Human rights lawyers from the Philippines from the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) will attend the 18th Congress of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) from 15 to 19 April 2014 in Brussels, Belgium.

More than 500 delegates from 50 countries consisting of lawyers, judges, magistrates, academics, law students, and representatives from various sectors are expected to attend the five-day Congress to be held at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel with the theme “Lawyering for People’s Rights.”

Plenary speakers at the Brussels Congress include M. Rashida Manjoo, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women; Samir Amin, co-founder of the World Social Forum; Michael Ratner, President of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights; Kumi Naido, International Executive Director of Greenpeace International, among others. Rep. Neri Javier Colmenares, deputy minority leader of the Philippine House of Representatives, will talk about impunity in the Philippines and human rights issues.

The 12-member Philippine delegation will be led by Edre Olalia, NUPL Secretary General and IADL Bureau member, together with Bayan Muna Representatives Colmenares and Carlos Isagani Zarate. Colmenares and Zarate are also the President and Adviser, respectively, of the NUPL. The other delegates are officers and members of NUPL chapters in Metro Manila,  Central Luzon, and Negros.

The Philippine delegation will be raising and bringing to the attention of the international legal community the following issues, among others: political repression, persecution and impunity; the plight of political prisoners; and the stalled peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. On the socio-economic front,  the delegates will speak on the rehabilitation efforts of the supertyphoon Yolanda and government accountability; the liability of the US for the Tubbataha reef incident; and the onerous privatization of government hospitals.  The issue of US intervention and increased access of US troops will also be brought before the international community. Finally, they will point out the continuing attacks against human rights defenders and lawyers.

The IADL Congress, a worldwide gathering of progressive and democratic lawyers, is also a venue for dialogue and networking between lawyers and activists from various social movements.

The IADL is a non-governmental organization of lawyers with consultative status at the United Nations ECOSOC and UNESCO. It was founded in 1946 by legal professionals who had been active in the struggle against fascism. IADL’s first president was René Cassin, one of the principle authors of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. IADL’s first President Emeritus is Nelson Mandela.

Since its founding, the IADL has assisted with legal advice to peoples and liberation movements throughout the world who struggled against colonialism, oppression, racism, and exploitation. The NUPL is the Philippine affiliate of the IADL which has hundreds of members all over the world today.

The IADL Congress is held once every five years, the last one in Hanoi, Vietnam in June 2009.# (js)

Reference:
Edre U. Olalia
NUPL Secretary General
+639175113373

National Secretariat
National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL)
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Telefax no.920-6660
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Human rights lawyer Atty. Ma. Catherine Dannug Salucon filed a Petition for the Writs of Amparo and Habeas Data to seek protection against threats to her life, liberty, and security by means of threats and harassments perpetrated by the military (Armed Forces of the Philippines) and the Philippine National Police.  The Petition came after Atty. Salucon’s paralegal, William Bugatti was brutally killed on 24 March 2014.

A few minutes after Atty. Salucon learned of Bugatti’s death, she learned from a very reliable source, who verbally relayed to her the information, that the Regional Intelligence Division of the Philippine National Police (PNP) issued a directive to the PNP of Burgos, Isabela, Atty. Salucon’s hometown, to conduct a background investigation and to confirm whether Atty. Salucon is a “Red Lawyer”.  She further learned that she is being secretly followed by members of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP).

Atty. Salucon has been a human rights lawyer since her admission to the Philippine Bar.  She is a founding member of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyer (NUPL), a national association of peoples’ lawyers which is principally engaged in human rights practice.  Atty. Salucon is an incumbent national officer of the NUPL. As a private lawyer, she took on the defense of several political detainees and most of her clients are members of peasant and other people’s organizations.

The NUPL, through its Secretary-General, Atty. Edre U. Olalia, in a statement condemned what they call, “the cowardice of the government’s security forces in choosing to futilely silence its perceived enemies instead of protecting their rights.”

The NUPL further stated that if any harm is inflicted on Atty. Dannug-Salucon, or to any of her staff or family members, “we shall hold the military and the police, and Commander-in-Chief President Aquino himself accountable, given the documented harassment and surveillance being made against her.

