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Karapatan slams arrest of NDFP consultant, Gen. Bautista’s possible appointment as Peace Panel chief

ICHRP Secretariat
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Karapatan slams arrest of NDFP consultant, Gen. Bautista’s possible appointment as Peace Panel chief

“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

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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

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. 

Rights lawyers, advocates reiterate calls to stop attacks on lawyers

ICHRP Secretariat
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Rights lawyers, advocates reiterate calls to stop attacks on lawyers

On the occasion of the “Day of the Endangered Lawyer”

Let the Facts Speak for Themselves: First Thing They Do, Attack the Rights Lawyers

Today, the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), together with their clients and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), trooped to the Supreme Court as part of its parallel activity for the “Day of the Endangered Lawyer” contemporaneous with the simultaneous pickets and dialogues before various Philippine embassies, consulates and other public plazas in 23 cities in 11 countries in Europe.

Three solidarity groups of European lawyers’ organizations, the European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights (ELDH), the European Democratic Lawyers (AED-EDL), and the European Bar Human Rights Institute (IDHAE), will mobilize later today lawyers donned in their traditional court attires or togas in Austria (Vienna); Belgium (Brussels, Antwerpen); England (London); France (Paris, Montpellier); Germany (Berlin, Essen); Greece (Athens); Italy (Rome, Milano); Netherlands (The Hague);  Spain (Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid); Switzerland (Bern); and Turkey (Adana, Alanya, Ankara, Antalya, Bursa, İzmir, Istanbul) to highlight the issue of attacks on lawyers in the Philippines. This activity is supported by the UN-accredited International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) and the Lawyers for Lawyers Foundation.

The NUPL led by its President Neri Colmenares and adviser Carlos Zarate – who are also partylist representatives together with fellow NUPL member Terry Ridon,  – had an audience with the Court’s spokesperson, Atty. Theodore Te. Atty. Te was officially designated by the Chief Justice to represent her considering the importance of the subject matter. They submitted documentation of the various incidents of attacks on lawyers and concrete proposals to address them. NUPL Secretary General Edre U. Olalia himself will take the chance to join the activities and speak in public forums in The Hague and Amsterdam (Netherlands), Dusseldorf and Berlin (Germany) and Brussels and Antwerp (Belgium) while he is in Europe for other matters.

During the audience and solidarity program in the Supreme Court, NUPL members, victims and victims’ families presented the situation of the attacked lawyers and judges  and reiterated  calls for protection and for justice for lawyers under attack especially those who have been killed.

Indeed, the importance of tackling the alarming and continuing attacks on Filipino lawyers, many of them are people’s lawyers from the NUPL who have chosen to forego the more lucrative aspects of law practice in order to devote more of their time to its clientele who are from the marginalized and oppressed sectors of our society, cannot be over-emphasized.

Let the facts speak for themselves

Since 1977 when data started to be recorded, 100 lawyers have been attacked (57 since 2001) while 50 lawyers have been killed (41 since 2001). Nineteen judges have been murdered, 18 since 2001.

Nine (22%) of the lawyers killed since 2001 came mostly from our ranks who were directly involved in handling human rights cases or issues. Of the other 57 lawyers who have been threatened, harassed, intimidated, surveilled, labelled and attacked in other forms, a sizable 43 (76%) were directly involved in human rights cases or advocacies. There were more lawyers under surveillance (35) and maliciously labelled (37) during the period 2001 to the present than in the prior years since 1977.

Of the known perpetrators recorded, 65% were identified to be members of the military while 20% were from the police service. More than half of all attacks have no known perpetrators to date.

The records would show that under the present administration of President Aquino, the situation appears to have deteriorated. Documented reports show no abatement, but in fact, an apparent increase in the number of attacks. Thence, only very scarcely is a perpetrator arrested; and none of them fully prosecuted.  Since June 2010, 15 lawyers and 3 judges have already been killed, 13 other lawyers have been attacked in other forms, including 6 maliciously labelled and 4 threatened, harassed and intimidated. Of all the attacks (including murders), 15 lawyers are engaged in human rights, accounting for more than half of the victims – the single biggest group of targets.

By joining their foreign colleagues in marking the “Day of the Endangered Lawyer,” the NUPL hopes to generate public awareness on the situation of Filipino lawyers, particularly those who have been murdered on account of their profession and of the human rights defenders who constantly face the risk of also being forever silenced or harassed.

As NUPL – and the Counsels for the Defense of Lawyers (CODAL) before – had previously articulated, at the end of the day, the buck stops with the government as it is expressly duty-bound by international covenants to protect also the members of the legal profession.

