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Arrest and jail rapists in the AFP–Karapatan

ICHRP Secretariat
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Arrest and jail rapists in the AFP–Karapatan

Karapatan Public Info Desk Mar 30, 2012 –  “That Capt. Danilo Lalin of the 50th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army was simply ‘relieved from duties’ is a pathetic response from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) considering the damage he wrought on the life of Isabel, the 16-year old rape victim in Mankayan, Benguet. This is not the first time that members of the AFP have committed such heinous crime against women and minors,” said Cristina Palabay, spokesperson of Karapatan and Tanggol Bayi (association of women human rights defenders).

According to Palabay, Karapatan received at least three reported cases of rape in the last six months, all involving AFP personnel. “Military rape has been committed under Gloria Arroyo’s Oplan Bantay Laya and it continues under P-Noy’s Oplan Bayanihan. There are other known incidents but are not yet documented because the victims fear for their lives, aside from the humiliation that goes with it. Others were threatened or offered bribes to silence them. Still other victims have reportedly experienced trauma and psychological distress because of the experience,” added Palabay.

Palabay said that, “sexual violence such as military rape is used to humiliate, silence and terrorize not only the women victims but the whole community as well. Women and children are thus made more vulnerable by the presence and operations of the military in their communities.”

“Rape of women and minors is proof that the military’s presence in the communities endangers the lives and rights of the people. Like other rights violation, rape happens when the military impose and flaunt their supremacy over the civilians. Rape is one of the military’s atrocious acts against women and the people. It is in the military’s arsenal of tactics to terrorize the people in the communities even as the P-Noy government boasts of a ‘people-oriented’ Oplan Bayanihan,” concluded Palabay. ###
Reference: Cristina Palabay, Spokesperson, +639175003879
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.

What should we expect from the Aquino regime about the stalled peace talks and the repression of detained NDF peace consultants?

ICHRP Secretariat
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What should we expect from the Aquino regime about the stalled peace talks and the repression of detained NDF peace consultants?

Karapatan Public Info Desk Mar 29 – We wonder if the administration of Benigno S. Aquino III does enough of serious consideration and work to really promote and push the peace talks, and if indeed it really is interested in the peace process at all. Several indications seem to show the opposite.

After the long stalled peace talks between the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDF) and the Government of the Republic of Philippines (GPH) were briefly initiated again in February last year, they have been indefinitely stalled again as the GPH continues to renege on its obligations to free NDF peace consultants detained in violation of the standing NDF-GPH Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG),which is supposed to protect peace consultants from surveillance, arrest, detention and other antagonistic acts.

Add to that, the GPH has not done anything at all and continues to do nothing in the face of intensified repressions and abuses (including torture) that have been and continue to be committed by the military, police, intelligence and prison authorities against the arrested and detained NDF consultants. These have been constituting not only persistent violations of the JASIG and the earlier NDF-GPH Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), but also persistent slaps by the GPH against those at the opposite side of the negotiation table.

Fascist reprisals and further repression have been the systematic response of state and prison authorities against political prisoners, specially NDF officials and consultants identified to be in the forefront of prison struggles.

Last January 25, without notice to him and his counsel, and without the court (that has been hearing his case and had specifically committed him for detention at the Davao City Jail) even officially knowing it, right from his court hearing that day, Ramon Patriarca, an NDF peace consultant representing the Central Visayas Region, was not returned to his cell at the Davao City Jail, but was instead secretly brought temporarily to the Cebu Provincial Jail and then to a military jail at Camp Lapu-Lapu of the Visayas Central Command of the AFP.

Prison authorities concocted as justification for his sudden transfer his incitement of fellow detainees to rebellion and as a further purported intelligence information of a rescue plan by the New People’s Army.

In truth, his spurious transfer was because of his leadership of fellow detainees at the Davao City Jail in fasts and other forms of struggles for the release of all political prisoners throughout the country as well as for the rights and welfare of all detainees at the Davao City Jail. As a result of their series of prison struggles, the detainees were able to have their food budget doubled from a mere P15/detainee/day toP30/detainee/day.

