The combined factual findings and evaluation of the Board of Inquiry and the Senate thus far have as a whole validated where the buck really stops in the Mamasapano incident.

The incumbent President is legally vulnerable for violating the anti-graft and corrupt practices law for causing undue injury to anybody, including the government, and in giving somebody, worse a suspended public official, unwarranted preference through manifest partiality.

He is also liable for inducing or influencing another public officer to perform an act constituting a violation of rules and regulations duly promulgated by competent authority or an offense in connection with the official duties of the latter, or allowing himself to be persuaded, induced, or influenced to commit such violation or offense.

The incumbent President has also openly breached the code of ethical standards for public officials for his acts and omissions. He is also liable for obstruction of justice by misleading, confusing & unleashing a contrived wild goose chase and spinning a web of contradictory and inconsistent statements on his role, privity and participation in Oplan Exodus.

Additionally, the incumbent President has induced and even sanctioned usurpation of authority by a suspended official and committed contemptuous acts in disrespect even defiance of a lawful order of the courts.

He cannot hide under the hairsplitting spin of the academic nuance between a commander-in-chief and a chief executive. The Constitution, law & relevant domestic and international jurisprudence declare unequivocally that as both head of state and head of government, he is ultimately accountable. He is the Commander-in-Chief of “ALL the armed forces” of the State.

The strawman’s argument about the seemingly debatable application of command responsibility leading up to the desk of the incumbent President begs the question of universal accountability of public officers who have been bestowed the public trust.

At the end of the day, it is now indubitable that the incumbent President will be hard put to overcome the by and large clear, candid and credible findings  of fact that constitute open violations of laws, the Constitution and unrepentant betrayal of public trust.

Reference:
Edre U. Olalia
NUPL Secretary General
+63917-5113373

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National Secretariat
National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL)
3F Erythrina Building
Maaralin corner Matatag Streets
Central District, Quezon City, Philippines
Telefax no.920-6660
Email addresses: nupl2007@gmail.com
and nuplphilippines@yahoo.com
Follow us on twitter @nuplphilippines
and facebook @https://www.facebook.com/nuplphilippines
Visit the NUPL website at http://www.nupl.net/

Among everybody else involved in the Mamasapano carnage, BS Aquino is most guilty of insubordination — insubordination of the people’s will and interest for truth and accountability.

Thus, it is totally absurd for Malacañang to threaten with sedition charges his “critics” — the people calling for BS Aquino’s immediate resignation. The people’s resounding call for BS Aquino to resign from office is his own doing. He brought it upon himself.

BS Aquino fanned the flames of people’s anger with his treachery that resulted in the death of 44 SAF troopers, 18 MILF members and seven civilians.

For the nth time, Aquino proved to be a devious president by violating his own chain of command by giving his ‘kabarkada’, suspended PNP Director Alan Purisima, the authority to lead “Oplan Wolverine/Exodus”.  Since then, he has not stopped spewing lies.

Almost two months after the incident, close to a hundred thousand people fled their homes for safety as the BS Aquino regime, in a bid to divert public attention, launched the so-called all-out war against BIFF members — a clear case of tail wagging the dog.

BS Aquino stoked up the people’s indignation as he proved himself to be a servile bootlicker for allowing such operation in Philippine territory under the direct command of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency in the name of the US’s “war on terror”.  To exempt himself and his American bosses from accountability, BS Aquino is now trapped in his own web of lies. And no one believes him anymore.

BS Aquino provoked the people’s call for him to resign when the stench of corruption, through the PDAF and DAP, enveloped the country; when he easily surrendered Philippine sovereignty to the US government by signing the lopsided Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) that allowed the US government-US troops that put the Philippines in direct geo-political control of the United States through military ‘cooperation’.

BS Aquino stirred the people’s desire for a change of government and the need for a people’s council that would pave the way for genuine reforms and peace in the country.

BS Aquino showed the people the need for nationalist and pro-people leaders. The people have nothing to do gain with leaders like BS Aquino who surrendered the country to the US through lopsided agreements that brought forth “Nicoles”, Jennifer Laudes, environmental destruction such as the Tubbataha reef, the 44 SAF men who were used as pawns—these are the casualties of ‘cooperation’ with the US government.

BS Aquino showed the people the need for leaders who genuinely respect human rights and international humanitarian laws. BS Aquino may parade himself as a victim of human rights yet, as of December 2014, he is answerable for the 226 victims of extrajudicial killings, 225 victims of frustrated killings, 26 enforced disappearances, almost 47,000 victims of forced evacuations in poor communities, 106 victims of torture, and 491 political prisoners.

The Filipino people need leaders who need not suppress the people’s voices because they and the people’s voices are one. The people need leaders who need not use repressive measures such as Aquino’s Oplan Bayanihan, a US-patterned counter-insurgency program.

BS Aquino showed the people the need for leaders who know the meaning of real peace. The people don’t need warmongers or saboteurs of peace processes like BS Aquino who continuously derails the peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and unfailingly violated signed agreements such as the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and the Joint Agreement on Security and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG).

The illegal arrest and detention of 15 consultants of the NDFP for the peace process is an indication of BS Aquino’s insincerity in pursuing the path to peace.

