News | International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines

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November 3, 2011

Press Release – Human rights activists, religious leaders and migrant workers in Hong Kong joined the call for justice to slain priest, Fr. Fausto Tentorio, in a protest action today at the Philippine Consulate General.

Protesters from the Promotion of Church People’s Response (PCPR) HK chapter and the HK Campaign for the Advancement of Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines (HKCAHRPP) believed that Fr. Tentorio was a victim of extrajudicial killings that was rampant during the administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and has continued in the current Aquino government.

The protesters were joined by members of Fr. Tentorio’s order, the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME).

“The culture of impunity persists and yet again has victimized another man of the Church whose devotion to the cause of the Lumad in Mindanao, the poor, and the Filipino people has been unflappable. Like that of all others before him, Fr. Tentorio’s death calls for immediate justice,” said Joram Calimutan of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) and a member of the Executive Committee of PCPR-HK.

Calimutan said that Fr. Tentorio was the 56th victim of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines.

Bruce Van Voorhis of the HKCAHRPP, meanwhile, said that human rights activists in Hong Kong who are supportive of the human rights and peace struggles in the Philippines are alarmed by the rising cases of political killings in the country.

“The body count is again on the rise. While the more than 1,000 cases of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearance under the GMA government still await justice, the Aquino government seems more intent in adding more atrocities and human rights violations instead of delivering justice and ending the culture of impunity in the country,” he remarked. “Moreover, this is sadly occurring under a president whose father was killed in very similar circumstances to the assassination of Fr. Tentorio and countless others”, he added.

Van Voorhis said that the repackaged Oplan Bantay-Laya of the previous administration, now called Oplan Bayanihan, “clearly appears to head in the same direction as its predecessor – killings, enforced disappearances, the displacement of militarized people, and fading hopes for a just peace.”

The protesters handed in a letter signed by 19 church leaders, churches and church-related groups expressing their condemnation of the killing of Fr. Tentorio and other activists. Local and migrant workers’ organisations and a Hong Kong legislator also endorsed the statement.

In the statement, the signatories called for the immediate and thorough investigation of Fr. Tentorio’s death and an investigation of Oplan Bayanihan. It also called for the scrapping of the Mining Act of 1995 that Fr. Tentorio vigorously opposed in his work among the Lumads.

“We are in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the Philippines who continue to live in a climate of terror, of poverty, and of injustice. The killings should stop and justice should rein,” Calimutan concluded.

For reference:
Ptr. Joram Calimutan                                             Bruce Van Voorhis
Member, Executive Committee, PCPR-HK             Spokesperson, HKCAHRPP
Tel. No.: (852) 5360-5497                                       Tel. No.: (852) 9492-3064

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Statement of Appeal for Justice for Fr. Tentorio’s Death
And Other Victims of Extrajudicial Killings in the Philippines

We leaders and members of churches, various church-related groups and organizations in Hong Kong express our indignation of the brutal death of Fr. Fausto Tentorio of the Pontifical Institute of Foreign Mission (PIME) on October 17, 2011, in the Arakan Valley, North Cotabato, Philippines.

We leaders and members of churches, various church-related groups and organizations in Hong Kong express our indignation of the brutal death of Fr. Fausto Tentorio of the Pontifical Institute of Foreign Mission (PIME) on October 17,2011 in Arakan Valley, North Cotabato, Philippines.

Fr. Tentorio, an Italian PIME priest and member of the RMP (Rural Missionaries of the Philippines), braved the threats to his life and lived and served our indigenous brothers and sisters according to the light that God had given him to see. He was instrumental in the formation of the TINANANON-KULAMANON LUMADNONG PANAGHIUSA (TIKULPA) to empower the indigenous people in his parish to protect their land, livelihood and liberty.

Together with our brothers and sisters in the Philippines and all over the world, we join the call for justice to Fr. Tentorio and the other leaders of indigenous communities, including Rebenio Sungit of the Pelaw tribe gunned down last September 5, 2011, and Ramon Batoy also of Arakan Valley, killed on 20 October, a mere three days after Fr. Tentorio. They valiantly fought for the rights of the indigenous people to their ancestral domain and campaigned against aggressive mining destroying the environment on which indigenous people depend for their livelihood and way of life and in which their spirituality is rooted.

