Paper cranes, desaparecidos, and political prisoners in the Philippines

30th of August is International Day of the Disappeared. Tomorrow, 21st of August, Ninoy Aquino Day will again be observed, commemorating the life and death of Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr.

On this occasion, the Philippines Solidarity Network together with faith-based justice and peace advocates in New Zealand reiterate their appeal for President Benigno Aquino III to end human rights abuses.

“Since Aquino came to power in 2010, we have joined the international community in challenging him to honour his father by heeding the appeals to stop the extra-judicial killings, free political prisoners and surface victims of involuntary disappearances,” Murray Horton, Secretary of Philippines Solidarity Network of Aotearoa, said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.

Last July, New Zealand-based Korean Pastor Kyoung Gyun Han represented the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand at the International Conference for Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines.

“It was a big conference of over 200 people from around the globe. It is such an honour to be part of a global network including churches actively supporting the Filipino people’s quest for justice and peace.”

“Coming back to New Zealand, I am committed to watch out Philippine situation, engage in solidarity action and strengthen migrants’ ministry particularly in Auckland and Christ church where there are now around 1,000 Filipinos working to help rebuild the quake-devastated city,” Rev. Han, who is the PCANZ Asian Ministries Coordinator, noted during his report-back meeting with Auckland Philippines Solidarity

Rev. Han also met recently with APS members and representatives of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand and The Methodist Church about action plans to support justice and peace quest in the Philippines.

They lamented the fact that far from Aquino’s 2010 election promise to deliver justice for human rights victims of past regimes, his three-year administration now holds a record of 142 extra-judicial killings, 540 illegal arrests, 76 cases of torture, 30,678 forced evacuations and 31,417 cases of threats, harassment and intimidation, among others.

In solidarity with victims’ families, they made paper cranes — Japanese origami — in support of the campaign to Surface James Balao and all victims of enforced disappearances.

Based on the ancient Japanese legend that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by a crane, they sought the help of Japanese friends to demonstrate how to make paper cranes so they can express support for all the families awaiting the return of their loved ones who have been abducted by state agents.

“The permanent presence of US troops in the country, the unlimited access to Philippine facilities, including storage of arms, and the use of drones, are direct attacks against Philippine sovereignty and the people’s rights,” said Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general, on the talks between the US and Philippine governments which start today on the increase of rotational presence of American forces in the country.

As the Philippine government and US military officials gear to “formalize” the deployment of more US troops in the country, hundreds of residents of Loreto, Agusan del Sur, left their homes and sources of livelihood, and opted to stay in an evacuation center to evade threats, harassment and intimidation by elements of the 26th Infantry Battalion-Philippine Army (IBPA) and paramilitary groups attached to it.

Prior to the evacuation, two children, Jay-Ar S. Basilisco, 17 years old, and Arnel B. Tolentino, 16, were detained on 22 July, after they were accosted and tortured by elements of the 26th IBPA and the Bagani Force, a paramilitary group. Their hands were tied, they were punched in the stomach, neck, and head. They were told to run at gunpoint but they refused, knowing the possibility that they will be shot at.

Basilisco’s lips were burned with cigarettes; bullets were inserted between his fingers. Tolentino’s face was beaten; a calibre .357 handgun was inserted in his mouth. Both Basilisco and Tolentino’s heads were wrapped in plastic until they were unconscious. Later, they were charged with attempted murder for the death of Ramon Dioganon, a Barangay (village) Captain of Brgy. Kauswagan.

“This scenario has become familiar, and will be multiplied all over the country as the US government props up the Armed Forces of the Philippines with more troops, war materiel and training for the final push of Oplan Bayanihan’s last year of its Phase1,” said Palabay.

Karapatan said Noynoy Aquino’s Oplan Bayanihan is patterned after the US Counterinsurgency Guide and is implemented by the Armed Forces of the Philippines under the guidance of the US.

“Even as the AFP already admitted Oplan Bayanihan’s failure, the Aquino government is dead set on meeting its deadline to render the Communist Party of the Philippine ‘irrelevant’ and to turn over internal security matters to the Philippine National Police so it can shift its focus on external security. The so-called shift is timed with the US’s so-called Asian pivot,” added Palabay.

Karapatan maintains Oplan Bayanihan’s deadline and the presence of more US troops and military aid in the country will bring about more human rights violations and perpetuate impunity.