They were also able to set up an Alternative Learning System (ALS) class and extra review classes participated in by about 50 detainee students, who were able to earn DepEd credits for their studies. Instead of appreciating and assisting in these endeavors, however, prison authorities did all they could to sabotage the projects and wage reprisals against all those who participated in the struggles and resulting projects.

The vast majority of detainees stood firmly in supporting Patriarca and even proceeded to formally elect him to head the leading council of detainees in the jail, despite all-out efforts of prison authorities to block his election and continue to directly appoint their own stooge.

Patriarca’s sudden transfer to military jail immediately after this was clearly a means of prison authorities to insist on their reprisals and
repressions against him and fellow prisoners who have struggled for their rights and welfare. The acts of reprisals and repressions by prison authorities were in league with city and provincial government officials as well as military and police authorities.

Patriarca’s sole rebellion case has been trumped-up, has crawled at snail’s pace and has dragged on for several years now. The Supreme Court had already ruled in the case filed by Satur Ocampo, Rafael Baylosis, Randall Echanis and Vic Ladlad that rebellion cases are baiIable even if recommended by prosecution to be non-bailable. Yet Patriarca continues to remain in jail.

The military camp where Patriarca has surreptitiously been transferred to is the camp where he was brought to and heavily tortured right after he was arrested in February 2005, and where he was held incommunicado and practically deprived of practically all his rights for four years. He was only surfaced in February 2009 as a result of a writ of Amparo case filed against those who arrested and continued to hide him. His surreptitious and anomalous return to the hands of his torturers and to the camp where he was held incommunicado for several years reprises his hellish experiences there of torture, isolation and deprivation of practically all his rights.

In 2009, Patriarca filed a damage suit for the torture committed against him by those who ordered and perpetuated his torture. In returning him now in the hands of his torturers, the military, police, intelligence and prison authorities have further intensified their intimidation and reprisals against him, especially now as the damage suit he filed for the torture against him is about to be concluded with very convincing testimonies by witnesses, including doctors and psychologists attesting to his torture.

Here at the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame, the same attitude is carried and practically the same moves continue to be made ‘by prison’ authorities. They react with the same fascist reprisals when prisoners, especially political prisoners, wage struggles for their rights and welfare and against the atrocities and abuses of police and prison authorities here.

The custodial command here always reacts viciously to statements, letters of protest and complaints against the undue restrictions and
repressive acts it imposes on detainees, especially political detainees. It wages reprisals against prison struggles, especially those led by political prisoners, even if the struggles were only in the form of dialogues sought by the detainees or letters of requests collectively made by the detainees.

There have also been several instances of the custodial center command’s narrow-minded fetish at censoring communications and reading materials, and confiscating even legitimate and publicly available for being “critical of government”. Last December 26, it confiscated all copies of a KARAPATAN primer on Oplan Bayanihan brought for us by our visitors whom it also attempted to prevent from visiting us. The primer criticizes human rights violations by state forces in the field; the confiscation of copies of the primer all the more blatantly depicts how the custodial center command here knows nothing about human rights.

The most vehement reaction recently of the custodial center command has been against the ongoing efforts of political prisoners here to come out with studies and documentations of cases of unjust, arbitrary and illegal arrests, prosecution and detention of practically all political prisoners here, in preparation for a proposed joint investigation by government and human rights entities on those cases. The custodial center command here has been very apprehensive of the repercussions of the proposed joint investigation, and has thus made several attempts to prevent and sabotage it. The custodial center command here has been intensely making reprisal moves against political prisoners here, targeted principally against an NDF peace consultant detained here and identified to be in the forefront of struggles of political prisoners and other prisoners here. It has made several attempts (three so far) to have the said NDF peace consultant transferred to another detention center where he can hopefully be more effectively gagged and further repressed. The transfer moves have so far been averted with the resistance of the one targeted for transfer and the support of other political as well as other fellow detainees and of others from outside of prison.