BS Aquino’s disrespect to the established peace mechanisms with the MILF has led to the Mamasapano carnage. The deliberate non-coordination of the GPH with the MILF in its pursuit of US-identified enemy Marwan has instigated anti-Moro sentiments among the people, putting the lives of the Moro people on the line.

BS Aquino showed the people the need for leaders who have the heart for the poor, not a landlord President whose hands are blood-stained by the massacre of sugar workers in his family-owned Hacienda Luisita; not a criminally negligent president who cannot respond even to the basic needs of disaster victims such as the survivors of typhoons Pablo and Yolanda. The people needs a government that can provide the poor majority of the Filipino people jobs and decent wages,  accessible and affordable health, housing, education, and transportation facilities, among others.

BS Aquino moved the Filipino people to unite. He showed the Filipino people the reasons why he should resign, now!

http://www.karapatan.org/Our+country+is+in+dire+need+for+change.+Now.

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 Floor 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.

MANILA. The Board of Inquiry (BOI) report confirming that “six American nationals” were at the command center of the Special Action Force (SAF) in the Mamasapano operations reinforces the criminal cases filed by rights victims at the International Peoples’ Tribunal launched yesterday against Pres. Aquino and the US government.

Elmer Labog, chair of the Philippines Chapter of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS-Phils) and the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), one of the complainants in the IPT, said that “the US should reveal its true role in military operations in the country.”

In communications with the Department of Foreign Affairs, the US Embassy in Manila has officially denied involvement in the Mamasapano operations to get US-wanted terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias “Marwan”.

The botched operations killed at least 67 Filipinos, including 44 elite police commandos dubbed the “SAF44”, and sparked a nationwide outrage peaking at calls for Aquino to resign.

Labog said that “the US has long been funding, equipping, training and directing local state forces to add to its own military presence in the Philippines and their pivot to Asia.”

“This US presence has claimed more victims. A recent case is the extrajudicial killing of 63-year old Florencio “Bong” Romano, whose body was discovered last March 8 in Barangay Soro-soro, Batangas City, and the disappearance of Southern Tagalog labor leader Benjamen Villeno since September 2013.  Cases of Gitmo-styled detention and torture were also documented by human rights group Karapatan,” Labog said.

The labor group is among the complainants/plaintiffs in more than 40 cases filed at the international tribunal.  The cases comprise of violations against civil, political, economic, social, cultural and self-determination rights.

The IPT convenors include the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL), the US-based National Lawyers Guild (NLG), International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP), and IBON International.

Leading the jurors is former US Representative Cynthia Ann McKinney and Azadeh Shahshahani of the US-based National Lawyers League (NLG).

The US is maintaining more than 1,000 military personnel in 130 countries and pushed for a strategic pivot into Asia along with economic and trade offensives such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) which the Philippines is hosting this year.

Reference:
Paul Quintos
Philippine Coordinating Secretariat
International Peoples’ Tribunal
+639175490412
pquintos@iboninternational.org

For more information on the International Peoples’ Tribunal, visit internationalpeoplestribunal.org.

QUEZON CITY – An international tribunal to try cases of human rights violations under the presidency of Benigno S. Aquino III has been launched today at the University of the Philippines, Diliman Quezon City.

Dubbed as the International Peoples’ Tribunal (IPT), the initiative will bring into focus the ongoing human rights violations in the Philippines and hold Pres. Aquino and the government of the United States as represented by Pres. Barrack Obama to account before the international community.

“Beneath the liberal-democratic façade of the Aquino regime, brutal repression of people’s civil and political rights abound, with hundreds of cases of extra-judicial killings and forced disappearances and massive displacement of families,” according to Cristina Palabay of Karapatan, one of the complainants to the IPT.

The IPT will also probe into the role of the increasing US military presence and intervention in the Philippines in worsening the state of human rights in the country.

“The Mamasapano operation raises questions over the extent of the US military’s involvement in Philippine domestic security. Meanwhile, the Philippine government’s failure to assert jurisdiction over US marine officer Joseph Scott Pemberton for the murder of Jennifer Laude highlights how unequal ties between the US and the Philippines invite impunity,” according to Vanessa Lucas of the US-based National Lawyers Guild, one of the convenors of the IPT.

The Chairperson of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines and another IPT Convenor, Reverend Canon Barry Naylor, explained that the IPT, although judicially non-binding, is symbolic and significant.

“People’s tribunals have had success in directing international attention to grave abuses of human rights in various countries including the Philippines during the Marcos and Arroyo regimes. The IPT draws inspiration and builds on the momentum of previous peoples’ tribunals to advance human rights and hold governments to account,” he said.

In 2007, a US Senate investigation on human rights violations in the Philippines under former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo led to restrictions on a portion of the annual US military aid package to the Philippine government tied to the implementation of strong human rights recommendations by US advocates.

The IPT is set to convene on July 16-18, 2015 in Washington DC. Former US Congresswoman and peace advocate Cynthia McKinney will be among the distinguished panel of jurors who will hear live testimonies of witnesses from the Philippines.

Conveners of the tribunal include the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP), the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL), and IBON International.

For more information on the International Peoples’ Tribunal, visit internationalpeoplestribunal.org.

Reference:
Paul Quintos
International Peoples’ Tribunal | Philippine Coordinating Secretariat
+639175490412
pquintos@iboninternational.org