By Karapatan

Amid the people’s call to abolish the presidential and congressional pork, the Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights (Karapatan) and several people’s organizations today held a picket at the House of Representatives, in time for the hearing of the proposed budget for the Department of National Defense (DND) for 2014. The protest underscored the “DND’s more than 82.1 billion-peso proposed budget meant to oil the Aquino government’s killing machine, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the primary implementer of Oplan Bayanihan.”

Karapatan called for “ZERO budget for the DND.” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay echoed the people’s clamor to redirect huge amounts of government money “to social services like hospitalization and medical care for the poor and marginalized, education and subsidies to public colleges and universities and, housing facilities where people could access the funds directly and benefit from, instead of ending up either in the generals’ pockets or used to bomb communities as what is happening now in Sagada, Mountain Province.”Palabay cited the use of MG520 attack helicopters by the Philippine Air Force 1^st Division’s Strike Wing on 31 August on a suspected lair of the New People’s Army, destroying communal hunting grounds, uma (farms), and water sources near rice fields and communities.Earlier, on 23 August, Blaan tribal chieftain Anting Freay, 60, and his son, 16-year old Victor, were killed by elements of the AFP’s 39th Infantry Battalion and Task Force Kitaco (Kiblawan, Tampakan, Columbio). Task Force Kitaco was created under the command of the 1002nd Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army to secure the areas covered by the SMI-Xstrata’s mining project.

The Freays were killed when their house was strafed by the soldiers who were positioned three meters from their house. The older Freay was immediately killed while his son sustained 18 gunshot wounds when he was fired at by another group of soldiers.

“Public funds are being used to kill the people and perpetrate thousands of rights violations. Under Aquino’s counter-insurgency program Oplan Bayanihan, Karapatan has documented and recorded to 142 documented cases of extrajudicial killing and 164 frustrated killing; 16 incidents of enforced disappearance; 76 cases of torture; 540 cases of illegal arrest; and more than 30,000 victims of forced evacuation,” Palabay said.

Included in the DND budget is the allocation of P2B for compensation of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Units (CAFGUs), despite wide and persistent clamor for the disbandment of paramilitary groups, civilian volunteer organisations and private. The European Parliament and several States also called on the Philippine government, in the Universal Periodic Review in 2012, to immediately disband all paramilitary groups.

Palabay said Karapatan also documented several extrajudicial killings and human rights violations since 2010 involving paramilitary groups, such as the incidents involving Datu Jimmy Liguyon, Fr. Fausto Tentorio, and the massacre of Juvy Capion and her two children. “Similarly, the operations of the Special CAFGU Active Auxiliary (SCAA) units, which are co-funded and organized by the AFP and mining/transnational corporations, have continued, with Pres. Aquino categorically giving the go-signal for it on October 20, 2011. The question then is why are we still funding CAFGUs and SCAAs?” she asked.

Karapatan’s research showed the Oplan Bayanihan budget, with at least a total of PhP162 billion, is allocated in various government agencies.

Palabay explained the inclusion of the proposed budgets of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA), Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), National Security Council (NSC) and of some specific projects as in the case of PAMANA in the overall budget of Oplan Bayanihan “because these agencies and programs are conduits in the implementation of Oplan Bayanihan’s components, specifically the psy-ops and intelligence aspects.”

Oplan Bayanihan Fund

Agencies	2014 (proposed budget)
Department of National Defense (DND)	82,195,121,000
Philippine National Police (DILG)	71,945,660,000
Support for Peace and Order Councils (DILG)	33,830,000
Comprehensive Local Integration Program (DILG)	74,036,000
National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA)	590,956,000
Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP)	351,547,000
National Security Council (NSC)	88,584,000
PAMANA (Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan allocated in various government line agencies)	7,217,664,000
Intelligence Funds (allocated in various line agencies)	250,026,000 (except PNP-DILG,DND and NICA allocations)
TOTAL	P162,747,424,000

“The Filipino people deserve better than a government that is repressive and corrupt. It is the people’s right to have access to health services, to medical attention, to attend school and to better education and, to decent housing at the very least. We can no longer tolerate a government that has nothing to offer the people but PR spins and catchphrases of goodwill while violating the people’s rights at the same time,” Palabay concluded.

