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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.
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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.

Karapatan reiterates call to dismantle paramilitary groups, revoke EO546

ICHRP Secretariat
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Karapatan reiterates call to dismantle paramilitary groups, revoke EO546

Press Statement,July 6, 2013 – “The inordinate delay in the delivery of justice for the victims of the Ampatuan massacre and the recent accounts of the backhoe driver exemplify how impunity runs through from one administration to the next; in this case from the Arroyo to the Aquino regime. Despite the people’s outrage and after more than three years after the massacre, one of the key government policies, Executive Order 546, has yet to be revoked by Pres. Noynoy Aquino,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said.

Palabay added, “EO 546 spurred the use of paramilitary groups and private armies by political warlords such as the Ampatuans.”

Former Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s Executive Order 546 allowed local officials to employ members of the Citizen Armed Force Geographical Units (CAFGU) and Civilian Volunteer Organizations (CVO) to purportedly address insurgency in the country. Karapatan said Pres. Aquino expanded and strengthened the EO by creating the Special CAFGU Auxiliary Action (SCAA) to protect operations of mining firms.

“EO 546 legitimized the use of civilian military groups as force multipliers to supposedly combat rebel groups, giving free reign to
paramilitary groups and the Armed Forces of the Philippines to commit heinous crimes such as the Ampatuan massacre and protect the interests of big foreign corporations such as transnational mining companies and agro-business plantations,” Palabay said.

Palabay noted “the notoriety of such paramilitary groups continue under the Aquino administration as the AFP employs them for its counter-insurgency program, Oplan Bayanihan, in their operations in the communities.” She said, “such paramilitary groups were involved in many cases of extrajudicial killings, torture and enforced disappearances in communities where there are opposition to big businesses that will dislocate the local peasants and indigenous peoples.”

From July 2010 (start of Aquino’s presidency) to April 30, 2013, Karapatan documented 142 victims of extrajudicial killing, 164 cases of frustrated killing, 16 victims of enforced disappearance, 293 persons arrested and detained, 16 children killed (with ages ranging from four to 15). Many of these violations have been perpetrated by paramilitary groups under the command of AFP units.

With Aquino’s fourth State of the Nation Address, Karapatan reiterated its call for the dismantling of all paramilitary groups in the country and the revocation of EO 546.

The continued existence of paramilitary groups in the Philippines had been a major concern among member countries of the United Nations. During the 2012 UN Universal Periodic Review, where the rights record of the Philippine government was reviewed, several foreign missions called for the immediate dismantling of paramilitary groups such as the CAFGU, SCAA, CVO and the repeal of EO 546.

With the International Conference for Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines (ICHRPP) scheduled on July 19-21, the human rights record of the Aquino government will again be scrutinized by the international community as 200 rights defenders and peace advocates from all over the globe gather in the Philippines.

“When he delivers his fourth SONA, we expect Aquino to once again produce sleight-of-hand figures and other forms of deception to prettify his human rights record. But the Filipino people and those in the international community know better. We cannot be deceived. We will march against the increasing poverty, oppression, exploitation and repression under the Aquino regime,” Palabay ended. ###

Reference: Cristina “Tinay” Palabay, Secretary General, +63917-3162831
Angge Santos, Media Liaison, +63918-9790580
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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.

“Flash Mob” held in the Netherlands to commemorate Dutch missionary’s killing

ICHRP Secretariat
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“Flash Mob” held in the Netherlands to commemorate Dutch missionary’s killing

LINANGAN Willem Geertman Art and Culture Network held a Flash Mob as its launching activity in commemoration of Willem Geertman’s death anniversary. A Flash Mob is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an act for a brief time, then quickly disperse.

The “flash mob” was held July 3, at the central train station in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Members of Geertman’s family joined the “flash mob”.

(The video that appears in Youtube was produced and uploaded by Mensen met een Missie of the Netherlands).

 

European fact-finding mission to visit Luzon provinces in the Philippines torn by land conflicts and corporate plunder

ICHRP Secretariat
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NEWS RELEASE, July 4, 2013 – Several European human rights advocates, including family members of murdered Dutch missionary Willem Geertman, will join an International Solidarity Mission (ISM) to Central Luzon Philippines, from July 14-17, 2013. The mission will visit and gather information in the following: 1) Aurora province, site of a multi-billion dollar economic project that would be displacing hundreds of poor peasant farmers, and where Geertman spent most of his years in the Philippines; 2) Angeles City, where Geertman was murdered, and, 3) Hacienda Luisita, the controversial sugar plantation evading land reform and owned by the family of Philippine president Noynoy Aquino.
willel
It has been a year since the killing of Geertman. Despite the supposed identification and arrest of the murderers of Geertman, their prosecution has not proceeded and the masterminds in the military remain untouched. Worse, government authorities continue to dismiss the case as robbery with murder,  for what is obviously case of state-perpetrated extrajudicial killing.

Geertman was an activist. He fought against destructive mining, against landgrabbing and other projects that displaced the peasants and indigenous peoples in Aurora. He received threats and was a victim of red-tagging by the military prior to his death. His killers could not have been merely petty criminals.

The ISM preceeds the International Conference on Human Rights and Peace in Manila on July 19-21, that will tackle, among others, the global economic, political and social crises and its impact on human rights in the Philippines, and large-scale mining and corporate incursions into resource-rich areas in the Philippines.

Aurora province is the site of the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport or APECO, which local residents fear would cause massive displacement, a fishing ban and encroachment of ancestral lands, among others, and is believed to be one of the reasons behind the extrajudicial killing of Dutch missionary Geertman, who strongly opposed the project and logging and mining activities in the province. Three years into the Aquino presidency, there are so far, 142 cases of unsolved extrajudicial killings, including the killing of Dutch national Geertman.

Aurora province is also facing the so-called Benham Rise, a rich tuna fishing ground, and a potentially  multi-billion dollar oil and natural-gas rich region, that the Philippine government will soon begin exploring by employing the services of foreign energy exploration firms that would likely include Dutch and other European enterprises. ###

Contact Person: Cristina Guevarra, Media Liason (+639491772928)
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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.

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