We therefore join the call to:

– Demand an immediate and thorough investigation of the death of Fr. Tentorio, Rebenio Sungit and Ramon Batoy and to bring before the bar of justice the assailants believed to be paramilitary groups; and to end the climate of impunity by rendering justice to Fr. Tentorio and all victims of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines and to immediately investigate, put to trial and punish the perpetrators of these human rights violations;

– Demand an investigation into the connection of ‘Oplan Bayanihan’, the counterinsurgency program of the Aquino government, with that of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s failed ‘Oplan Bantay Laya’ that left 1,206 victims of extrajudicial killings, 206 cases of forced disappearances as well as thousands of cases of other human rights violations;

– Scrap the Mining Act of 2005 and cancel mining permits for large foreign mining firms that have been encroaching on the ancestral domain of indigenous people, affecting their livelihood and destroying the environment.

We offer our prayers for justice for Fr. Tentorio. He will forever be remembered and celebrated by those whose lives he touched and changed, especially the Lumads (indigenous people) and other marginalized people for whom he devoted his life and ministry as God’s faithful servant.

3 November 2011
Hong Kong

Signed:
1.    Bruce Van Voorhis (ICF)
2.    Interfaith Cooperation Forum
3.    Rev. Dwight Q. dela Torre (IFI/PIC), Co-chairperson, PCPR-HK
4.    Rev. Dan Borlado, Minister, New Beginnings Christian Fellowship & Co-chairperson, PCPR-HK
5.    Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) HK Fellowship
6.    Necta Montes, General Secretary, WSCF-AP & Sec. General, PCPR-HK
7.    World Student Christian Federation – Asia Pacific (WSCF-AP)
8.    Back to Christ Alliance – Hong Kong
9.    Jackie Hung, Project Officer, Justice and Peace Commission of the HK Catholic Diocese
10.    Fr. Franco Mella, HK PIME Social Concern Group
11.    Fr. Gianni Criveller, HK PIME Social Concern Group
12.    Rev. Grace Bok, Pastor – One Body in Christ Church
13.    Fan Lap-hin, Director, Hong Kong Christian Institute (HKCI)
14.    Rev. Phyllis Wong, Senior Minister, Kowloon Union Church
15.    Ptr. Joram Calimutan, Executive Committee Member, PCPR-HK
16.    John Chong, Kwai Chung Estate Christian Basic Community
17.    Davy Wong, Hong Kong Christian Institute (HKCI)
18.    Narrow Church
19.    Promotion of Church People’s Response – Hong Kong Chapter (PCPR-HK)

Endorsed by:
1.    Hong Kong Campaign for the Advancement of Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines (HKCAHRPP)
2.    Hon. Leung Kwok-hung, (LSD) Legislative Councilor, HKSAR
3.    Andrew To, Chairman, League of Social Democrats (LCSD)
4.    Eric Lai, Convenor, Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF)
5.    Association of Indonesian Migrant Workers (ATKI-HK)
6.    United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-MIGRANTE-HK)
7.    Gabriela Hong Kong
8.    BAYAN Hong Kong
9.    Filipino Migrant Workers’ Union (FMWU)
10.    Abra Tinguian Ilocano Society (ATIS-HK)
11.    Cordillera Alliance – Hong Kong (CORALL-HK)
12.    United Pangasinan Hong Kong (UPHK)
13.    Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM)
14.    Asia Pacific Youth and Students Association (ASA)

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Hong Kong Campaign for the Advancement of
Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines
c/o ASA, No. 4 Jordan Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR
Tel. (852) 98105070, 97585935 Fax. (852) 27354559
E-mail: [email protected]

Families of desaparecidos commemorate missing loved ones in Baclaran Church during All Souls Day

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ICHRP Secretariat

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November 2, 2011

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“I know that he is no longer with us,” said Shirley Pascual, wife of missing Roberto Pascual who was abducted on April 7, 1988, twenty-three years ago.

“It took me ten years to finally accept that he is not coming back,” Shirley said. Roberto Pascual was an organizer of fishermen in Navotas and Manila when he was forcibly taken by eight armed men from their house two days before his second son’s birthday. He was at that time preparing for that occasion. “I tried to stop them by hugging my husband really tight, but I was hit with a rifle butt on the head (by the abductors) and lost consciousness,” Shirley recounted.

Mrs. Pascual did the usual round of search for her husband. She inspected the morgues, hospitals, police stations and other possible places she could find him. Yet, Roberto was never found.