The custodial center command, however, continues to plot and make reprisals and further repression moves, the most recent of which is the confiscation of old-fashioned typewriters being used by NDF peace consultants detained here. With the confiscation of the typewriters, the custodial center command hopes to hamper or at least greatly slow-down the output of exposes`, statements, letters of protests and complaints and even the studies and documentations of cases of unjust, arbitrary and illegal arrests, prosecution and detention of political prisoners here. But, the bigoted fascist character of the command of the custodial center here is all the more exposed as its bigoted fascist act has added more material to expose`s, statements, letters of protest and the like.

NDF consultants and other political prisoners in other detention centers throughout the country also suffer the same repressive treatment in the hands of military, police, intelligence and prison authorities.

The daily sufferings of another NDF consultant, Tirso Alcantara in the hands of his jailers who continue to keep him in isolation and almost total deprivation in Fort Bonifacio is one of the cruelest.

All such repressive treatment of detained NDF consultants and other political prisoners are rampant gross violations of human rights, peace agreements (including JASIG and CARHRIHL), legal and other rights.

What has the administration of Benigno S. Aquino III done about all these. . . in the interest of promoting the peace process with the NDF? What should we expect?

ALAN JAZMINES
detained NDF consultant
PNP Custodial Center
Camp Crame
29 March 2012

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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.

Rights violations under GMA and Palparan continue to surface

ICHRP Secretariat
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Rights violations under GMA and Palparan continue to surface

Karapatan Public Info Desk, Press Media Release | March 26, 2012
Reference: Marie Hilao Enrique, Chairperson, +63917-5616800, Angge Santos, Media Liaison, +63918-9790580

The more than a thousand cases of extrajudicial killings and hundreds of disappearances, and other rights violations cases documented under the Gloria Arroyo regime may be smaller than the actual incidents that happened, said Karapatan. “Some victims and their relatives are only able to report now out of fear of military reprisal because the military have not left their communities. But as these state-sponsored atrocities continue to happen under P-Noy’s watch, the victims and relatives have no other choice but to speak out now,” said Marie Hilao-Enriquez, chairperson of Karapatan.

Hilao-Enriquez said that cases of human rights violations continue to surface as victims recall for the first time the terror they experienced under GMA and her favorite butcher Gen. Jovito Palparan, one of the main implementers of Oplan Bantay Laya. “We have specifically documented cases as far back as 2004 involving farmers in Hacienda Luisita. At that time, Tarlac was among the seven provinces targeted by Palparan, then commander of the 7th Infantry Division,” said Marie Hilao-Enriquez.

Aside from the publicized killings, among the cases documented in a fact-finding mission in Hacienda Luisita from 2004 to 2010 were:
surveillance, threat, harassment, illegal arrests and detention, and intimidation. The victims were mostly leaders and members of Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (AMBALA) and the United Luisita Workers’ Union (ULWU). During this period, 300 soldiers from several units under Palparan’s 7th ID were deployed in the villages of Hacienda Luisita.

Other provinces affected were Bulacan and Nueva Ecija where cases of suicide because of fear of military presence and harassment are publicly known but remain undocumented.

Lito Bais, President of ULWU, was among the leaders who were frequently visited by soldiers. Bais now face charges of ‘grave coercion’, along with 22 other farmer-leaders in Hacienda Luisita as they continue to assert their right to own the lands in Hacienda Luisita.

Sgt. Rizal Hilario was specifically identified by the victims. Hilario was Palparan’s right hand man at that time. He is Palparan’s co-accused in the kidnapping and serious illegal detention case of Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeno. Both remain fugitives, three months after they were issued warrants of arrest by the Malolos Regional Trial Court.

The unresolved land dispute in Hacienda Luisita; the continuing harassment of Lito Bais and other hacienda workers from Arroyo to Aquino; of Palparan and Hilario who remain scot free despite their crimes against the people; of Gloria Arroyo landscaping at the Veteran’s Memorial Hospital instead of being jailed in regular prison—exemplifies how rights violations and impunity continue under the P-Noy government. “It only shows that GMA’s bloody Oplan Bantay is extended in P-Noy’s Oplan Bayanihan. Oplan Bantay
Laya is out but terror continues through P-Noy’s Oplan Bayanihan,” concluded Hilao-Enriquez.

