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International solidarity mission investigates rights violations in the Philippines

ICHRP Secretariat
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International solidarity mission investigates rights violations in the Philippines

International delegates to join People’s SONA

“The world is watching. This is a test for the Philippine republic on how to deal with the poor and marginalized and their needs. We are here to show our solidarity and to let you know that you are not alone,” was Rev. Stuart Lyster’s message to the representatives of the remaining 5,500 urban poor residents at the North Triangle who are in constant struggle against government-led enforced eviction and demolition of their shanties.

Rev. Lyster was among the 12 delegates from the US, Canada and Hongkong who joined the International Solidarity Mission (ISM) of peace advocates and human rights defenders  in the National Capital Region (NCR). Other ISM participants from 14 countries are now in a four-day mission in provinces and communities where there are documented human rights violations. Redemptorist priests from the Philippines were also in the NCR mission.

The ISM delegates were welcomed by the residents of North Triangle in a “festive salubong”  and a “boodle-fight” dinner of dried fish, adobong kangkong, okra and fried galunggong served on banana leaves.

The team in the National Capital Region will visit other areas up for demolition: in the esteros that will displace 20,000 families; the Manila Bay Reclamation project affecting 26,000 families; and in areas covered by the construction of Metro Manila Rail Transit (MRT-7) which will displace 40,000 families. The team is also set to visit political prisoners in Camp Bagong Diwa, including NDFP peace consultants Alan Jazmines, Tirso “Ka Bart” Alcantara, Emeterio Antalan and Leopoldo Caloza.

Rev. Lyster mentioned that forced eviction are likewise happening in Canada and in Hongkong because of privatization of lands. There are 12,000 residents in the North Triangle Area who were forcibly evicted for  the Vertis North; where 45 condominium towers are planned for construction. The project is jointly implemented by the National Housing Authority and the Quezon City local government unit for the Ayala Land Corporation.

Meanwhile, 33 Filipino Americans and Latin Americans are already in Typhoon-Pablo affected areas in Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental to look into human rights conditions in these villages and the impact of large-scale mining. The ISM participants will also probe the reported negligence, corruption and discrimination in the distribution of relief goods and in providing assistance for rehabilitation.

Other ISM areas are in Tinoc, Ifugao where elements of the 86th IBPA were reported to have perpetrated rights violations such as illegal detention, torture, destruction and divestment of property, destruction of agricultural crops; Bondoc Peninsula in Quezon Province where there is heavy deployment of military troops unparalleled even during the time of martial law; Tampakan, South Cotabato, where pregnant Juvy Capion and her sons were massacred and Kitari Capion was killed; Caraga Region where farmers and indigenous peoples are affected by US-owned Dole banana plantation and transnational mining corporations; and Aurora Province, Hacienda Luisita and Angeles City specifically in areas affected by the APECO.

The mission is a pre-conference activity of the International Conference for Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines on July 19-21, 2013 where more than 200 international delegates from 25 countries are attending. International delegates are also attending the People’s SONA on July 22 to raise their concern on the continuing human rights violations under the Aquino government. ###

Family of Dutch EJK victim assails Aquino govt rights record; impunity proof of failure of HR

ICHRP Secretariat
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Family of Dutch EJK victim assails Aquino govt rights record; impunity proof of failure of HR

The family of Dutch missionary Willem Geertman who was a victim of extrajudicial killing last year in Angeles City, made strong exception to the statement of European Union (EU) ambassador Guy Ledoux last week lauding the Aquino government’s human rights record.
WILLEM GEERTMAN JUSTICE
Herman Geertman, brother of Willem and spokesperson of the Geertman family, said the EU ambassador’s praise of the human rights record of the Aquino government is like rubbing salt to the wound and pain they are suffering with the unresolved killing of his brother.

“We are in the Philippines right now and participating in an international mission to continue to seek justice for my murdered brother. The EU ambassador’s statements inflict pain and further suffering to us and to the families of the other victims of political killings,” Herman stressed.