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. 

It may be 2013, but the Philippines is stuck in an Orwellian 1984

End the impunity of Benigno S. Aquino III Presidency on enforced disappearances!

Despite President Aquino’s attempts to project himself as sensitive to the issues of desaparecidos, enforced disappearances continue with impunity under his government, and a notorious perpetrator has been able to evade an arrest warrant for more than 20 months.

Desaparecidos (Families of Desaparecidos for Justice), together with progressive legislators, worked hard to design the Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act of 2012. It was signed into law in December of last year. Yet, three additional citizens joined the list of enforced disappearances after the new law against enforced disappearances came into force in January this year.

As in Orwell’s book 1984, words mean their opposite. The international community should tolerate it no longer.

More forced disappearances

On 22 January 2013, in Labuan, Zamboanga City, Zamboanga del Sur, Muslim scholar Sheikh Bashier Mursalum was abducted by suspected state security agents. Witnesses said Mursalum’s car was first hit by an Adventure utility vehicle from which armed men got off and shot him. He was then forced inside the vehicle.

Mursalum is a Modeer (principal) of the Madrasa in Labuan and is well respected by the Muslim community in Zamboanga City. The Darul Iftah in Zamboanga supports the family in searching for Mursalum, who remains missing to date.

5 February 2013 — Balangas Anlamit of Davao del Norte, Mindanao, was resting with his daughter and sister-in-law while walking to gather abaca, their livelihood. Two soldiers came and pointed their rifles at him, the women fled, and watched Balangas being tied up and taken away. On 14 February the family took a writ of habeas corpus, but the 8^th Infantry Division denied it held Balangas.

21 August 2013 — Bryan Epa was seen at around 9:00 pm being beaten and forced into a police patrol car outside his house at Barangay (village) Salvacion, Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya. The next day the police denied he was in custody. Bryan Epa was identified by CAFGU (government militia) at an anti-mining barricade at Binuangan village on 19-20 August 2013. The barricades have successfully blocked exploration by Royalco, an Australian mining company.

Where is Palparan?

In December 2011, retired Major General Jovito Palparan went into hiding after he, along with three other military officials, were finally charged with kidnapping with serious illegal detention for the disappearance of students Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan. The two were abducted and disappeared in June 2006. Witnesses also confirm that a farmer, Manuel Merino, was abducted in the same incident. Palparan continues to brazenly evade the warrant for his arrest.

A heavy burden

The Filipino people carry this long legacy of loss, grief and injustice. It is high time that the global community takes effective action to help lift this burden.

Call for global solidarity

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines stands with the families of the disappeared in their grief and anger, and salutes them for their organised struggle for justice through Desaparecidos-Philippines. We call on the international community – from grassroots communities to the United Nations Security Council – to stand in solidarity with them, and to end the impunity of the Philippines government for their cynical breach of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances.

Reference:
Canon Barry Naylor
Chairperson, Global Council, International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP)
Honorary President, Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines-United Kingdom (CHRP-UK)
Office: +44 (0) 116 261 5371
Mobile: +44 (0) 775 785 3621

Website: www.humanrightsphilippines.net
Email address: inquire@humanrightsphilippines.net

Origin of International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances

Three years ago, on 21 December 2010, in the UN General Assembly expressed its deep concern at the increase in enforced or involuntary disappearances in various regions of the world. They passed Resolution 65/209 International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, and declared 30 August the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, to be observed beginning in 2011.

According to the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, proclaimed by the General Assembly in its resolution 47/133 of 18 December 1992 as a body of principles for all States, an enforced disappearance occurs when:

“persons are arrested, detained or abducted against their will or otherwise deprived of their liberty by officials of different branches or levels of Government, or by organized groups or private individuals acting on behalf of, or with the support, direct or indirect, consent or acquiescence of the Government, followed by a refusal to disclose the fate or whereabouts of the persons concerned or a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of their liberty, which places such persons outside the protection of the law.”