Since then, every November 2, Shirley, together with her sons–and eventually her grandsons, would visit Baclaran Redemptorist church with other families of the disappeared to remember their missing loved ones. “Like them, I had hoped that Bert’s perpetrators would bring him back. But after accepting that we would no longer see him, I vowed to continue the struggle of families like us, that one day enforced disappearances would come to an end.”

This year, Families of the Disappeared for Justice or Desaparecidos, are back in Baclaran Redemptorist Church with an exhibit showing photos of victims of enforced disappearances. But instead of the victim’s eyes, a mirror is mounted where viewers find their own eyes replacing that of the victim’s. Mary Guy Portajada explained that, “it is not meant to scare the viewers, but to make them realize that anyone, themselves or their loved ones included, may become victims of enforced disappearances.” Adding that this happened to the son of Lolita Robiños, a mere tricycle driver who was forcibly taken from their home in Angeles, Pampanga 5 years ago, on November 17, 2006.

“Reading on, the viewer will also get to know who the victims are — mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, brothers or sisters, church members, farmers, workers, community organizers or activists,” she said. Mary Guy Portajada is the daughter of Armando Portajada who was a union leader of Coca-Cola Bottlers and has been missing since 1987.

“It pains me to know that enforced disappearances still happen and that the number of families of victims who underwent the same pain, are growing in numbers,” Shirley said. “More families come here every year as new members of our organization and as new victims. We welcome them with the resolve that even if different regimes have passed, dictators and democratic alike, unless a genuine change of society and state will happen, enforced disappearances will continue. So we too struggle for a society that will genuinely serve the interest of the people, especially the poor,” Shirley added.

The family of Alfredo Bucal, one of eight victims of enforced disappearance under the Pres. Noynoy Aquino government, came to unite with the Families of the Disappeared for Justice today. Bucal was abducted last Nov. 10, 2010 in Tuy, Batangas. ###

Reference:
Mary Guy Portajada, Secretary General, +639175415133

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PUBLIC INFORMATION DESK
[email protected]
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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.

Another victim of Oplan Bayanihan killed in Arakan Valley

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ICHRP Secretariat

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October 28, 2011

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Another victim of Oplan Bayanihan killed in Arakan Valley

Ramon Batoy, 35, was killed a mere three days after Fr. Fausto Tentorio was killed also in Arakan Valley.

MANILA – A peasant farmer was killed by soldiers from the 57th Infantry Battalion (IB) in Sitio Upper Lumbo, barangay Kabalantian, Arakan Valley, North Cotabato last Oct. 20. Ramon Batoy, 35, was killed a mere three days after Fr. Fausto Tentorio was killed also in Arakan Valley. The soldiers also fired at Batoy’s house, his wife Gina, who is six months old pregnant, and their two children were able to escape.

According to the initial report, before his killing, Ramon Batoy was being accused by soldiers of being a member of the New People’s Army. Batoy is an active supporter of Bantay Katubigan and Bantay Kalikasan of Mt. Sinaka facilitated by the Municipal Agriculture Office of Arakan. He was also a tenant-farmer of the Mayor of Antipas.

According to the urgent action alert sent to Bulatlat.com, three soldiers from the 57th IB forcibly entered Batoy’s house. When Batoy resisted, he was hit with rifle butt. Batoy defended himself against the soldiers and struck the soldier with his bolo. Three soldiers nearby, one of whom was covering his face with a mask, riddled Batoy with bullets. A witness saw that one soldier strapped a rifle on Batoy and took pictures of his dead body.

Batoy’s house and seven other houses nearby were then fired upon by the soldiers. Batoy’s brother, Roger, 44, suffered minor wounds on his left foot. He was inside his house with his wife and stepmother. His wife, Janeth noticed bullets passed over her head during the firing.

On the same day, according to human rights groups Karapatan, Noli Badol, 35, farmer and a leader of Sitio Upper Lumbo, Brgy. Kabalantian, Arakan was also mauled by soldiers from 57th IB. “Badol’s legs and hands were tied. Soldiers also fired at his wife Evelyn, 32, who is eight months pregnant, and their children when she attempted to go near Badol. The military took Badol and detained him at the detachment of the 57th Infantry Battalion for several hours,” Karapatan said in a statement.

Celso Batoy, elder brother of Batoy, 47, was also mauled and detained by the soldiers. Both Celso and Badol are both currently detained at the police station of Ammas Municipality in North Cotabato for charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives.

