Two weeks and two presidential speeches ago, the US-Aquino regime continues to dodge the more important questions on what really happened in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, especially the involvement of the US government through its troops operating in the Philippines.

“The Aquino regime remains tight-lipped amid numerous accounts that indicate his complicity with the US government and the direct hand of the US government in the botched Operation Wolverine that killed Aquino’s own men and victimized thousands of civilians,” said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay.

“The US troops’ involvement in ground combat operation in the Philippines is not the first time. Only now, even the regime’s own state forces have become victims. BS Aquino can afford to turn his back against his own men,” she added.

In recent years, Karapatan documented several incidents of US troops’ involvement in human rights violations especially in Moro areas. (Please see documented cases through http://www.karapatan.org/Karapatan+reminds+public+on+US+troops%E2%80%99+atrocities+under+the+VFA)

“For centuries, past and present Philippine governments allowed US political-economic and military interests to take over our national sovereignty and the Filipino people. Such is only brought to the fore when incidents as grave as Mamasapano happens. From the Mutual Defense Treaty, the Visiting Forces Agreement, the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, and through various counterinsurgency designs such as Aquino’s Oplan Bayanihan, the country has been dragged by the US in its wars of aggression and invasion,” Palabay said.

The lopsided military agreements with the US government, Palabay said, resulted in a long list of human rights violations committed against the Filipino people, especially the poor majority.  The US-designed and directed counterinsurgency program, Oplan Bayanihan, has claimed 299 lives of mostly peasant and indigenous peoples in the course of its implementation. Already, some 47,000 individuals from remote villages have been displaced due to combat operations.

In an earlier statement, Karapatan said, “In a way, we find similarities between the plight of the families of the victims of human rights violations and those of the members of the Special Action Forces (SAF) who were used as pawns in the US-Aquino’s ‘war on terror’. They, too, are victims of Aquino’s puppetry to the interests of the United States government.”

“BS Aquino’s puppetry to the US has taken on a new height with the Mamasapano carnage that even those who are part of the system he represents are demanding for his accountability. It’s not far behind that, they too, would be with the people calling for his ouster,” ended Palabay.

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

Angge Santos
Media Liaison
+63918-9790580

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PUBLIC INFORMATION DESK
publicinfo@karapatan.org
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Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights
2nd Flr. Erythrina Building
#1 Maaralin corner Matatag Streets
Central District, Diliman
Quezon City, PHILIPPINES 1101
Telefax: (+63 2) 4354146
Web: http://www.karapatan.org

Benigno S. Aquino III has been, as usual, very glib (but obviously very evasive) in trying hard to explain the mystery of where the command and responsibility were for the operations of the Special Action Force (SAF) contingent that terribly failed and suffered a big number of its casualties (44 SAF forces killed) in its Mamasapano, Maguindanao operations last January 25. Twelve more SAF forces were wounded in action.

Aside from the SAF casualties, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) also suffered eight casualties and its breakaway group, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) also suffered six casualties. There were also civilian casualties in the Tukanalipao barrio (village) of Mamasapano that was attacked by the SAF forces.

The unusually large, 392-man SAF operations contingent was sent, admittedly with clearance from Malacañang, to arrest the two elements in the US list of “most wanted terrorist” operating in the Philippines, and supposedly reported to have been spotted in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.

That the operation was actually a directly US-commanded one is seen from the fact that it was coursed by the US through Malacañang, and spuriously skipped all other lines from the top down to the local level — including the Department of Interior and Local Government that supposedly has supervision over the Philippine National Police (PNP) and its SAF, current PNP leadership, and the local police/military commands (including the Western Mindanao Command and 6th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army), all of whom had no knowledge at all of what was going on.

Suspected Malaysian “terrorist” Zulkipli bin Hir (also known as “Marwan”) with a $5-million bounty for his head, and a Filipino “terrorist” Basit Usman, with a $2-million bounty for his head, were supposed to be the targets of the 392-man, big-scale police-military operation of the SAF forces that were gathered from various units of the SAF, including from its national headquarters in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City, Metro Manila, for this simple operation.