The fact that impunity continues in the Philippines, Herman said, is proof that EU aid has been a waste of European taxpayers’ money. Herman was referring to 10 million Euro aid that the EU recently committed to the Philippine government to supposedly improve the human rights situation.

In May 2010, Aquino, then presumptive presidential-elect, promised the 13 diplomats from EU member states to solve extrajudicial killings and capturing and jailing the perpetrators.

July 2010 to April 2013, Karapatan documented 142 victims of extrajudicial killings and 164 cases of frustrated extrajudicial killings. This number includes Dutch missionary Willem Geertman, and Italian Catholic priest Fr. Fausto Tentorio, PIME, whose killings remain unsolved and perpetrators unprosecuted.

Herman and his wife, together with several Dutch human rights advocates, researchers, filmmakers, journalists, Danish trade unionists, and local church lay leaders, are among the participants of the International Solidarity Mission that is conducting visits to three central Luzon provinces, including Aurora province where murdered Dutch missionary Geertman lived for several years as an advocate for peasant and indigenous peoples rights.

The international mission preceeds the International Conference on Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines (ICHRPP) to be held July 19-21 in Quezon City, and is expected to be participated in by more than 200 human rights and peace advocates from 23 countries around the world.###

Aquino dashes hope for respect for human rights – Dutch Parliamentarian

ICHRP Secretariat
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Aquino dashes hope for respect for human rights – Dutch Parliamentarian

A member of the Dutch Parliament representing the Socialist Party of the Netherlands has called for solidarity with Filipinos in their struggle to end human rights violations and impunity.
harry_van_bommel
Harry van Bommel of the Socialist Party of the Netherlands, the third biggest political party in the Dutch parliament in a strongly-worded statement, said that the extrajudicial killings, disappearances, torture cases, illegal arrests and victims of forced evacuations from rural villages that are reported by Karapatan, “show clearly that real change has yet to come.”

“Hopes have been dashed under President Benigno Aquino III that human rights would be more respected,” van Bommel stated.

Van Bommel’s statement was sent to the International Coordinating Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICCHRP) which is set to convene the International Conference on Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines from July 19-21 in Quezon City. The international conference is being held to raise the level of international solidarity and struggle for human rights and is expected to be attended by more than 200 human rights and peace advocates from the United States, Canada, Germany, Japan, UK, Australia, Belgium, The Netherlands, Denmark and Latin America.

According to Karapatan’s figures as of April 2013, under President NoyNoy Aquino, there are 142 cases of extrajudicial killings and 164 frustrated extrajudicial killings, 16 cases of enforced disappearances, and 76 cases of torture. There are 430 political prisoners, 136 of whom were arrested during Aquino’s administration.
Van Bommel stressed that although the human rights situation in the Philippines does not often land in the news in the Netherlands, the news of the killing of Dutch development worker Willem Geertman by suspected military assassins in July 2012 stirred many Dutch citizens and politicians.

He said Geertman was a well-known advocate for peasants’ rights and firmly opposed landgrabbing. He fought for the rights of indigenous peoples for their ancestral lands and against destructive mining operations.

“It is very well possible that his murder was politically inspired,” van Bommel averred.

Van Bommel said he has repeatedly requested their Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs to closely follow developments surrounding the investigation of the death of Geertman.

An international solidarity mission is currently underway in the Central Luzon provinces of Aurora, Tarlac and Pampanga to look into the human rights situation there, specifically to follow-up on the investigation and prosecution of Willem Geertman’s killing. Members of the solidarity mission include the brother and sister of Geertman, Dutch filmmakers, researchers and journalists, development workers, Danish human rights and trad union rights advocates and local church lay leaders.

They will report their mission findings during the International Conference on Human Rights and Peace.
Van Bommel said he is very hopeful the conference will be a meaningful step in setting up a process which will bring to an end the many human rights violations in the Philippines and the totally unacceptable impunity that accompanies it.

