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Rights lawyers of disappeared welcome bill with guarded optimism

ICHRP Secretariat
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PRESS STATEMENT, 19 October 2012

Rights lawyers of disappeared welcome bill with guarded optimism;
challenges President Aquino to go after violators regardless of rank or position

The Desaparecidos Bill represents a positive step forward for the victims of enforced disappearances.  However, while this law is an important reform, it represents only the first step along the long and winding road to truly ending impunity. It is therefore with cautious optimism that the National Union of People’s Lawyers welcomes this law.

The NUPL handles many cases of enforced disappearances all over the country including the case of  UP students Cadapan and Empeño, who were victims of enforced disappearance at the hands of retired fugitive Army Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan. It also handles the cases of  Jonas Burgos, Raymond Manalo, Melissa Roxas, among others.

This law creates a greater impetus for the government to bring Palparan and others before the law and deliver some justice to the long-suffering families of the victims.

It is crucial that this law does not sit in the bottom drawer gathering dust.  The last thing the families of victims of enforced disappearances need, in addition to the constant heartache and uncertainty of having lost their loved ones at the hands of the State, are false promises and empty platitudes from the Aquino administration while impunity persists under the smokescreen of a supposedly effective law.
Aquino must ensure that this law is effectively implemented according to its terms.  He must ensure that State security forces cannot disregard or circumvent it.  It must be unequivocally clear that this law will be enforced against those responsible regardless of stature or rank.

We , therefore, welcome in principle the proposed anti-disappearance law which has been long in coming and urge Aquino to sign it with dispatch.

As lawyers for many victims of disappearances, we fervently wish this will in reality turn out to be an effective tool to give redress, if not prevent or deter State transgressions which bring incomparable and endless worry, anxiety and grief.

We pray that beyond the elegant and formal legal language, no false hope is added to injury by State security forces who will circumvent and even mock it on the ground like other rights laws; by a judiciary perceived by the families to be at times unresponsive and even detached from social realities; and by an administration which has become a party to such violations by default or inaction, if not tacit condonation, or worse, which engenders it by making it logically integral to a State policy or program that practically perpetuates impunity.

Beyond beautiful and well-crafted laws on human rights is the decisive political will to render justice though the heavens fall.#

Reference:
Atty. Edre U. Olalia, NUPL Secretary General
+639175113373

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
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 president, in his keynote address at the Fifth Conference of Lawyers in Asia Pacific ( COLAP V), September 18, 2010

Blaan family massacred, IP killings rise to 28

ICHRP Secretariat
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Blaan family massacred, IP killings rise to 28

http://katutubongmamamayan.org/node/364, October 19, 2012 – The Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KAMP) condemns the massacre of a Blaan family in the Sagittarius Mines Inc (SMI) mine site in Tampakan, South Cotabato. Piya Macliing Malayao, KAMP spokesperson, described the killings as “barbaric, and their killers are the most brutal.”

Elements of the 27th Infantry Battalion (IB) of the Armed Forces of the Philippines strafed the hut where Juvy Capion, 27, and her three children were resting. The gunfire killed the pregnant Juvy and her children Janjan, 7, and Pop, 13. Her daughter, Vicky, 5, was wounded.

“This act of brutality against the most vulnerable sector, indigenous women and children reflects the mindset of the Aquino administration that allows this kind of violence to persist and go unpunished.” Malayao said. “It is also shows how the State violates the people’s rights in favor of big business, especially large-scale and foreign-owned mining.”

The KARAPATAN-Socsksargen report said that after the strafing, the 27th IB laid the dead out in the sun to coerce Jovy’s husband, Dagil Capion, to surrender. Dagil is a tribal leader of the Blaan community resisting the entry of Sagittarius Mines Inc, and has gained the bile of the mining company and their security forces.

Defense of ancestral domains just

“The Blaan declared pangayaw or tribal war against SMI in June”, says KAMP. “It is entrenched in the culture of the indigenous peoples to defend their land and life. For centuries, we  defended our lands against the plunder of our territories and the killing of our people. SMI is a threat to the way of life and the survival of the Blaan people. The pangayaw being waged is just,” Malayao claimed.

In waging the pangayaw , the tribesmen  attacked  SMI’s security, machines, and equipment this year. SMI’s Tampakan Project is poised to displace 30,000 Blaan peoples out of their ancestral territories.

“However, the merciless murder of the unarmed and children are inexcusable. The military  act as the security force of foreign business and interests, and not of the people.” Malayao maintained.

Malayao also shared that the Bong Mal community, the base of resistance against large-scale mining in the area, has  continually been in the receiving end of human rights violations for years since mining companies encroached in their ancestral territory. “Dagil is the nephew of Blaan leader Gorelmin Malid, who was slain back in 2002. This resistance and defense of ancestral lands runs throughout families. By the action made by the AFP , and the persistence of  SMI to mine their lands, this tribal war will run through generations.”

28 indigenous peoples slain under Aquino

KAMP claims that the three killings raised the death toll of indigenous peoples under Aquino to 28.