There is no verification yet of the SAF’s boast that their operation succeeded in neutralizing “Marwan”, who was supposedly killed in the operation.

What actually happened was that the SAF forces not only utterly failed in their operations, but committed a very big mistake and major violation in entering an area where the MILF forces and their families reside, such that most of the fighting that took place — and that decimated large numbers from the SAF — was actually with the local MILF forces in the area, and also inflicted casualties not only among the MILF forces but also among their civilian families. This, as the area unilaterally intruded into by the SAF attacking forces is part of the territory covered by the MILF’s 105th Base Command.

The MILF forces only rightfully acted in their self-defense and the defense of their loved ones and community.

As there were also, in the area, forces of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a breakaway group of the MILF, there was also some fighting between forces of the SAF and the BIFF.

There is now so much flak over who really have been in command at the top level of the SAF’s Mamasapano attack — “admittedly” Malacañang, and according to Malacañang, suspended PNP Chief, Police General Alan Purisima. This, even if Purisima’s “authority” is questionable because he had for some time already been suspended and replaced for charges of large-scale corruption against him. Purisima’s replacement, Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina, has denied any knowledge of the plan and of the actual attack.

Worse, the SAF’s Mamasapano attack grossly violated a standing peace talks and ceasefire agreement between the present Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GPH) and the MILF. The GPH, including the PNP and the SAF, should first have communicated and coordinated with the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities and, through this, with the MILF, as required by the already-made peace agreement awaiting legislative approval and the still-continuing peace process between the GPH and the MILF.

As Malacañang has main full local reponsibility for the SAF’s failed January 25 operations in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, and for the casualties such operations inflicted not only on the SAF forces, but also on MILF forces, on the local civilians and others, Malacañang should be made to principally answer for the failed operations, the casualties and the violations of the peace accords and process, and other related negative effects of the SAF operations.

Benigno S. Aquino III has also to answer for the dire and bloody results of his utter puppetry to the US, including its negative effects on the GPH-MILF peace process.

A related serious question that needs to be asked of him and his regime is if he and his regime is really interested in the peace process — not only with the MILF, but also with others including the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

It is the US, however, that has been on top of it all and should be made to principally answer and be made to pay for all the violations, intrusions, casualties and other damages.

NDFP Peace Consultants detained in Camp Bagong Diwa,
Taguig City, Metro Manila:

• ALAN JAZMINES
• EMETERIO ANTALAN
• LEOPOLDO CALOZA
• TIRSO ALCANTARA
• LOIDA MAGPATOC

30 January 2015

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PUBLIC INFORMATION DESK
publicinfo@karapatan.org
———————————————————————

Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights
2nd Flr. Erythrina Building
#1 Maaralin corner Matatag Streets
Central District, Diliman
Quezon City, PHILIPPINES 1101
Telefax: (+63 2) 4354146
Web: http://www.karapatan.org

Court ordered nursing mother and political prisoner Miradel Torres to return to Taguig Jail

“Now, more than ever, Miradel Torres should be immediately released on humanitarian ground. We appeal to the Court to grant the motion to dismiss the false charges against Torres, and in the immediate, grant her request to be brought back to the Philippine General Hospital,” said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay.

Torres was brought back to the Taguig City Jail yesterday morning, January 27, with her two-month-old son.  Sadly, male inmates at the jail jeered an innocent baby with “Batang City jail! Batang city jail!,” said Palabay.

On January 26, the Regional Trial Court Branch 65 of Infanta, Quezon ordered the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) to bring back Miradel Torres, a political prisoner, to Taguig City Jail from a two-month hospital confinement at the Philippine General Hospital after her delivery, where she recuperated from post-natal ailment and to be able to breastfeed and care for her baby in a relatively conducive environment for the mother’s and baby’s well-being.

Her lawyers had asked the court, where Torres is facing charges of murder and frustrated murder, for an extension of the hospital confinement until April 30, 2015 for her to continue breastfeeding her baby. A motion to quash the false charges against Torres was earlier filed in the same court.