“The ‘negotiations’ between the Aquino government and the US government, the so-called rotational deployment, the drones for humanitarian purposes are blatant assaults to the nation’s sovereignty, violate the interest of the country and the Filipino people who already said NO TO U.S. BASES. It is a clear manifestation of the Aquino government’s puppetry to the interests of the US government and its treachery against the Filipino people,” Palabay ended.

REFERENCE:
Cristina “Tinay” Palabay
Secretary General
+63917-3162831

Angge Santos
Media Liaison
+63918-9790580

PUBLIC INFORMATION DESK
publicinfo@karapatan.org

Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights
2nd Flr. Erythrina Bldg., #1 Maaralin corner Matatag Sts., 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.

By National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL)

The payment by the Armed Forces of the Philippines of reward money to supposed informers allegedly responsible for the capture of what it referred to as “terrorist personalities and communist leaders” is ludicrous as it is dangerous. The reward was paid pursuant to Department of National Defense and Department of Interior and Local Government Joint Order No. 14-2012 which updated the AFP’s bounty list.

Earlier on, the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers publicly questioned the propriety and legality of the joint order, since it violates the basic principles of fairness and due process. The payment – – or some observers say the division of the spoils or loot? – – is further put into doubt in the light of nagging questions as regards the identities of those they paraded as alleged “communist leaders”. Rolly Mira Panesa, a security guard for the longest time, was abducted in a busy street in Quezon City, heavily tortured and now still detained for 10 months based on the AFP’s claim that he is “Danilo Benjamin Mendoza” an alleged high ranking member of the Communist Party of the Philippines in Southern Tagalog with a Php 5.6 Million bounty.

The AFP chose to shamelessly rely on the perjured statements of their own professional itinerant jokes they call witnesses, and deliberately ignored the overwhelming testimonial and multiple documentary evidence, most of which were issued by government agencies themselves confirming what the AFP knew all along, that he is not Danilo Benjamin Mendoza.

Oligario Sebas, a resident of Negros Oriental, suffered the same fate. He was abducted and detained based on the AFP claim that he is “Felimon Mendrez” an alleged high ranking member of the CPP in Negros with a Php 5.2 Million bounty. Sebas, unlike Panesa, was subsequently released through a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus where it was quickly established that he is not “Felimon Mendrez”.

Panesa and Sebas join other detainees who have been arrested and detained based on trumped up charges, their number having increased upon the public announcement of the existence of the joint order. Their cases confirmed NUPL’s fear that the list will only be used to harass political activists, leaders of peoples organizations and even ordinary citizens who have the misfortune of being at the wrong place at the wrong time and who can be exploited as unwitting sources of huge incomes. Even bona fide assistance by human rights groups and rights lawyers organizations like NUPL regrettably is being used to discriminate and maliciously profile these victims and hence lead to plain injustice.

This cheap publicity stunt by the AFP is a conspicuous badge that they are resorting to this kind of tactic to give pretense to their false claims and justify the of arrest of innocent citizens without due regard to their rights to due process. These betray their utter disregard for the legal and constitutional rights of the citizenry, and the propensity to violate human rights without any iot of compunction.

Is there, pray tell, still any shred of decency, conscience or humanity left for all those who made and continue to make possible this kind of gross and wholesale injustice?

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

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

“The Armed Forces of the Philippines has no right to brag about the capture of ‘terrorist personalities and communist leaders’ through their so-called informants. It’s a shame that it spent P19.25 million of the nation’s money for capturing and torturing people like security guard Rolly Panesa and presenting him as “Benjamin Mendoza”, a high-ranking official of the Communist Party of the Philippines, for the prize of P5.6 million. It’s simply a rip-off, an organized racket,” commented Karapatan’s secretary general Cristina Palabay. Panesa has been in jail for 10 months now.

Palabay added, “the AFP committed the same violation to Oligario Sebas, a resident of Manjuyod, Negros Oriental, who was also jailed because of the AFP’s claim that he is “Felimon Mendrez”, allegedly a CPP leader in Negros.”

The AFP said Sebas had a P5.2 million on his head and was on the list of the Department of National Defense-Department of Interior and Local Government Joint Orders on Reward or Joint Order 14.2012. Sebas was released through a writ of habeas corpus.