According to KAMP data, just last October 13, 2012 another indigenous leader, Gilbert Paborada was killed. He led his people against the entry of A. Brown Palm Oil Plantation in Opol, Misamis Oriental. “The trend of killings is indicates the determination of the Aquino government to sell-out our resources to foreign investors despite the strong opposition of ingenous peoples,” Malayao declared.

KAMP demands the immediate pullout of military forces in indigenous communities, and justice and indemnification for the extrajudicial killings.

“The killings seeks to weaken the defense of indigenous peoples  to their  lands.  The State’s systematic persecution and violation of our rights only intensified our peoples resistance against plunder and repression,” Malayao asserted.

Kalipunan ng Mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KAMP)
National Alliance of Indigenous Peoples Organizations in the Philippines
Room 304 NCCP Building, near Quezon Avenue corner EDSA, West Triangle, Quezon City
(02) 412-5340
www.katutubongmamamayan.org

Filipinos deserve real democracy

ICHRP Secretariat
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http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10841416

Murray Horton: Filipinos deserve real democracy
By Murray Horton
Oct 19, 2012

Some of the most harrowing stories to come out of the February 22 Christchurch earthquake involved people trapped alive in the collapsed CTV Building desperately ringing their families, but dying before they could be rescued. A number of them were among the Filipinos who died in that building.
They were a group of nurses attending an English language school. More and more Filipinos are coming to New Zealand to work, either by themselves or with their families. Unlike Kiwis who go overseas to travel and work, Filipinos are not here on their OE.

They leave their homeland because there are no jobs for them, there is no welfare system, and unless you can support your family by sending money back from overseas, they will starve. That is why we are seeing an ever growing influx of Filipinos.

By and large they do the sorts of low-paid menial jobs (such as retirement home nurse aids) that Kiwis aren’t keen on and they live very humbly. I doubt that any of them live in the circumstances of their Coatesville compatriot Mrs Dotcom. People are the Philippines’ biggest export; they have become the Irish of Asia.

President Benigno Aquino is visiting New Zealand this month to drum up business and trade ties. But the fact is that New Zealanders know very little about this English-speaking Asian neighbour. There are no direct flights; it is off the tourism radar. Why is it that millions of Filipinos have to go overseas to find work, including in New Zealand? It is not a poor country; quite the opposite, it is blessed with a wealth of natural resources. But the vast majority of the people of this rich country are very poor indeed, and not because of any fault of their own.

The Philippines’ biggest problem is that land and wealth (still very much the same thing) and power are concentrated in the hands of a tiny number of extremely rich families who are not disposed to share it, let alone give it up.

There has never been any genuine land reform. Aquino himself is from a major land-owning family, and these dynasties are the ones who control political power, with elected offices handed down from one generation to the next. The Philippines has the formal trappings of democracy but, in reality, it is still very much a semi-feudal society.

Three things reinforce the ruling dynasties’ stranglehold on wealth and power. One is institutionalised corruption on a truly staggering scale. New Zealanders have heard of Imelda Marcos and her shoes. The Marcos’ conjugal dictatorship of the 70s and 80s personified the word “kleptocracy” – massive theft from their own people.

More recently, another President was tried for corruption on a comparably breathtaking scale; and President Aquino’s immediate predecessor has also been charged with corruption and electoral fraud offences.

The second and third things go together – institutionalised violence towards all opposition, and a culture of impunity that sees both corrupt politicians and the members of official death squads (soldiers, police, and paramilitaries) go completely unpunished. Aquino was elected in June 2010 but, despite his own father having been the most high profile victim of Marcos’ many political murders, nothing has changed.

As of this September there had been 113 political murders during his Presidency. There are more than 400 political prisoners (who are charged with concocted “criminal” offences); torture is routine and was only very recently criminalised; “disappearing” someone has still not been and is widely practised.

The military and the ruling dynasties they serve have a very broad definition of “enemies” – the world’s worst ever massacre of journalists (32, out of 58 people killed) took place in the Philippines only three years ago. Nobody has been convicted for this and witnesses have since been murdered.

When the previous President, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, came to New Zealand in 2007, Helen Clark raised the human rights issue with her.

We challenge John Key to do the same with President Aquino.

The long-suffering Philippine people deserve all the international support they can get (the US backs the status quo there, as it always has, because the Philippines has always been a loyal satellite). Filipinos don’t take this lying down – they gave the world People Power when they peacefully overthrew Marcos in 1986; opposition to the system ranges from a vibrant popular movement representing many sectors of society, right through to the decades of armed struggle waged by Communist and Muslim guerrillas.

We owe it to our Filipino workmates and neighbours to urge our Government to demand of President Aquino what he intends to do to make the Philippines an actual democracy and a fair society for all of its people.

* Murray Horton is the secretary of the Philippines Solidarity Network of Aotearoa.