These incidents resulted to the evacuation of 136 families. Some 43 families from Sitio Lumbo evacuated to Binoongan Elementary School for fear of more attacks from the military.

The following day, Oct. 21, another 93 families evacuated to the same school.

“What kind of ‘peace and development’ is going on in the communities in Arakan? The military’s ‘peace and development’ activities actually means the fake surrender of civilians being forced to admit to being members of the NPA; the mauling, strafing, harassment, threat, intimidation and killings of civilian. We are now seeing the true face of Oplan Bayanihan, the current administration’s counter-insurgency program, where scores of human rights violations take place amid the presence of the so-called Peace and Development Teams (PDTs),” Karapatan Southern Mindanao said in a statement.

Encounter?

Lt. Col. Joven Gonzales, commander of the 57th Infantry Battalion immediately announced to the media that an encounter took place in Arakan town around 5:45 a.m. while the soldiers were conducting “a clearing operation.” He told the media that the operation was “legitimate” and that Ramon Batoy, Noli Badol and Celso Batoy were NPA members.

Isabel Santiago, spokeswoman of the Alfonso Command (Front 53) in Mindanao belied the military’s claim saying that there no encounter occurred.

“The Herminio Alfonso Command, Front 53 Operations, likewise scoffed at the lies perpetrated by the AFP. Col. Joven Gonzales said the raid conducted by the 5th Special Forces Company was in response to a tip that there were land mines in the area,”] while 602nd Brigade Commander Col. Cesar Sedillo and AFP Eastern Mindanao Command spokesperson Col. Leopoldo Galon, Jr, claimed that there was a legitimate encounter with Red Fighters in the area. No such encounter occurred.”

“The murders and atrocities in Arakan, North Cotabato has showed that the fascists have no compunction in unleashing their brutality against the people using the deceptive ‘soft approach’ trickery. The toiling masses can only turn to the people’s democratic revolution for genuine justice,” Santiago said.

Karapatan Southern Mindanao said the military’s 10th Infantry Division, Eastern Mindanao Command and the Aquino government, because of its Oplan Bayanihan, shares the blood of these victims on their hands. “This is the face of Peace and Development Outreach Program. Their peace is silencing the people’s dissent. Their peace means death to leaders of farmers, church people, and civilians.”

The group also called on the Aquino government to prosecute the perpetrators in the incident. “We are calling the government to pull-out all military troops in the countrysides and to pull-out all peace and development teams.” (by ANNE MARXZE D.UMIL,Bulatlat.com)

“All-out justice” is all-out war – KARAPATAN

statements

ICHRP Secretariat

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October 27, 2011

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Press Statement – “Justice is justice, it cannot mean anything else. Definitely, it cannot mean war,” claimed Jigs Clamor, Deputy Secretary General of human rights group Karapatan, in reaction to Pres. Aquino’s declaration of “all-out justice” in the aftermath of the series of incidents involving the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

“This government has the propensity, as proven by practice, to distort concepts such as “justice,” ‘peace,’ ‘human rights’, ‘development’ and churn out media spins and catch phrases just to earn “pogi” points and mask its militarist streak on the ground. In this case, it uses “all-out justice” to conduct air strikes in pursuit of so-called criminal elements. Clearly, the bombings only sow terror, resulted to economic dislocation and displacement of civilians. Reports show that there are now at least 20,000 individuals who left their homes in Basilan and in Zamboanga Sibugay. This is not justice,” asserted Clamor.

Karapatan noted that the government’s use of by-words such as ‘respect for human rights’, ‘peace and development’ and ‘all-out justice’ is deliberate and in keeping with Oplan Bayanihan’s deceptive tactics.

Clamor added that “Basilan is still under a ‘state of lawlessness’ since former Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s declaration in 2001. Civilians were arbitrarily arrested and detained because of trumped up charges heaped upon them as fall guys just to show that the police and the military have done their job to quell the alleged terrorists in the area. At least 80 of them are still in detention. Again, civilians have become the casualties of this “all-out justice” campaign by a government that is supposedly the opposite of GMA.”

“We call on the government to stop the bombings and other militarist measures that endangers the lives of civilians,” concluded Clamor. ###

Reference:Jigs Clamor, Deputy Secretary General, 0920-9466210
Angge Santos, Media Liaison, 0918-9790580