Karapatan, in earlier statements, lambasted the Joint Order 14.2012 saying “it is no different from the secret hit list of Gloria Arroyo’s Oplan Bantay Laya which resulted to thousands of cases of human rights violations ranging from illegal arrest and detention, enforced disappearances and political killings.”

The said DND-DILG Joint Order was used to legitimize the enforced disappearance, illegal arrest, and detention of Estelita T. Tacalan, a 60-year old peasant organizer and rural health worker in Misamis Oriental. Tacalan was reported missing on 27 April and was surfaced on 7 May at the Dipolog City Jail where she is currently detained.

“The DND-DILG’s secret hitlist should be scrapped as it has become the basis to arrest, detain, and torture people on false charges; or worse, disappeared or killed. The AFP should also be held accountable for squandering the people’s money to violate people rights. These acts confirm the AFP’s own admission that the Aquino government’s Oplan Bayanihan is a failure” said Palabay.

REFERENCE:
Cristina “Tinay” Palabay
Secretary General, KARAPATAN
+63917-3162831

Angge Santos
Media Liaison, KARAPATAN
+63918-9790580

PUBLIC INFORMATION DESK
publicinfo@karapatan.org
———————————————————————
Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights
2nd Flr. Erythrina Bldg., #1 Maaralin corner Matatag Sts., 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.

The Dutch foundation Lawyers for Lawyers warns in an open letter to President Aquino of the Philippines about the continued labeling of lawyers as enemies of the state by the military. This month, Army chief Lt. Gen. Noel Coballes reportedly branded the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL)  as an ‘enemy’ in reaction to  NUPL’s criticism on the promotion of an army general who is facing credible charges of human rights violations. Gen. Coballes was quoted as saying: “You don’t expect any positive statement from the enemy”.

The practice of labeling — combined with the culture of impunity and the military involvement in politics — has in the past been  identified by national and international fact finding commissions as one of the main root causes for the spate of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines since 2001.

At least 23 lawyers were killed from 2001 to 2009. Many of them were labeled  as  ‘enemies of the state’ prior to being attacked,  apparently because they were identified with their clients or their clients’ causes as a result of performing their professional duties. So far, only one person has been convicted for these killings and this occurred in 2006.

Lawyers for Lawyers also notes that Filipino lawyers increasingly fear being silenced by fabricated charges. There is an imminent threat that Edre Olalia, a prominent human rights lawyer and a founding member of NUPL, faces clearly false charges as a result of exercising his legal profession.

Atty. Olalia, together with other lawyers from the NUPL, deals with high profile cases in the field of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, demolitions of houses of the urban poor, privatization of government hospitals as well as cases related to various mass and people’s organizations.

Lawyers for Lawyers calls on the Philippine government to immediately and seriously protect and support all lawyers in the Philippines and take all measures necessary to stop the culture of impunity surrounding the acts of harassment and killings of members of the legal profession.

Militant groups sued over SONA protest
(The Philippine Star) | Updated August 1, 2013 – 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines – Leaders of militant groups, including former party-list lawmakers, have been slapped with criminal charges over the violent protest during President Aquino’s State of the Nation Address last July 22.

The Quezon City Police District (QCPD) on Monday filed before the prosecutor’s office a supplemental complaint for violation of Batas Pambansa 880, direct assault, malicious mischief and physical injuries against 14 persons.

Charged were former party-list representatives Satur Ocampo of Bayan Muna, Liza Maza of Gabriela, Teddy Casiño of Bayan Muna, and Rafael Mariano of Anakpawis.

Also named respondents were Renato Reyes of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), George San Mateo of Piston, Ferdinand Gaite of Courage, Antonio Tinio of ACT, Jerome Adonis of Kilusang Mayo Uno, Carlito Badion of Kadamay, Deunida Regalario of Kadamay, Willy Marbella of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, lawyer Edre Olalia of the National Union of People’s Lawyers, and Rasti Dalizo of Sanlakas.

Meanwhile, a Quezon City court yesterday junked the complaint filed against Mayor Herbert Bautista, QCPD director Chief Superintendent Richard Albano and Department of Public Order and Safety chief Elmo San Diego for denying Bayan’s application for a permit to hold rally near Batasang Pambansa last month. – Reinir Padua, Janvic Mateo