Government must simply do its job: protect its citizens, categorically condemn these attacks on lawyers as human rights defenders; seriously and credibly investigate, prosecute and punish the perpetrators; and uphold human rights because the attacks on lawyers is not only an attack on the individual lawyer, it is an attack on the legal profession, and most fundamentally – in the context of the targeted assaults on human rights and public interest lawyers – an attack itself on the rights & interests of the mostly poor and oppressed in our country.

If officers of the court and supposed pillars of the justice system who are symbols of the so-called majesty of justice and the so-called rule of law are gunned down like headless chickens in broad daylight, then who is safe out there?#

Reference:
Alnie G. Foja
NUPL Assistant Secretary General for Protection of Lawyers
+63479761197

Edre U. Olalia
NUPL Secretary General
+639175113373

Photo gallery: Members and officers of the NUPL are discussing with Public Information Officer Theodore Te of the Philippine Supreme Court and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) the continuing attacks on judges and lawyers in the Philippines while clients and supporters of the NUPL troop outside the Court to ask for action and solidarity and attacks on lawyers, most of whom are human rights defenders.

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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/

Mindanao Lumads to confer indigenous name “Apô Edsila” on Pope Francis

ICHRP Secretariat
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Mindanao Lumads to confer indigenous name “Apô Edsila” on Pope Francis

TACLOBAN CITY – Lumad leaders will confer on Pope Francis the title Apô (Elder) Edsila today (January 16) here in an event called  “Gathering of the Poor” to be witnessed by Catholic sisters and Typhoon Yolanda survivors.

“We are bestowing on him the title Apô Edsila since he is worthy of high esteem with his love for us, indigenous peoples, and for his respect for the values and beliefs that we have held sacred since time immemorial,” says Dulphing Ogan, secretary general of the Mindanao-wide indigenous peoples’ group Kalumaran.

“Edsila means ‘light’, ‘sunrise,’ or  ‘dawn of a new day’ — all signifying hope, newness, and change,” Ogan said. It is a term used by Higaonon and Talaandig tribes inhabiting the mountains around the Pulangi River in central Mindanao.

The honor will be solemnized by Ogan, a Blaan, and five other Lumad leaders coming from the Bagobo, Manobo, and Higaonon tribes through a ritual, along with around 50 Catholic nuns belonging to the Sisters’ Association in Mindanao (SAMIN) and a thousand Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) survivors belonging to People Surge. The Panubadtubad will be performed just before the sun sets today, eve of the Pontiff’s visit to Tacloban on January 17.

Ogan said “the Pope’s anticipated encyclical on climate change is a breath of fresh air for indigenous peoples because it will bring the issue of ancestral domains and the violation of our human rights from the margins to the center.”

He added that “the Pope’s indictment of the pitfalls of capitalism is an affirmation of our indigenous values of collectivism and stewardship of Mother Earth.”

Finding relevance in the Pope’s visit to Tacloban with their own issues, Ogan said “The Pope is visiting Tacloban as Haiyan’s ‘ground zero’ because we have defiled many ‘ancestral grounds’ through imperialist plunder such as largescale mining, plantation economies, and other extractive industries.”

“We look up to the Pope to usher in ‘newness’ and transformation in this global system that perpetuates greed, exploitation, and oppression— the very opposite of mercy and compassion,” Ogan said referring to the theme of the Papal Visit.

“Pope Francis, you are truly worthy to be called our Apô Edsila,” Ogan said.

Ogan says chicken blood will be offered to Magbabaya (the Supreme God of the Lumads) to signify the Mindanao indigenous peoples’ solidarity with the Pope.

He says that along with the offering is an incense “which seeks to drive all the bad spirits away that may bring harm to the people and the Pope and invite the good spirits to protect and guide him in all of his undertakings.”

Ogan says a betel nut, an “apog” (lime) and a seashell will also be offered “as symbols of the heart and compassion of the Lumads in defending and protecting their rights to self-determination and ancestral lands – the same compassion to the poor that the Pope has manifested.”

To go with these symbols is the partaking of a local wine “which stands for the courage and our shared determination as Lumads to carry on the struggle for a dignified and just life,” Ogan adds.

Bagobo chieftain Monico Cayog, 77, speaking in Visayan, added:  “I see in Pope Francis the qualities of an elder who is down-to-earth and breaks barriers dividing his esteemed position and the realities of his people. These are characteristics of a true elder.”

Cayog added that “the Pope’s pro-poor and pro-environment principles are akin to an elder’s teachings and wisdom which is centered on people and the Earth.”