Quick Facts on the Killing of IP Leader Gilbert Paborada

ICHRP Secretariat
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Victim: Gilbert Paborada, 47 years old, married and with one 7-year old child, originally from the sub-village of Bagocboc, in the town of Opol, Misamis Oriental
Case: Extra-Judicial Killing
Date of and place of incident: past 3pm, 03 October 2012, San Nicolas, Puntod in Cagayan de Oro City

According to the witnesses, Paborada had just came back from the village of Bagocboc for some concerns to San Nicolas, Puntod in Cagayan de Oro when 2 motorcycle-riding men of heavy built shot him when he went down from a motorela (public tricycle) he was riding past 3pm. Before the gunmen left, witnesses claim that one of them moved closer to Paborada and shot him again at the head. The gunmen used a white motocross-type motorcycle.

Paborada sustained 5 gunshot wounds (not 8 as earlier reported), believed to be bullets coming from .45 caliber pistol.Two of the bullets that killed him were found in his chest area, 1 in the abdominal area near his kidney, 1 in his hand, and the other 1 in his head. He was dead on the spot.

Paborada is the chairperson of Pangalasag (Indigenous Shield), a community-based indigenous organization resisting oil palm plantation expansion of A. Brown in the town of Opol, Misamis Oriental. Aside from accusing A. Brown of grabbing their lands, they complained of  company-sanctioned violations of their civil and political rights(see link: http://www.rmp-nmr.org/index.php/recent-releases/196-they-took-our-land-by-force).

Paborada left Bagocboc on March 2011, and relocated in Puntod to evade threats against his life. He earned a living by opening a small store attached to his house in the slums of Puntod. He fequented Bagocboc to lead community-based campaigns of Pangalasag as the chairperson.

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RURAL MISSIONARIES OF THE PHILIPPINES-Northern Mindanao Sub-Region (RMP-NMR)
Room 01, Kalinaw Lanao Center for Interfaith Resources
0016 Bougainvilla Puti, Villaverde
9200 Iligan City, Philippines
T/F: +63 (63) 223 5179  E: rmpnmr@gmail.com  W: www.rmp-nmr.org

Climate of impunity worsens with recent killings – Karapatan

ICHRP Secretariat
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Climate of impunity worsens with recent killings – Karapatan

Press Statement, October 4, 2012 – While the nation watched the festive frolic as traditional politicians and their families filed their certificates of candidacy at the Commission on Elections and, netizens rage over the passing of the Cybercrime Law, extrajudicial killings continue, worsening the climate of impunity in the country.” thus said Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan, as the human rights group received reports on two cases of extrajudicial killings in the past two days.

In Tarlac, on the month of the observance of the rights and welfare of children, a fourteen-year-old child was felled by a bullet from the arbitrary firing of policemen who reinforced the team out to demolish the houses at   Block 7, San Roque, Tarlac on October 2, 2012. John Khali Lagrimas was hit by a stray bullet that fell on the rooftop of their furniture shop.  He was declared dead on arrival at the Ramos General Hospital in Tarlac City.

The 100-member demolition team arrived at the site with some 100 policemen, headed by Tarlac City Police Chief Col. Arnel Ramos. They were armed with M16 and 45 caliber pistols. Aside from the police, there were also 8 Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) men in full battle gear and two fire trucks.  Around 70 residents, who are members of the San Roque Neighborhood Association, barricaded the place.  The policemen fired their guns while the demolition was on going to intimidate the protesters.

The Block 7 San Roque site is the subject of a land dispute being heard at the Regional Trial Court Branch 63 of Tarlac City.  No court order on the demolition was shown the residents.

On the following day, October 3, another killing took place in San Nicolas, Puntod, Cagayan de Oro City.  Gilbert  Paborada, Chairperson of Pangalasag (indigenous shield), was shot dead  by motorcycle-riding-in- tandem assassins as he alighted from a motorela (public tricycle).  He sustained five gunshot wounds allegedly coming from a 45-caliber pistol.

Pangalasag is an indigenous peoples’ organization in Opol, Misamis Oriental and a member of Kalumbay, a sub-regional IP alliance in Northern Mindanao. Pangalasag members, the Higaonon tribe of Mindanao Lumads, have been farming coconut, bananas and other crops in their community.  They are opposing the palm oil plantation project of A. Brown Company, a US corporation, which they claim, is grabbing their land.  They have been constantly harassed and threatened by the company guards.  There was also an instance when they were arrested and detained by NBI members on trumped up charges.

Paborada relocated himself in Puntod due to threats to his life although he still went to Bagocboc to lead the community’s campaigns against the palm oil company.

Palabay said that under the Aquino administration, from July 2010 to September 30, 2012, Karapatan has documented 112 victims of extrajudicial killings.

“Many of the victims are rights defenders who uphold their rights to land, ancestral domain, decent housing and livelihood. Instead of going after the perpetrators in the AFP and paramilitary groups, the Aquino administration props up this climate of non-accountability and promotion of impunity,” Palabay concluded. ###

Reference: Cristina “Tinay” Palabay, Secretary General, 0917-5003879
Angge Santos, Media Liaison, 0918-9790580
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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.

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