The Petition for the Writs of Amparo and Habeas Data prayed for the issuance of a temporary protection order in favor of Atty. Salucon and her family, and the subsequent issuance of the privilege of the Writ of Amparo. The Petitioner further seeks an order from the Court to direct the named Respondents and any persons acting on their behalf to destroy any information, statements, records, photographs, dossier, and all other evidence pertaining to Atty. Salucon in their files or record.

The Petition, which was filed today at the Court of Appeals named President BS Aquino, AFP Chief-of-Staff Gen. Emmanuel Bautista, Philippine Army Commanding General Gen. Hernando Irriberri, and Commanding General of the 5th Infantry Division of the AFP Gen. Joel Ibanez as party Respondents.

REFERENCES:
Atty. Edre U. Olalia
NUPL Secretary General
+639175113373

In the Cordilleras: paralegal killed, rights lawyer under attack

On 25 March 2014 at around 7:00 p.m., activist and paralegal William Bugatti was gunned down by unknown assailants widely believed to be government security forces.

The morning Bugatti was killed, he was with Atty. Ma. Catherine Dannug-Salucon in a hearing the latter attended as counsel for one of two political prisoners who are accused of murder and frustrated murder at the Regional Trial Court (RTC), Lagawe, Ifugao, hundreds of kilometers north of Manila.

In this hearing, the prosecution presented its third witness who virtually admitted on cross-examination by Atty. Salucon and during clarificatory questioning by the court that he did not actually see Atty. Salucon’s clients at the scene of the ambush and that he was just shown pictures of them before the hearing. However, the witness failed to divulge the identity of the person who showed him the pictures, prompting Atty. Salucon to task her paralegal Bugatti to get the names, ranks and addresses of the prosecution’s witness’ handler/s.

After the hearing, he joined Atty. Salucon and relatives of their detained political prisoner clients for late lunch. There Bugatti told Salucon that he even helped secure the Hall of Justice by going there as early as 6:00 a.m. as a security precaution, culled from previous experiences and incidents of reaction and reprisal.

He also advised Atty. Salucon to change her usual routine in attending hearings at RTC Lagawe to ensure her security and to avoid a pattern by which the military men and PNP operatives could rely on in their surveillance. Hours after that, Atty. Salucon would learn of Bugatti’s killing.

Atty. Salucon’s name is reportedly included in the military’s Watch List of so-called Communist Terrorist supporters rendering legal services. She has been a public defender for several years, an active founding member of and recently elected as National Auditor of the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL).

A few minutes after Atty. Salucon learned of Bugatti’s death, she learned from a very reliable source that the Regional Intelligence Division of the Philippine National Police (PNP) through the PNP Provincial issued a directive to PNP Burgos, Isabela, Atty. Salucon’s home town, to conduct a background investigation and to confirm Atty. Salucon as a “Red Lawyer”. She further learned that she is being secretly followed by  Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) members.

Atty. Salucon also monitored the following:

• Three different persons obviously looking like soldiers and all riding on motorcycles and a civilian intelligence operative from the so-called CIS, a group maintained by the CIDG, came around Atty. Salucon’s office to ask for her whereabouts with civilian intelligence operative leaving when told that Atty. Salucon was at the Hall of Justice but returned an hour after only to leave again after Atty. Salucon decided to stay late at the court.

• Around lunch on the same day, Atty. Salucon also received text messages from the investigator of the CIDG requesting for a copy of the records of a human rights case which was dismissed at the preliminary investigation level. The CIDG investigator said he lost his copies and the record was required, according to him, by the Regional Commander. Atty. Salucon was surprised because it was his third time to ask for a copy, so she decided to just ignore his text messages.

• On or about 7:30 o’ clock in the morning of 3 April 2014 while Atty. Salucon’s driver was waiting for her in front of her residence at Poblacion, Burgos, Isabela, a red “Wave” motorcycle with its plate number cased inside a tinted plastic cover which renders identifying plate numbers impossible, passed by the house.

The motorcycle driver who is of medium height, of dark complexion, with the haircut and demeanor of a military/policemen, with a tattoo at his left arm, wearing a white sando shirt and with a pistol bag slung around his shoulder, looked intently at Atty. Salucon’s driver when he passed by.