“From the other side of the globe, I express my unconditional solidarity with the Philippine people in their struggle for genuine democracy and a just peace. In the Netherlands, the Socialist Party will continue to fight for a better society. I sincerely hope that…….you will succeed in your ongoing struggle for a better Philippines,” Van Bommel concluded.###

Branding a human rights lawyers group as “enemy”; AFP back to its old recidivist ways

ICHRP Secretariat
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Branding a human rights lawyers group as “enemy”; AFP back to its old recidivist ways

Press Statement, 11 July 2013 – We, at the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, express concern and alarm at the statement reportedly given by Army chief Lt. Gen. Noel Coballes branding the NUPL and Karapatan as “enemies” in reaction to our comment to the designation of Brig.Gen. Aurelio Baladad -, who faces a string of credible charges for the Morong 43 health workers case in various fora –  as incoming 3rd ID Commander of the Army.

Gen. Coballes was quoted[1] as saying, “You don’t expect any positive statement from the enemy”. This statement is careless as it is also loaded. It confirms yet again the military’s mindset of treating legal organizations, and a lawyers’ organization at that, as “enemies of the state.” Its is the same line of Gen. Jovito Palparan, the notorious rights violator coddled by former President Arroyo and who is now still in hiding.

The NUPL is a nationwide aggrupation of human rights lawyers and law students rendering pro bono services to the marginalized and the human rights victims and handles public interest cases including socio-economic issues. It is the Philippine affiliate of the UN-accredited International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) and has close professional linkages with various foreign lawyers groups including the International Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL) and the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) of the US, among others. It is recognized by the Supreme Court, the Justice Department as well as the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP). Today, the NUPL is privilege to have three of its members as duly – elected partylist representatives in the present Philippine Congress as well as officials in the  government, law professors, government lawyers and judges.

Such a mindset had in the past placed our members and clients in real danger. A number from our ranks had become victims of violence believed to have been perpetrated or abetted by security forces.  And it is precisely this mindset that has bred the continuing attacks on so-called civil society groups that has been categorically pointed out by former UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings Philip Alston. And this has also been established by the Dutch Lawyers for Lawyers Foundation when it conducted two missions to the Philippines.

In fact, the NUPL which was established in 2007 was never publicly labelled as “enemy of the state” during the time of Mrs. Arroyo when we lost several of our colleagues on top of various attacks on our ranks.

It is also in open violation of the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers and even the Philippine Code of Professional Responsibility that proscribe associating or imputing to the lawyer the cause or case of the client

This statement from a top military official is dangerous and betrays what various organizations and concerned groups have said all along, that the present counterinsurgency program Oplan Bayanihan is no different from the deadly Oplan Bantay Laya. The former, they say, is just another “dagger dipped in honey.”  So we ask, are we, as defenders, “fair game” once again? #af

Reference: Edre U. Olalia, Secretary General, +63 9175113373

[1] Visayan Daily Star, 10 July 2013,  “Baladad to assume 3ID command,” by Gilbert Bayoran.

[2] The NUPL actively handles the cases of missing students Cadapan-Empeno against Gen. Palparan, Morong 43, Jonas Burgos, Rolly Panesa, Melissa Roxas, Raymond Manalo, Benjamin Bayles, Wilhelm Geertman, Ka Lando Olalia, Cybercrime Law, Tubbataha, urban poor demolitions, privatization of government hospitals, tuition fee hikes, and various mass and people’s organizations.
—
National Secretariat
National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL)
3F Erythrina Bldg., Maaralin corner Matatag Sts. Central District,Quezon City, Philippines
Telefax no.920-6660

Email addresses: nupl2007@gmail.com and nuplphilippines@yahoo.com
Follow us on twitter @peoples_lawyer
Visit the NUPL website at http://www.nupl.net/

“By calling yourselves the ‘people’s lawyer,’ you have made a remarkable choice. You decided not to remain in the sidelines. Where human rights are assaulted, you have chosen to sacrifice the comfort of the fence for the dangers of the battlefield. But only those who choose to fight on the battlefield live beyond irrelevance.”

– Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno, in his message at the NUPL Founding Congress, September 15, 2007

“After long years of experience as a people’s lawyer, I can honestly say it has been a treasured journey of self-fulfillment and rewarding achievement. I know it will be the same for all others who choose to tread this path.”

– Atty. Romeo T. Capulong, NUPL founding chairperson, in his keynote address at the Fifth Conference of Lawyers in Asia Pacific ( COLAP V), September 18, 2010

ICCHRP condemns violent dispersal of stranded and undocumented OFWs in Saudi Arabia

ICHRP Secretariat
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Press Release, 10 July 2013 – The International Coordinating Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICCHRP) assailed the Aquino government for remaining silent on the Saudi government’s crackdown on undocumented OFWs. The ICCHRP is a global network of non-government organizations, community and advocate groups and individuals outside the Philippines who are all concerned with the human rights situation in the Philippines and support campaigns to end rights violations in the Philippines.

The ICCHRP also condemned the violent dispersal of about 100 stranded undocumented Filipino workers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia last July 2 that led to the arrest and torture of at least three leaders of the protesting OFWs who were picked up by the Saudi police, during the violent dispersal.

According to initial reports reaching the ICCHRP, the violent dispersal was a joint action by the Saudi police and Philippine embassy officials. The arrested OFW leaders were also allegedly electrocuted at the Saudi police station.

The OFWs have been demanding their immediate repatriation to the Philippines, but the Aquino government has been “noynoying” (doing nothing) on their urgent plea, according to Migrante International.

The stranded undocumented OFWs had been camping out infront the Philippine embassy in Riyadh after they were forcibly terminated and asked to leave by their employers when the Saudi government began a crackdown on undocumented migrant workers in the kingdom months before.

The OFWs decided to camp out infront of the Philippine embassy in Riyadh because they have nowhere else to go after the Saudi government announced it would crackdown on undocumented migrant workers, according to Migrante International. Several of the stranded undocumented OFWs are women and nursing mothers, including a mother with a four-month old baby.

Reports from Migrante International’s Middle East leaders state that in Jeddah, there are actually 1,400 stranded undocumented OFWs camped out outside the consulate there, while about 2,000 are in Riyadh and about 5,000 are in Jeddah.

Hundreds have camped out in front the Philippine embassy compound after embassy officials decided to padlock and close the gates of the Philippine embassy in Riyadh, leaving the stranded OFWs without any assistance and provisions such as food, water, mats and sleeping sheets, and shelter from the searing Saudi heat.

Last July 2, about a hundred stranded undocumented OFWs started a protest infront the Philippine embassy after their request for a dialogue was ignored by Philippine ambassador to Saudi Arabia Ezzedin Tago.

The ICCHRP demands an immediate investigation into the arrest and torture of the OFWs, immediate repatriation for the stranded OFWs, and the recall, investigation and expulsion from the foreign service of Ambassador Tago and other embassy officials in Saudi Arabia.

This brutal incident comes on the heels of the scandal involving Philippine embassy officials in the Middle East who reportedly demanded sex from stranded OFWs in exchange for air tickets and immediate repatriation to the Philippines.

The miserable plight of the OFWs abroad is one of the concerns that will be tackled in the International Conference for Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines on July 19-21. The conference, jointly organized by the ICCHRP, Karapatan, EcuVoice, Peace for Life and the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, will be attended by more than 200 human rights defenders and peace advocates from all over the globe. ###

Ref: Dr. Angie Gonzales, ICCHRP Coordinator
Cristina Guevarra, media liaison, +63949-1772928 / +63917-5230396

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PUBLIC INFORMATION DESK
publicinfo@karapatan.org
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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.

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