———————————————————————
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.

Philippine soldiers harass evacuees, set up checkpoint at entrance of evacuation center

ICHRP Secretariat
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Press Release, March 25, 2012, Reference: ATEL U. HIJOS, Spokesperson, GABRIELA – Caraga, Mobile No.: +639099346493

Butuan City – Seven (7) military men all armed with high caliber guns went to the barangay covered court in  Imadejas, Butuan City in the afternoon of March 23, 2012 where 350 dislocated lumad-Mamanwas has sought shelter.  The military men were led by Major Nilo Kanashiro, spokesperson of the 4th ID and Lt. Patrick Martinez, CMO of the 402nd Brigade.

These military units are currently launching intensive military operations in the mountain areas of Kitacharao and Cabadbaran City.  Bombings, aerial strikes and military presence in civilian communities and houses of said military units pushed residents of the mountain communities to evacuate.

At around 2 o’clock 107 evacuees arrived from Palidan, Brgy. Mahaba, Cabadbaran City.  Major Kanashiro insisted that all the evacuees be photographed individually by the military before being allowed to enter the evacuation center. The evacuees, tired from hiding in the mountains to avoid the bombings and strafing, refused to follow the orders of the military and proceeded to join their fellow evacuees.
Several of the military men including Major Kanashiro and Lt. Martinez, disrespected the customs and traditions of the lumad people when, without permission from the datus (lumad elders and leaders) they entered the evacuation center. When Kayapan – Amihan leaders Datu Lando and Gingging Anlagan and members of Kasalo-Caraga tried to intercede, Major Kanashiro  brushed them off saying,  “We don’t want to talk to the handsome and beautiful people. ” He then proceeded to berate the evacuees and told them, “Do not listen to the lies of these pretty faces that has joined you.” He was referring to Kasalo-Caraga and Gabriela-Caraga leaders and other organizations helping the evacuees.   The soldiers told the evacuees to “Return home because there are no more troops in the mountains.“ Later that same afternoon, Lt. Col. Ferdinand Napuli, Commanding Officer of the 3rd Special Forces of the 402nd Brigade belied what Major Kanashiro told the evacuees when he announced in the local radio station Bombo Radio that they are continuing with the military operations.

The military then set up a checkpoint at the entrance of the evacuation center. They made everyone sign a logbook before being allowed to enter. Ms. Atel Hijos, Gabriela-Caraga chairperson and Genasque Enriquez, Secretary General of Kasalo-Caraga were refused entry by the military unless they sign the military logbook. They were only allowed to enter when Ms. Atel Hijos told Major Kanashiro that the military has no right to refuse them entry when the evacuees themselves have asked for their assistance. After a few minutes the military men left the evacuation center.

“The actions of the military,  especially that of 4th ID’s spokesperson Major Kanashiro, exposes the lie that they perpetuate — that they respect human rights, ” said Ms. Hijos in reaction to the tense situation yesterday.  “If they cannot show common courtesy towards the lumad datus and local leaders in broad daylight,  in the middle of the city and in front of the media who witnessed their actions, imagine the total disregard for human dignity and terror tactics that they subject the residents of lumad communities in the isolated mountains.”, she continues.
“Terrorized by the bombings and presence of fully-armed men in their communities, risking their lives to seek sanctuary in Butuan City,  these evacuees have suffered enough.  Please stop harassing the evacuees and show some sensitivity to the women and children’s distress,”  concludes Ms. Hijos.#

Appeal for support for Mamanwa communities forcibly evacuated due to military operations

ICHRP Secretariat
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Appeal for support for Mamanwa communities forcibly evacuated due to military operations

Stop militarization of communities!

Dear friends and fellow rights advocates,

Greetings!

Military elements from the 30th and 38th IBPA and the 3rd Special Forces of the 402nd Brigade have encamped in civilian communities in the mountain areas of Cabadbaran and Kitcharao, Agusan del Norte and Alegria in Surigao del Norte. The soldiers have occupied public places, and are staying in civilian houses with the residents. Soldiers, in combat alert mode, held civilians at gunpoint, using them as shields and indiscriminately firing high-powered firearms at populated areas.