Then after passing by the whole stretch of Atty. Salucon’s house, the motorcycle rider suddenly made a U-turn and again stared intently at Atty. Salucon’s driver. As the unidentified motorcycle rider passed with Atty. Salucon’s driver trying to get some identification of him, the latter noticed that the motorcycle rider looked intently at his side mirror before reaching the highway and turned left towards the west.

With the brazen killing of her paralegal Bugatti on 25 March, her harassment and surveillance by the police and the military and given the military’s involvement in the extra-judicial killings of human rights defenders identified as leftists, Atty. Salucon, although a young fearless and dedicated defender of human rights and lawyer of political prisoners, has all the reasons to be worried. All these is intended to hamper her in the exercise of her profession.

We, at the NUPL, once again condemn the cowardice of the government’s security forces in choosing to futilely silence its perceived enemies instead of protecting their rights, including their right to dissent, as they are obliged  to do under the Constitution. Members of the bench and of the bar, with greater risk faced by those who choose to tread the path of alternative lawyering for the poor and the oppressed, are not exempted from the government security forces’ cowardice and impunity by those who cannot give a good and fair fight.

We cannot afford to lose another human rights defender in the person of Atty. Ma. Catherine Dannug-Salucon. We have already lost one too many especially during the time of Marcos and Arroyo.

If any harm is inflicted on Atty. Dannug-Salucon or to any of her staff or family members, we shall hold the military and the police and Commander-in-Chief President Aquino himself accountable given the documented harassment and surveillance being made against her.

We demand justice for the killing of William Bugatti, Atty. Dannug-Salucon’s paralegal and a staunch activist, and an end to impunity even as we exhaust all legal and metalegal means, nationally and internationally, to prevent or stop these continuing attacks on human rights defenders.

Certainly, Atty. Salucon, as with many other faceless human rights lawyers out there who quietly toil daily on the battlefield of human rights, will never retreat from being on the side of the poor, the oppressed and the underdog. But who shall ultimately defend the defenders? (af)

References:
Edre U. Olalia
NUPL Secretary General
+639175113373

Alnie Foja
NUPL Asst. Sec Gen for Protection and Welfare of Lawyers
+639479761197

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/

For the nth time, the Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (AMBALA) has condemned the unabated serial assault of the Cojuangco-Aquinos against Hacienda Luisita farmers, the recent incident of which took place yesterday afternoon in Barangay (village) Mapalacsiao involving the arbitrary arrest by the Tarlac PNP (Philippine National Police) of five farmers. The arrest came barely a week after armed goons of the Cojuangco-Aquino-owned Tarlac Development Corporation (Tadeco), with the aid of a PNP SWAT contingent and Armed Forces of the Philippines personnel, violently attacked the headquarters of AMBALA in Barangay Cutcut which left tens of farmers severely injured.

Unlike previous incidents, this one, according to AMBALA, had the direct, active participation of the Department of Agrarian Reform, as it was a certain Tristy Figueroa, a representative of the DAR survey firm partner, FF Cruz, who ordered the PNP to arrest George Gatus, Gerry Catalan, Jaime Quiambao, Alvin Gratil and Leoncio Suarez. The Mapalacsiao farmers are being charged with coercion and violation of the implementation of the Republic Act 6657 or Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law. They were detained for 20 hours at Camp Macabulos, Tarlac.

“The DAR’s involvement in this latest case of ‘legal’ harassment and intimidation pretty much exposes the fact that the DAR has all along been aiding and abetting the Cojuangco-Aquinos in their relentless and cruel haciendero ways to retain control of Hacienda Luisita,” said AMBALA chairperson, Florida “Ka Pong” Sibayan.

According to AMBALA, through Tadeco, the Central Azucarera de Tarlac and several other corporate avatars of the Cojuangco-Aquinos, the Presidential family has, since July of last year, been in an all-out campaign to evict hundreds of farm worker families from at least a thousand hectares of agricultural lands in Hacienda Luisita. Several hundreds of hectares have already been fenced off by the Cojuangco-Aquinos in the villages of Balete, Lourdes, Cutcut, Parang, Central and Mapalacsiao. These lands, Sibayan said, have been excluded from the total area of distributable Luisita lands “through the cunning machinations of the Cojuangco-Aquinos and with the complicity of the (DAR).”

