The SC has yet to act on the farmers’ appeals.

Today, farmers say that the Aquino-Cojuangcos have maintained control of thousands of hectares of land, while majority of beneficiaries awarded CLOAs or certificates of land ownership have fallen prey to illicit lease or buy-back agreements with dummies representing the Aquino-Cojuangcos. President Aquino’s kin maintain control of sugarcane production in the estate while plans are underway for ambitious land conversion and development projects within the estate.

The illicit contracts peddled to beneficiaries are similar to agribusiness venture agreements or AVAs now being institutionalized by the Aquino government.

“AVAs are modified clones of the SDO designed to legitimize land monopoly, landgrabbing and slave wages for agricultural workers,” said Ranmil Echanis, UMA deputy secretary general. Luisita farmworkers received wages as low as P 9.50 per payday during the SDO period, prompting thousands of farmers to strike in 2004.

The SDO scheme, however, is still in effect in more than a dozen haciendas in Negros and elsewhere, affecting thousands of farmworkers up to this day. Meanwhile, at least 1.2 million hectares of “CARP-awarded” land across the country are under various AVAs.

“Bogus land reform and government’s failure to provide crucial support services to farmers are further highlighted by unabated bureaucratic corruption typical of multi-billion anomalies and scams in the state’s agriculture and land reform departments hogging today’s headlines,” said Echanis referring to recent Commission on Audit (COA) reports implicating Aquino’s alter-egos in the DAR and Department of Agriculture.

“We have had enough of Aquino’s corruption, incompetence and lies. Even without mentioning the monstrosities we now know as Yolanda, Mamasapano or DAP – Hacienda Luisita is more than enough reason to kick Aquino out of office,” said Echanis.

Aquino and AFP Chief Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang are also implicated in the Hacienda Luisita massacre case where at least 7 farmworkers were killed in a violent strike dispersal. A motion by survivors and kin of victims to reopen the case was immediately junked by the Ombudsman several weeks after it was filed in August 2014.

Without any hope of justice from different levels of government and its institutions, farmers are now looking into filing their complaints through the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and its counterpart within the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) on the peace talks, and even international tribunals.

The NDFP incidentally celebrates its 42nd founding anniversary today.