For reference:
Dulphing Ogan
Secretary General
Kalumaran Kusog sa Katawhang Lumad sa Mindanao
Mobile +639128880131 

Rights lawyers to sue jail officials for barring visits to political prisoners

ICHRP Secretariat
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Rights lawyers to sue jail officials for barring visits to political prisoners
From InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5

MANILA, Philippines — Human rights lawyers plan to sue officials of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology who have denied access to doctors and counsel of political prisoners staging a hunger strike to demand their freedom and mark the visit to the country of Pope Francis.

“For contumaciously denying access to doctors our clients trust, we will file criminal, civil and administrative charges in all fora, including complaints in foreign bodies, against ruthless BJMP officials and guards,” Edre Olalia, secretary general of the National Union of People’s Lawyers, said.

“Let it be clear. We hold them responsible if anything happens to political prisoners who are on hunger strike and now weak and ill,” he added.

Olalia singled out Jail Superintendent Michelle Ng Bonto, warden of the Special Intensive Care Area 1 detention facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City “and her vassal guards” who, he said, “are heartless in denying access of doctors to see ailing and weak political prisoners on hunger strike.”

The human rights group Karapatan said jail officials twice barred, on January 13 and 14, Dr. Julie Caguiat from visiting SICA-1 prisoners, who entered eighth day of their fast Friday.

As of this posting, Karapatan said, an NUPL lawyer and a doctor from the Center for Health and Development “are still negotiating for their entry.”

Nimfa Lanzanas, whose son Edward, is among the hunger strikers, said she feared for his condition.

“I have been worried since the time jail authorities prevented the prisoners’ doctor to check-up on them. Di na ako mapalagay. Syempre, nanay ako. Pero naiintindihan ko kung bakit kailangan nila itong gawin, (I have been restless. Of course, I am a mother. But I understand why they have to go on hunger strike),” she said.

Karapatan said the Camp Bagong Diwa detainees began their hunger strike on January 10.

By Thursday, January 15, the day the Pope arrived in the country, “almost all of the 491 political prisoners in 50 jails nationwide started theirs.”

Karapatan also accused Bonto of denying the SICA-1 detainees request to donate savings from their food rations during the hunger strike to victims of typhoons Yolanda and Seniang, which the human rights group estimated could reach at least P10,000.

Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general, said they are hoping Pope Francis finds time to visit the political prisoners and see their plight.

Call for Solidarity Hunger Fast with political prisoners in the Philippines

ICHRP Secretariat
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Call for Solidarity Hunger Fast with political prisoners in the Philippines

15-19 January 2015
No meals for 28 hours in support of political prisoners

Tweet and post photos of yourself with a sign bearing this logo or the words #DearPopeFrancis I am on #SolidarityFast with #PoliticalPrisoners #HungerStrike in PH #FreePoliticalPrisonersPH

Calling all BAYAN-USA Members and Friends:

From the 15th to 19th of January this year, all 491 political prisoners in the Philippines will conduct a hunger strike to call attention to their unjust imprisonment and the unabated state-sponsored repression of activists under the watch of President B.S. Aquino, who denies the existence of political prisoners.

Demanding fair wages for workers…food and shelter for victims of typhoons…land for farmers and indigenous people… and peace and sovereignty instead of militarization is NOT a crime — yet Aquino’s government regularly imprisons women, workers, youth, faith leaders, journalists, and doctors for standing up for their rights.

The hunger strike coincides with the visit of “the Pope of the Poor” — Pope Francis — to “the country of the poor” — the Philippines. While the B.S. Aquino government will try to keep the political prisoners locked in their cells hidden from the Pope’s view, the political prisoners have called for international support of their strike to make sure that a spotlight shines brightly on their plight and the plight of the poor for whom they fight.

BAYAN-USA calls on all its members and allies to support the 491 political prisoners by conducting Solidarity Hunger Fasts from Jan. 15-19, 2015. Tweet and post photos of yourself with a sign bearing this logo or the words “ #DearPopeFrancis I am on #SolidarityFast with #PoliticalPrisoners #HungerStrike in PH #FreePoliticalPrisonersPH”

To also show solidarity with the mobilizations for Black Self-Determination and BlackLivesMatter during Martin Luther King Jr. weekend which will also be happening on those dates, BAYAN-USA asks that members and friends participating in the fast aim to fast for either 4 hours (in recognition of the 4 hours Mike Brown’s body lay in the street after he was murdered) or 28 hours (in recognition of one black person being killed every 28 hours by police, security personnel or vigilante).  A solidarity fast means skipping meals and/or snacks for the period that you’re fasting.

More information and call to action from the political prisoners, below. For more information, contact secgen@bayanusa.org.

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