The lands meanwhile which have been supposedly included in the land distribution process, according to AMBALA, have not yet been physically awarded to the so-called Luisita farm worker beneficiaries, despite bold statements by the DAR that land distribution has already been completed. These lands are instead being usurped and controlled by sugar cane production financiers who are said to be mere pawns themselves of the Cojuangco-Aquinos.

The Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura, through its secretary general, Ranmil Echanis, said that “the fact that the Luisita farmers, whose only desire is to see that land reform is truly implemented, are now being charged of violating the CARP law, tells us just how bogus and violently anti-peasant this law really is.”

Various militant peasant organizations led by the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas have been calling for a stronger, genuinely pro-peasant and pro-social justice land reform law and program to replace CARP which they believe has long been a sham and monumental failure.

REFERENCE:
Christopher Garcia
Spokesperson, AMBALA
CONTACT NO:  +639293200615

Related article:
Arrests continue, 5 farmers nabbed in Luisita
http://bulatlat.com/main/2014/04/03/arrests-continue-5-farmers-nabbed-in-luisita/

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Statement regarding the visit of the Commission on Human Rights

First released on 25 March 2014

We thank Chairperson Etta Rosales and two other Commissioners of the CHR (Commission on Human Rights) for the visit on 25 March to find out if our human rights were respected during our arrest.

We emphasized to the CHR commissioners that the most important and serious issues relative to our human rights are our being framed-up, accused of fabricated charge of illegal possession of firearms and explosives and the planting of evidence to justify our illegal arrest and detention and that of our five companions in the house.

This gross violation of human rights completely negates all the efforts of CHR to initiate in the PNP and AFP the respect for human rights. The few and trickled measures to effect in the PNP and AFP the respect for human rights are rendered inutile if the more fundamental right against illegal arrest is wantonly practiced by the whole institution and the State. This creates intense cynicism not only among the victims but also in the ranks of the police and soldiers.

The true and serious promotion of the respect for human rights is towards the welfare and aspirations of the people. In view of this, we urge the CHR to launch an earnest campaign against the contempt for human rights of the PNP, AFP and the ruling State.

Reply to Mr. Alex Padilla, and with regards to the violation of the JASIG

First released on 24 March 2014

We reiterate our condemnation of our arrest as an outright violation of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) that gives us immunity as national consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines with NDFID No. 978226 (Wilma Austria) and NDFID No. 978227 (Benito with the name Crising Banaag).

The claim of the head of the GPH peace panel, Alex Padilla, that we are not covered by the JASIG is a warped lie. Wilma was openly confirmed as NDFP national consultant by former GRP peace panel head Ambassador Howard Dee, as well as by Pres. Ramos when he ordered the release of Wilma Austria in 1994 as a confidence and goodwill building measure. Meanwhile, Benito was among the original recipients of the NDFP Document of Identification and JASIG immunity, a thing that was expected and indubitable. Whatever pretexts the GPH panel will come up with, its claim that Benito has no role in the peace process and is not covered by the JASIG is utterly farcical.

NDFP consultants, like us, can significantly contribute to the peace process because of our crucial role in the struggle. Our role in the struggle is a requisite to our role in the peace process. The involvement of the movement is inherent in a peace process; hence, the position of a few that the struggle must cease first before we participate in the peace process is unreasonable and will not help. We believe that for the realization of a true, lasting and just peace, the pursuit of the struggle with all our might is not contrary but rather in unity with and corresponds to the peace process.

With regards the allegation of the AFP that Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria are the brains behind the “anti-infiltration hysteria”

First released on 24 March 2014

The allegation made by the Philippine National Police officer (after our statement was read) that the brains behind the anti-infiltration hysteria “kahos” were Benito and Wilma Tiamzon is a stark lie and fabrication. This is contrary to the truth.

The “kahos” was a local campaign which was planned and started in some parts of Mindanao in 1984, at the time that Benito and Wilma were in Luzon and had no direct responsibility of the movement in Mindanao.

When the belated report on the “kahos” was received, this was immediately stopped, investigated and the error, fully rectified.

Benito and Wilma played a crucial role in leading the investigation and rectification, as well as in formulating, approving and disseminating clear and stricter rules on the investigation, trial and judgment.

The movement has clear and strict policies and rules on the respect for human rights and democratic rights of its members and the people. These are systematically and continuously disseminated to all.

The Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) that was signed by the NDFP and GPH reflects the stand and policies of the Party and the movement on the respect for human rights and democratic rights and the humane conduct of the armed struggle.

On the other hand, the human rights abuses of the GPH and its armed forces all the more increased and intensified. Extrajudicial killings, which Palparan grossly propagated, massacres such as the ruthless mass killing of the peasants in Palo, Leyte continue. Militarization, especially in the rural areas, and all the turpitude and abuses linked to it, such as illegal arrest, torture, killing, and dislocation of whole barangays and communities are widespread.

Rights groups slam trumped-up charges vs activists, peace consultants in talks with government

Rights groups held a protest action in front of the Manila Regional Trial Court Tuesday morning, when the court conducted a clarificatory hearing on the multiple murder case filed against former Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo and peace consultants in talks with the government, including Randall Echanis, Rafael Baylosis, Vicente Ladlad, and recently arrested consultants Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria.

“The revival of these trumped up charges against Ocampo and the peace consultants signals the intensification of political persecution under the Aquino administration. These were charges hatched under the auspices of former Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s Inter-Agency Legal Action Group (IALAG), which was deemed by United Nations Special Rapporteur Philip Alston as a means by which the government prosecutes and punishes “enemies of the state,” said Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general.

Palabay said that while the IALAG was abolished due to extensive campaign of human rights groups and the international community, the policy and practice of filing trumped-up criminalized charges continues under the Aquino government.

Karapatan has documented 570 cases of illegal arrests and detention from June 2010 to December 2013. The group also documented 427 political prisoners, as of December 2013, including 152 persons arrested under Aquino’s term. Palabay added that almost all of cases, like those of detained NDFP consultants, are criminal charges spuriously filed based on highly questionable evidence and fabricated testimonies.

“Leaders of people’s organizations in Negros, for instance, are constantly threatened with fabricated criminal charges of the AFP and the PNP. Under the Aquino government, the assault on political dissenters through the filing of trumped-up charges is on the rise. In an attempt to silence opposition, they make up all sort of charges using the wildest of their imagination,” Palabay said.

Organization of ex-political detainees SELDA (Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto), of which Ocampo is board member, also condemned the revival of charges against Ocampo and consultants who are performing tasks in the peace talks on the side of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.

“How the police and military have arrested, demonized and dealt with the latest political prisoners Benito Tiamzon, Wilma Austria and their five companions, and the arrest of the late Ka Roger Rosal’s daughter, is vintage martial law practice. The “planting” of evidence has been a long-standing practice of the police and military, extensively used during the Martial Law period. They use this to justify illegal arrests and detention. They also exploit the use of John and Jane Does, even aliases, to charge anyone as respondents to a case,” Bonifacio Ilagan, vice chairperson of SELDA, said.

Ilagan, who was imprisoned during the Martial Law years, recalled “As early as the 1970s, I remember being accosted with fellow activists after a rally, brought to the police precinct at UN Avenue and slapped with illegal possession of explosives, even if we only carried banners and streamers.”

“Circumstances of arrests and detention are highly anomalous, and the so-called evidences improbable,” said Ilagan, “human rights lawyers call the circumstances cited in trumped-up charges as beyond human experience, like soldiers’ testimonies that they identified the respondents by virtue of seeing their faces in alleged military encounters.”

Karapatan and SELDA joined calls to free all political prisoners, and demanded that the Aquino government stop filing trumped-up charges.

“Trumped-up charges are obviously meant to stifle the freedom of movement of political dissenters. This is the bigger crime. The Aquino government should stop silencing its critics, or his regime is bound to face bigger protests for violating human rights here and there,” Palabay ended.

References:
Cristina Palabay
Karapatan secretary general

Bonifacio Ilagan
SELDA vice-chairperson

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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.