Due to intense military operations in the area, lumad and farmers from these areas left their homes and farms to seek shelter outside their communities. These communities are rich in mineral resources and are targeted for large-scale mining operations.

On February 28, some 58 families from Alegria, Surigao del Norte started to evacuate to Bgy. Ombon, some 18 kilometers away from their communities. The evacuees are dispersed in Brgy. Camp Edward, others in Bry. Bodlingin, both in Alegria, Surigao del Norte. Other Mamanwa families sought sanctuary with relatives in Brgy. Mahanob in the Municipality of Gigaquit, Surigao del Norte.

On March 14, 2012, some 78 Mamanwa families with about 345 individuals left their homes in Kitcharao and Sitio Lusong, Brgy. Puting Bato, Cabadbaran City and evacuated in Butuan City. The evacuees asked the Agusan del Norte Provincial Government to take measures to pullout the military troops from their communities and to stop the airstrikes. The evacuees also asked for shelter from the provincial government but were refused because the covered gym will be used in May for an exhibit by an entertainment company. The evacuees are now at the Barangay Imadejas Covered Court.

As of this writing, an estimated 800 individuals, adults and children, are now in evacuation centers.

In behalf of the evacuees, Karapatan appeals for your support. The evacuees are in need of food, medicines (for diarrhea, upper respiratory tract infection, coughs and cold, fever), clothes, laundry soap, sleeping mats and potable water. They also need slippers and change of clothes, especially the children with infected wounds.

Attached are the factsheets of the incidents prepared by Karapatan-Caraga and position paper of Kasalo-Caraga, an organization of indigenous peoples in Caraga.

We appeal to you to send letters of concern to agencies of the Philippine Government to call for:

1. Immediate pull-out of members of the 30th and 38th Infantry Battalion; 3rd Special Forces of the 402nd Brigade of the Philippine Army from these communities,

2. Provide aid eg. food, drinking water, medicines, etc. for families in the evacuation centers,

3. Immediate investigation of the military airstrikes and combat operations in the affected communities,

4. The Philippine Government to withdraw its counterinsurgency program Oplan Bayanihan, which victimizes innocent and unarmed civilians, and

5. The Philippine Government to be reminded that it is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and that it is also a party to all the major Human Rights instruments, thus it is bound to observe all of these instruments’ provisions.

Please send your letters to the following:

H. E. Benigno S. Aquino III
President of the Philippines
2/F Bonifacio Hall, Malacañang, Manila
Tel: 733-3010 loc 882/ 887
Website: president.gov.ph <http://www.president.gov.ph/>

Secretary Teresita Quintos-Deles
Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP)
7/F Agustin I Building, F. Ortigas Jr. Road, Ortigas Center, Pasig City
Tel: 6360701 to 06 / 637-6083
Fax: 638-2216
Email: stqd@opapp.net
Website: opapp.gov.ph

Secretary Leila M. de Lima
Department of Justice (DOJ)
DOJ Main Building, Padre Faura Street, Manila
Tel: 521-1908
Fax: 523-5548
Email: doj.delime@gmail.com
Website: doj.gov.ph

Secretary Voltaire T. Gazmin
Department of National Defense (DND)
DND Building, Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City
Tel: 911-6193 / 911-1746
Fax 911-6213
Website: dnd.gov.ph

Hon. Loretta Ann P. Rosales
Chairperson, Commission on Human Rights
SAAC Bldg., UP Complex
Commonwealth Avenue
Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
Voice: (+632) 928-5655, 926-6188
Fax: (+632) 929 0102
Email: <coco.chrp@gmail.com>chair.rosales.chr@gmail.com,
lorettann@gmail.com

And to the Philippine embassies and consulate offices in your respective countries

Please send us a copy of your email/mail/fax to the above-named government
officials, to our address below.
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PUBLIC INFORMATION DESK
publicinfo@karapatan.org
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KARAPATAN Public Information <publicinfo@karapatan.org, Mar 23, 2012
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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