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Military occupies community school in Compostela Valley province

ICHRP Secretariat
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Military occupies community school in Compostela Valley province

By KARAPATAN Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights

Initial Report

UA Case:

  • Attacks on or Use of Schools for Military Purposes;
  • Endangerment of Civilians;
  • Threat, harassment and intimidation;
  • Violation of Domiciles

Victim/s:

  • 230 pupils and 5 teachers of Salugpungan Ta Tanu Igkanugon Community Learning Center (STTICLC), a community-based school of Matigsalog indigenous people accredited by the Department of Education
  • 51 households near the STTICLC

Place of Incident: At the school building of the STTICLC at 4B, Mangayon village, municipality of Compostela, province of Compostela Valley

Date of Incident: From 25 to 28 January 2014

Alleged Perpetrator(s):

  • More than 30 elements of the Delta Company – 25th Infantry Battalion Philippine Army lead by Lt. Heruben Romare
  • The soldiers were in full combat gear and armed with high-powered rifles.

Account of the Incident:

On 25 January 2014, more than 30 members of the Delta Company, 25th Infantry Battalion Philippine Army (IBPA) arrived in Barangay (village) Mangayon, Compostela, a village inhabited mostly by the Matigsalog tribe. The soldiers, in full combat gear and armed with high-powered guns, camped at the community’s school, the Salugpungan Ta Tanu Igkanugon Community Learning Center (STTICLC).

The STTICLC is a community based school which was established with the help of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines – Southern Mindanao Region (RMP-SMR) and the Matigsalog tribe. In 2012, the school house was destroyed by typhoon Pablo/Bopha. The residents were able to reconstruct their school buildings and homes with the help of several people’s organizations. The school, now under the administration of the STTICLC, Inc., is accredited by the Department of Education to provide formal education for indigenous people.

The school’s administrators and community leaders asked the soldiers to leave the school house, but Lt. Heruben Romare insisted to stay, claiming they would be conducting a Peace and Development Outreach Program in the community.

With the soldiers using the school house as barracks, where they sleep and cook their meals, the classes for the 230 pupils were suspended. The children and their teachers were afraid of the military. Karapatan also received reports that the military forcibly entered several homes near the school and threatened some of the pupils and teachers.

On 28 January 2014, a quick response team went to the community. The team was composed of Save our Schools Network (SOS), Compostela Farmers Association (CFA), Bulig Alang sa Mindanao (Balsa/Help for Mindanao), Pasaka (an alliance of Lumad organizations Lumad in Southern Mindanao), Science and Aternative Technology for Rural Development (SALT-RD) together with the Southern Mindanao chapters of Children’s Rehabilitation Center and Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas. The team and the village leaders held a dialogue with the members of the 25th Infantry Battalion and demanded that they vacate the school and leave their community.

The military left the community after the dialogue, three days after they occupied the said school, only to set-up camp near the community. Matigsalog people believe that the presence of armed soldiers nearby continue to endanger them and their children.

On 29 January, classes resumed at the STTICLC, though students and community members remain under constant threat.

UA Date: 29 January 2014

Recommended Action:
Send letters, emails or fax messages calling for:

  1. For the Armed Forces of the Philippines and other security forces of the State, to pull out from the communities, and to stop using the following as military camps, detachments or outposts that endanger the civilian population: inside or in the immediate vicinity of schools, day care centers, learning and education facilities; hospitals and clinics; places of worship or convents, barangay halls and other public places.
  2. The immediate formation of an independent fact-finding and investigation team composed of representatives from human rights groups, the Church, local government, and the Commission on Human Rights that will look into the occupation of the Salugpungan Ta Tanu Igkanugon Community Learning Center (STTICLC) by the members of the 25th Infantry Battalion.
  3. The Philippine Government to withdraw its counterinsurgency program Oplan Bayanihan, which endanger and victimizes innocent and unarmed civilians.
  4. The Philippine Government to be reminded that it is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and that it is also a party to all the major Human Rights instruments, thus it is bound to observe all of these instruments’ provisions.

You may send your communications to:

H.E. Benigno C. Aquino III
President of the Republic
Malacañang Palace,
JP Laurel St., San Miguel
Manila Philippines
Voice: (+632) 564 1451 to 80
Fax: (+632) 742-1641 / 929-3968
E-mail: op@president.gov.ph
http://www.president.gov.ph/contact-us-2/

Sec. Teresita Quintos-Deles
Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process
Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP)
7th Floor Agustin Building I
Emerald Avenue
Pasig City 1605
Voice:+63 (2) 636 0701 to 066
Fax:+63 (2) 638 2216
stqd.papp@opapp.net
http://www.opapp.gov.ph/directory

Ret. Lt. Gen. Voltaire T. Gazmin
Secretary, Department of National Defense
Room 301 DND Building, Segundo Ave. Camp General Emilio Aguinaldo,
E. de los Santos Avenue, Quezon City
Voice:+63(2) 911-6193 / 911-0488 / 982-5600
Fax:+63(2) 982-5600
Email: osnd@philonline.com, dnd.opla@gmail.com,  info@dnd.gov.ph
http://www.dnd.gov.ph/contact-us.html

Atty. Leila De Lima
Secretary, Department of Justice
Padre Faura St., Manila
Direct Line 521-1908
Trunkline  523-84-81 loc.211/214
Fax: (+632) 523-9548
Email:  lmdelima@doj.gov.ph, lmdelima.doj2@gmail.com
http://www.doj.gov.ph/

Hon.  Loretta Ann P. Rosales
Chairperson, Commission on Human Rights
SAAC Bldg., UP Complex
Commonwealth Avenue
Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
Voice: (+632) 928-5655, 926-6188
Fax: (+632) 929 0102
Email:   chair.rosales.chr@gmail.com, lorettann@gmail.com
http://www.chr.gov.ph/

Please send us a copy of your email/mail/fax to the above-named government officials, to our address below.

URGENT ACTION Prepared by:

KARAPATAN Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights

PNP “torture roulette” proof that torture continues under Aquino government — Karapatan

ICHRP Secretariat
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PNP “torture roulette” proof that torture continues under Aquino government — Karapatan

KARAPATAN (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights)

“Torture continues as a policy and a practice of the Aquino government. It is done against its political opponents and even among common offenders,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said as the group condemned the torture of 15 detainees in Biñan, Laguna, perpetrated by 10 members of Philippine National Police-Laguna Provincial Intelligence Branch District Office.

“The torture roulette found in the police detention facility in Biñan, Laguna, showed the brazenness of the torturers and how deeply instituted torture is in the police and the army. Ginagawa nilang laro at biro ang buhay ng tao (They are treating the life of human beings as playthings and butts of jokes). At the very least, it is an insult to our sensibilities as human beings. As it appears, torture is a reward they crave to do against those they consider as offenders,” stated Palabay.

As of 31 December 2013, Karapatan documented 86 cases of torture under the BS Aquino administration. Palabay cited the case of Rolly Panesa, a security guard mistaken to be an official of the Communist Party of the Philippines who was beaten black and blue by members of the Philippine National Police and the Philippine Army who arrested and interrogated him while in Camp Vicente Lim in Calamba, Laguna. Panesa, upon his release, filed a counter-charge to his arresting officers under the “Anti-Torture Act of 2009.”

Even mentally handicapped-persons are not spared from torture, Karapatan added. On 2 February 2013, Sayapo Maganyo, a resident of Barangay (village) Halapitan, San Fernando, Bukidnon, was nosing around bodies of soldiers allegedly killed in an encounter with the New People’s Army (NPA).  Soldiers immediately threatened to stab and shoot him. He was beaten up and forced to give names of “NPA contacts”. Sayapo sustained several bruises and bumps in his head. After the torture, he was brought to a military detachment and was turned over to the PNP. He is now facing charges of attempted murder and violation of the election gun ban.

“These are proof that torture or other forms of human rights violations are not eliminated by merely enacting laws that criminalize these acts. As long as counter-insurgency programs and the culture of impunity pervade under the BS Aquino administration, torture and other human rights violations will continue to be perpetrated,” Palabay concluded.

http://www.karapatan.org/Torture+roulette+at+PNP%2C+proof+that+torture+continues+under+Aquino+govt–KarapatanReference:
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 Floor Erythrina Building
#1 Maaralin corner Matatag Streets, Central District
Diliman, Quezon City
PHILIPPINES 1101
Telefax: (+63 2) 4354146

Anti-mining advocate shot dead in Maco, Compostela Valley

ICHRP Secretariat
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Anti-mining advocate shot dead in Maco, Compostela Valley

URGENT ALERT

UA Case : Extrajudicial killing
Victim/s: MARCELO C. MONTERONA, Jr.Male, 41, married with three children  ages 16, 14 and 12Self-employed mechanic and driver

Resident of Maco town, Compostela Valley province

Council member, Indug Kautawan, Maco chapter of Barug Katawhan (People Rise Up! a group of typhoon “Pablo” survivors in Maco)

Member, Kabalikat Civicom – Maragusan Chapter
Place of Incident: Near the victim’s house in Elizalde village, Maco, Compostela Valley
Date of Incident : 3 January 2014
Alleged Perpetrator(s): Two unidentified men believed to be members of the 71st Infantry Battalion Philippine Army on board a motorcycle.

 

Account of the Incident:

On 3 January 2014, Marcelo Monterona was fixing his multicab vehicle. At around 11:00 a.m., he went to Km. 11 on-board his motorcycle to borrow a sparkplug ring from his friend Edgardo Sedillo, a bakery owner. Sedillo’s bakery is about 600 meters from Monterona’s residence. While waiting for Sedillo, Monterona noticed seven army soldiers in uniform at a neighbourhood store across the street. Right after Monterona got the sparkplug ring, he returned to his house to continue fixing the multicab.

At around 12:00 noon, Monterona tested the multicab on the road in front of his house. He was some 13 meters from his house when two unidentified men, aboard an XRM motorcycle, stopped near the driver’s seat of the multicab. Witnesses said the gunman went straight to the driver’s seat and shot Monterona with a .45 caliber pistol, hitting him on the left side of his mouth. He tried to crawl out of the vehicle through the passenger’s side. But the gunman got on the vehicle through the driver’s side door and shot Monterona several times more before speeding away.

Monterona fell out of the vehicle and was rushed to a hospital in Tagum City by his wife and son. Sedillo, who was grazed by a stray bullet in the stomach, was also brought to the hospital.

Monterona was pronounced Dead On Arrival (DOA). Sedillo, who sustained minor injuries, was discharged of the hospital on the same day. From the hospital, Monterona’s remains were brought back to their residence in Purok 1, Sitio Waterfall, Barangay Elizalde, Municipality of Maco.

The following day, on 4 January, the Philippine National Police of Mawab arrived at the funeral parlor and examined the remains of Monterona. PO1 Haidan Ajiji said Monterona sustained six gunshot wounds.

Also on the same day, a Quick Response Team (QRT) from Davao City led by Karapatan-Southern Mindanao Region arrived to gather additional data on Monterona’s death.

The team recovered a tooth at the driver’s seat; the right wind shield of the multicab was hit and broken. The right door of the multicab also had two holes from gunshot and a splinter at the passenger’s seat. The day before, Monterona’s relatives recovered three empty shells and two slugs of .45 caliber pistols near the vehicle.

The witnesses said the motorcycle driver was medium-built, and with moustache. The gunman was skinny. He wore a yellow bullcap, yellow-green jacket, and black trekking short pants. His face was covered with handkerchief. The motorcycle had no nameplate. Also, neighbors noticed two men at a nearby store, whom they assumed were “spotters” or look-outs.

Monterona was an active Council member of Indug Kautawan. He actively participated in national and local campaigns against the large-scale and open-pit mining operations of the Apex Mining Company [1]. Last year, he and other victims of the typhoon Pablo/Bopha barricaded the gates of the mining company in Maco, paralyzing its operations. The protesters cited the mining company’s accountability  for increasing the vulnerability of the people in Maco, when the typhoon hit their communities, as a result of its destructive mining operations.  As a result of the protest, Apex agreed to indemnify the victims with PhP3.6 million, 300 sacks of rice, and to rehabilitate local infrastructure and the damaged communities.

Monterona also campaigned for the pull-out of 71st Infantry Battalion from the communities, criticized the military’s aerial bombings in the area, and demanded justice for the slain Pedro Tinga, also a member of Indug Kautawan, and other human rights abuses by the military. On 16-18 December 2013, during their barricade and lobbying at the Provincial Capitol of Compostela Valley in Nabunturan, he caught a military agent taking pictures of the protesters.

Recommended Action:

Send letters, emails or fax messages to call for:

The immediate formation of an independent fact-finding and investigation team composed of representatives from human rights groups, the Church, local government, and the Commission on Human Rights that will look into the killing of Marcelo Monterona and Pedro Tinga.

The end to the policy and practice of labelling and targeting of human rights defenders as “members of front organizations of the communists” and “enemies of the state.”

The withdrawal of Oplan Bayanihan, the Philippine government’s counterinsurgency program, that victimizes innocent and unarmed civilians.The Philippine government to observe the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and all the major Human Rights instruments that it is a party and signatory to.

You may send your communications to:

H.E. Benigno C. Aquino III
President of the Republic
Malacañang Palace,
JP Laurel St., San Miguel
Manila Philippines
Voice: (+632) 564 1451 to 80
Fax: (+632) 742-1641 / 929-3968
E-mail: op@president.gov.ph

Sec. Teresita Quintos-Deles
Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process
Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP)
7th Floor Agustin Building I
Emerald Avenue
Pasig City 1605
Voice:+63 (2) 636 0701 to 066
Fax:+63 (2) 638 2216
stqd.papp@opapp.gov.ph

Ret. Lt. Gen. Voltaire T. Gazmin
Secretary, Department of National Defense
Room 301 DND Building, Camp Emilio Aguinaldo,
E. de los Santos Avenue, Quezon City
Voice:+63(2) 911-6193 / 911-0488 / 982-5600
Fax:+63(2) 982-5600
Email: osnd@philonline.com, dnd.opla@gmail.com

Atty. Leila De Lima
Secretary, Department of Justice
Padre Faura St., Manila
Direct Line 521-1908
Trunkline  523-84-81 loc.211/214
Fax: (+632) 523-9548
Email:  lmdelima@doj.gov.ph,
lmdelima.doj@gmail.com,
lmdelima.doj@gmail.com

Hon.  Loretta Ann P. Rosales
Chairperson, Commission on Human Rights
SAAC Bldg., UP Complex
Commonwealth Avenue
Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
Voice: (+632) 928-5655, 926-6188
Fax: (+632) 929 0102
Email:   chair.rosales.chr@gmail.com,
lorettann@gmail.com


[1] Apex Mining Co. is largely owned by Mapula Creek Gold Corp, a subsidiary of Crew Gold Corporation based in the United Kingdom; and Mindanao Gold Ltd., a special purpose company formed by Malaysian investment company ASVI

Please send us a copy of your email/mail/fax to the above-named government officials, to our address below.URGENT ACTION Prepared by:

KARAPATAN Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights
2nd Floor Erythrina Building,
1 Maaralin Street, Brgy. Central,
Diliman, Quezon City,
1100 Philippines
Email: karapatan@karapatan.org | urgentaction@karapatan.org

Estancia oil spill victims demand PhP300 million compensation

ICHRP Secretariat
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Estancia oil spill victims demand PhP300 million compensation

http://www.panaynewsphilippines.com/top-stories/12458-estancia-oil-spill-victims-seek-court-help.html

ILOILO – Oil spill victims in Estancia town charged the government-owned Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) and the National Power Corp. (Napocor), demanding over P300 million in compensation and damages.They asked Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 66 pairing Judge Globert Justalero to grant them P100 million in moral damages, P100 million exemplary damages, P100,000 litigation cost, and P20 million actual damages.

The clerk of court assessed the filing fee at P43 million but said the court may allow the plaintiff to prosecute as “pauper litigants,” with the Supreme Court withholding P43 million as “lien” in case the plaintiffs win the case.

“This is only the first batch of 50 plaintiffs. More charges will follow as more and more victims come forward to enlist,” Atty. Rene Estocapio told reporters when he filed the complaint at the RTC in Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo, Friday last week.

“We will also implead contractor Kuan Yu Global Technologies, Inc. for delaying the cleanup that aggravated the sufferings of the victims, and the Philippine Coast Guard as unwilling plaintiff,” said Estocapio.

Estocapio is a member of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), an advocacy group of lawyers and para-legals.

Estocapio quoted Republic Act 9993, particularly Section 3 paragraph “n” that mandates the Coast Guard to “enforce laws and promulgate and administer rules and regulations for the protection of marine environment and resources from offshore sources of pollution within the maritime jurisdiction of the Philippines”, and that includes oil spills.

The plaintiffs are all from Barangay (village) Botongon, a coastal village of some 320 households, and the worst hit by the oil spill from Power Barge 103 of Napocor which super typhoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) battered to the rocky shore of the village on 08 November last year.

The accident prompted Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr. to order a forced evacuation due to high levels of toxic fumes from benzene.

In their seven-page complaint, the victims argue that the “adverse effects of the oil spill…o n the(ir) lives and livelihood were not caused by the Act of God or any fortuitous event” because days before “Yolanda”, the state weather bureau accurately charted the projected path of the super typhoon.

However, they said, Napocor and PSALM ignored it, instead of moving the barge to safety as did other operators who cruised their vessels to the safety of the Iloilo – Guimaras Strait.

The victims’ livelihood revolves on marine life that the oil spill disrupted – as fishers, haulers, vendors, dryers and boat helpers, among others. The shore of Barangay Botongon was blackened by the sludge from bunker fuel.

“The defendants should have exercised extraordinary diligence considering the imminent danger of the coming typhoon and the possible effect of the storm surge on the power barge if it will be forced ashore and hit rocks and hard objects,” read part of the complaint./PN

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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/

Power rate hike contravenes Constitutional mandate to protect common good

ICHRP Secretariat
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Power rate hike contravenes Constitutional mandate to protect common good

The unconscionable rate hike in power rates proposed by distribution utility Meralco last year exposes gaps, lapses and violations of an already questionable law, human rights group National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) will assert in court today.

NUPL lawyers will attack in the Supreme Court the P4.15 increase in generation charges incurred from Meralco’s suspicious power purchases in November and December 2013. Both Bayan Muna representatives who will argue on behalf of petitioners and consumers to void the present proposed and prevent future rate hikes are NUPL officers.  Neri Javier Colmenares is NUPL President, while Carlos Isagani Zarate is former Vice President for Mindanao and now Adviser to the NUPL National Executive Board.

“This is the largest electricity rate increase ever approved in history. It will not only double the electricity bill of consumers of Metro Manila and nearby provinces, but will also further escalate inflation all over the country due to adverse spillover effect,” NUPL secretary-general Atty. Edre Olalia, who is part of the main petitioners’ legal team, asserted.

“Affordable electricity is a common good. Our Constitution mandates the State to intervene when the common good so demands. Bound by its anti-people policies,when will this government be able to bring us relief? Why can it not shield the many from the greed of the few?,” he added.

“The approval of this power rate hike was attended by government negligence, a haphazard policy of liberalization and deregulation to favor big business, and a systemic failure to protect the public interest,” said Atty. Olalia. The lawyers contend that certain provisions of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act or EPIRA, which expressly declares the industry open and competitive, allows Meralco to source electricity solely according to its corporate interests, and ties the hands of power “regulators” to approve electricity price increases even if unconscionable.

“Power firms should be considered a public utility because they supply a basic and essential service to the public. This is an industry which is “regulated”, absurdly, piecemeal: while the distribution and transmission companies must secure franchises and agree to caps on still-lucrative rates of return, the generation companies can bill exorbitant fees and enjoy excessive and windfall profits to the prejudice of the public. For the State’s failure to assert otherwise, the power industry has spawned  private monopolies and oligopolies,” he said.

The legal team which includes NUPL lawyers and is led by Bayan Muna general counsel Atty. Maria Cristina Yambot, also NUPL Rizal Chapter secretary-general, will make a case against Meralco for highly irregular and unprecedented acts in procuring electricity and the Energy Regulatory Board for grave abuse of discretion.

The rate increase came about not because there was a substantial increase in production cost nor was there a lack of supply, but only because some opportunistic generation companies exploited the highly suspect simultaneous unscheduled and scheduled shutdowns, and made staggeringly high bids in the spot market called WESM, the legal team analyzed.

The legal team also assailed why Meralco sources around 10%of its electricity from the spot market and refuses to contract closer to 100%, a fact which makes more prone to such market volatilities. These acts, and in particular the price manipulation, violate Meralco’s duty under its franchise which says it must supply electricity to its captive market in the “least cost manner”. (kc)

Reference:
Edre U. Olalia
Secretary General
+639175113373

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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/

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