Torres was arrested last June 20, 2014 in Lucena City, Quezon Province, when she was four-months pregnant. She had a threatened abortion and was advised by her doctor to bed rest. Instead, her arresting officers forced her to travel from Quezon Province to Taguig City while profusely bleeding. Torres has had series of bleeding while in detention and was confined at Taguig Hospital months before giving birth. She gave birth at the Philippine General Hospital on November 19, 2014.

Pending court resolution on both motions, Miradel is back in prison with her baby.  “The situation could not be more inhuman for both Torres and her baby. Torres is charged with trumped-up criminal charges and her child is made to suffer for this. It is only human to release a mother so she can raise her child in a non-coercive environment,” Palabay ended.

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

Angge Santos
Media Liaison
+63918-9790580

———————————————————————
PUBLIC INFORMATION DESK
publicinfo@karapatan.org
———————————————————————

Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights
2nd Flr. Erythrina Building
#1 Maaralin corner Matatag Streets
Central District, Diliman
Quezon City, PHILIPPINES 1101
Telefax: (+63 2) 4354146
Web: http://www.karapatan.org

KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties.  It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign.

“Actions speak louder than words. The arrest of another the peace consultant Rogelio Posadas and Gen. Emmanuel Bautista’s possible appointment as chair of Aquino’s peace panel with the National Democratic Front of the Philippine contradict whatever hints of openness Aquino is trying to put on with regards to peace,” Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said.

Karapatan demanded from the BS Aquino government to release immediately NDFP peace consultant Rogelio Posadas.

Posadas was illegally arrested on January 9, 2015, less than a week before Pope Francis’ arrival in Manila and at a time when political prisoners all over the country were gearing for the nationwide hunger strike. Posadas is covered by the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) with NDFP Identification Number ND978313 under the assumed name “Angel Jose.”

Posadas, 57, was travelling with two companions when a pick-up car overtook their motorcycle and flagged them down along the bio-ethanol plant in Brgy. Punao, San Carlos City, Negros Occidental. Some 12 members of the Regional Public Safety Battalion of Philippine National Police showed up and at commanded, at gunpoint, Posadas and his companions to raise their arms. Led by Captain Tony Benitez, members of the arresting unit searched Posadas but found nothing. They were then brought to PNP headquarters of San Carlos City.

The police interrogated Posadas in a conference room. He was told his two companions would be immediately released if he admits he is Rogelio Posadas. At around 3:30 am, he told the police he was Rogelio Posadas. By 4:00a.m., the PNP released his companions. Posadas was later brought to Cadiz PNP Headquarters.

The authorities arrested Posadas using the same warrant used against human rights worker Zara Alvarez, a former political prisoner. Posadas is charged with murder, robbery in band, and homicide.

Bautista: a rights violator, knows no peace

“As the brains of Oplan Bayanihan, the counter-insurgency program of BS Aquino, Ret. Gen. Bautista is the last person fit to sit as chair of GPH’s peace panel with the NDFP,” Palabay commented. Under Oplan Bayanihan, Karapatan recorded 229 victims of extrajudicial killings, 26 enforced disappearances, 700 illegally arrested and detained, and over 46,000 victims of forced evacuations. “BS Aquino reached the full extent of shamelessness if he appoints a certified human rights violator in the peace panel,” Palabay said.

“With Gen. Bautista at the helm, we dread that not one of the three remaining substantive agenda will be tackled. As a militarist, Gen. Bautista seems uninterested in tackling the roots of the armed conflict,like Aquino, and has consistently employed militarist means in addressing them through Oplan Bayanihan,” Palabay said.

“The possibility of Gen. Bautista heading the panel does not encourage good will for the peace talks to continue. We call for a resumption of the talks that would tackle the substantive agenda and not a circus,” Palabay concluded.

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

Angge Santos
Media Liaison
+63918-9790580

———————————————————————
PUBLIC INFORMATION DESK
publicinfo@karapatan.org
———————————————————————

Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights
2nd Flr. Erythrina Building
#1 Maaralin corner Matatag Streets
Central District, Diliman
Quezon City, PHILIPPINES 1101
Telefax: (+63 2) 4354146
Web: http://www.karapatan.org

KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties.  It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign.