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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/

Farmworkers picket Cojuangco offices, demand end to reign of terror and impunity in Hacienda Luisita

ICHRP Secretariat
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Farmworkers picket Cojuangco offices, demand end to reign of terror and impunity in Hacienda Luisita

About a hundred farm workers from Hacienda Luisita belonging to the Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (AMBALA, Alliance of Farm Workers in Hacienda Luisita) trooped to Makati City this morning and held a picket in front of the Jose Cojuangco & Sons building, condemning what they alleged are the alarmingly escalating attacks against their rights and livelihood by the Cojuangco-Aquino-owned Tarlac Development Corporation (TADECO).

TADECO is staking claim over at least 400 hectares of agricultural land in the villages of Balete and Cutcut. “With the complicity of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the local police forces and courts in Tarlac,” said AMBALA acting chairperson Florida Sibayan, “TADECO and the Cojuangcos have been able to destroy our crops, imprison our members, and practically set in motion a grand plan to totally evict us from our villages.”

Last  December, barely a week before Christmas, armed TADECO guards and elements of the Tarlac PNP were reported to have literally bulldozed their way into the ricefields of Balete, precipitating tension in the village which led to the arrest and, according to AMBALA, the torture of five farm workers.

An almost similar incident transpired on 16 September 2013, when 11 members of a fact finding mission, including land reform advocate Anakpawis Representative Fernando Hicap, who were trying to look into reports of TADECO’s land-grabbing activities as well as of the circumvention of the Departnment of Agrarian Reform itself of the land distribution process in the hacienda, were arrested and detained for three days by the Tarlac PNP (Philippine National Police) upon the alleged orders of the Cojuangco-Aquinos.

According to Sibayan, AMBALA’s Makati contingent could have been bigger if not for the need to constantly keep a large intact segment of their ranks in the hacienda in anticipation of another series of violent attacks by the TADECO guards and the police. Farm workers in Barangay (village) Cutcut, for example, have been standing vigil in their fields for almost two weeks now.

“The tension in Hacienda Luisita is escalating,” said Ranmil Echanis, secretary general of the Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (Agricultural Workers Union). “If real land distribution is not carried out and if militarization in the area continues, we just might see a situation not unlike the period which led to the tragic Hacienda Luisita Massacre of 2004.”

TADECO started aggressively positioning itself in the disputed lands sometime last August — coinciding with the DAR’s earliest announcements of the imminent completion of land distribution in Hacienda Luisita — when it ordered the setting up of guard posts in Barangays Balete and Cutcut and issued eviction notices to a number of farmers who have long been tilling the said lands. Currently there are at least a hundred Cutcut and Balete residents who, as consequence of their refusal to comply with the said notices, have been charged in court of unlawful detainer by TADECO.

“All these point to the fact that what we have right now in Hacienda, to complement the sham land distribution of the DAR, is a reign of terror and impunity,” Sibayan said.  “All these have been made possible because it is the Cojuangco-Aquinos who rule in Tarlac. It is them in fact, through Benigno Cojuangco Aquino, who rule in the Philippines,” she added.

The protesters brought with them several scarecrows which they set up along Dela Rosa Street to symbolize their commitment to ward off the reign of impunity and terror in Hacienda Luisita. The Luisita farm workers in Metro Manila are set to join a delegation of hundreds of other farmers form Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog to attend this year’s commemoration of the 27th year of the infamous Mendiola Massacre on January 22 at Mendiola.

REFERENCE:
Florida “Pong” Sibayan
acting- Chairperson, AMBALA
CONTACT NO: +639293201477

One year after Tubbataha Reefs disaster, groups demand action from Aquino government

ICHRP Secretariat
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One year after Tubbataha Reefs disaster, groups demand action from Aquino government

By National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL)

“Just where does the buck really stop?” — NUPL

Environmental, academic and religious groups today pressed the Supreme Court to immediately issue a protection order for the Tubbataha reefs, one of the reliefs afforded by a writ of kalikasan.

One year after the grounding of the USS Guardian off the coast of Palawan, the groups lamented the lack of action, political will, and foresight by the Philippine government.

In April last year, civil society groups and concerned citizens led by Puerto Princesa bishop Rev. Pedro Arigo filed a petition for a writ of kalikasan before the Supreme Court. The petition urged the Philippine government to stop all activities — including salvaging and clean-up efforts — in the area pending a comprehensive study of how these would impact the biodiversity of Tubbataha.

The petitioners today trooped to the Supreme Court to file a third motion for a temporary environmental protection order. “Typical of the BS Aquino administration, it has been purposely slow and infuriatingly biased as it concentrates on politicking rather than deciding for the good of the people. We are seeking relief from the judiciary where the executive has defaulted. Where does the buck really stop?,” said Atty. Edre U. Olalia, secretary general of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), co-counsel for the petitioners.

“The failure of this government to address and correct this appalling offense is not only a high act of indolence, but also an international ignominy. The Tubbataha reef is an important environmental area, which is precisely why it has been declared protected. We have declarations, laws, and regulations that are all for naught as the Philippine government sits on our rights,” said Atty. Olalia.

He reiterated that Republic Act No. 10067, or the “Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park (TRNP) Act of 2009”, along with international precedents demand that the government apply a more prudent and long-term plan to rehabilitate the reefs. The government should have dispatched a team of experts and conducted consultations with affected local government units. Total reparations should also be at US$16.8 up to US$27 million, instead of the PhP58 million or about US$1.29 million offered by the US government.

According to confirmed reports, the Philippine government has not even made a single claim yet. Lead counsel Atty. Edsel F. Tupaz said, “Is the refusal to make a claim against the United States of America a political act immune from the rule of law? If the USS Guardian had itself grounded in American waters, the United States of America will be liable under every one of its own laws, state and federal alike.”

The lawyers also harped on the continued presence of US troops sanctioned by the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

“To date, the armed forces of the United States of America are allowed by the Republic of the Philippines to make use of its ports for sundry ‘port calls’. Suppose our courts of law choose to dismiss the people’s claims, suppose our courts dismiss suits of this magnitude and whose damage is admitted by no less than the US. What then will be one’s assurance that the same or similar negligence will not be bargained away by political whims?”, said Atty. Tupaz.

“The Visiting Forces Agreement has been a thorny legal issue especially for Philippine sovereignty. The Subic rape case to the Tubbataha disaster are but two of the ugly sides of subservience to foreign interests. The Tubbataha incident cuts across generations and politics. It is the concern of all. When can we really assert our national sovereignty, let alone our basic dignity as a people against a supercilious bully superpower who despoils our land, sea and air like a roving band of pirates answerable to no one?”, said Atty. Olalia.

Reference:
Atty. Edre U. Olalia
NUPL Secretary General
+639175113373
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National Secretariat
National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL)
3rd Floor 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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