PRESS RELEASE

November 22, Manila – The ecumenical delegates led by 9 bishops of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) waited patiently forty-five minutes after the appointed time hoping to have an audience with President Benigno C. Aquino, III.  In the end, the delegation was met by the Senior Deputy Executive Secretary and the Officer-In-Charge of the Office of the Deputy Secretary for Legal Affairs (DSLA).

The audience supposedly with the President was initiated by the UCCP through its General Secretary, Bishop Reuel Norman Marigza, to appeal to the President to order the release of the 43 health workers now entering their 10-month in detention at Camp Bagong Diwa.  One of the detainees is Dr. Alex Montes, a member of the UCCP.

The delegation cited the earlier calls of President Aquino for a review of the case.  Eventually, the Secretary of the Department of Justice sent her confidential report to the President.  They also revisited the earlier comment of the President who, reacting to the arrest of the health workers said:  “It is a generally accepted principle that what the lawyers call the fruit of the poisoned tree (or) evidence wrongly gotten cannot be used.”

For their part, Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Jose Amor Amorado and DESLA OIC Ronaldo Geron said the President has already read the confidential report of the Secretary of Justice.  But they maintained that the President has left the matter to the courts.

Bishop Emeritus Jesse Suarez, referring to the President’s “tuwid na daan” said “the most upright of righteous thing that President Aquino can do now is to release the 43 health workers.”  He added that “we shall always support the President as long as he does the right thing and we will oppose him when he treads the wrong path in his leadership.

Mr. Nardy Sabino, General Secretary of the Promotion of Church People’s Response expressed bafflement that the executive seemed helpless in the arrest and detention of the health workers despite the infirmities of the arrest.  “This is the best opportunity to straighten a wrong.” Sabino said.

“We hope to see a speedy resolution of the case if not the unconditional and immediate release of the health workers as their continued detention has become a constant source of embarrassment before international community,” said Fr. Rex Reyes, Jr., General Secretary of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines, who was with the delegation.

Commenting on the dialogue later, Bishop Marigza welcomed the dialogue as an opportunity for the church people to be heard.  “The ecumenical delegation will monitor and keep an eye on the case as it strongly believes that justice delayed is justice denied.  The longer they are in detention, the more the Aquino government is exposed as incapable of dispensing justice,”  Marigza said.

Other members of the delegation were a bishop from the United Methodist Church, Roman Catholic priests and the Religious of the Good Shepherd.  The UCCP bishops represented their constituency in seven Episcopal jurisdictions spread out nationwide.  Also present were some of the relatives of the detained health workers.

Earlier, on November 19, a full paid advertisement signed by Christian leaders in the Philippines, legislators and the international community landed in the pages of one national daily.  The advertisement urged President Aquino to order the release of the health workers.  ##

Reference:
Bishop Reuel Marigsa
General Secretary, UCCP

Rev. Fr. Rex Reyes Jr,
NCCP  General Secretary
Ecumenical Voice

http://www.zumel.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=835:filipino-journalists-produce-tv-ads-on-the-maguindanao-massacre&catid=42:video&Itemid=59

Filipino journalists working for various media outlets have joined hands to produce the following television ads in memory of the 58 victims of the Maguindanao massacre and their families’ continuing quest for justice. A total of 30 journalists were among those killed in the Nov. 23, 2009 massacre, perpetrated allegedly by political allies of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. These ads will be aired by various TV networks in the coming days.

Tutok

Press Release

The killing of the country’s top botanist, Leonardo L. Co, 56, in Tongonan, Ormoc, Leyte last Monday by Philippine Army soldiers who opened fire on civilians, may be “another case of shoot first, ask questions later,” the human rights group KARAPATAN said.

“Even as we grieve and commiserate with the families of the victims, we are calling for a thorough, diligent investigation of the incident where soldiers of the 19th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IBPA) under their commanding officer Lt. Col. Federico Tutaan are involved.  The incident led to the death not only of the country’s top botanist, Leonardo Co but also of two (2) others, namely Sofronio G. Cortez, a forest guard of EDC-Environmental Management Division, and Julius Borromeo, a member of the Tongonan Farmers Association (ToFA),” Karapatan acting secretary general Jigs Clamor said.

Leonardo L. Co was a specialist in plant taxonomy and ethnobotany. He was serving as a biodiversity consultant of Lopez-owned Energy Development Corp. (EDC) and was gathering specimen seedlings of endangered trees with a five-member team of civilians when shot at, according to Manuel Paete, EDC resident manager.

Co’s two other companions, Policarpio Balute, a member of ToFA, and Roniño Gibe, a contractual forester with EDC’s corporate social responsibility department, survived.

“How can Lt. Col. Tutaan call this a ‘legitimate encounter’ between his troops and supposed New People’s Army rebels when the fatalities are clearly civilians? We doubt seriously that there was ever a crossfire,” Clamor asked.

“Tutaan calls the incident unfortunate.  We call it condemnable,” Clamor added.

“Tutaan even tried to justify his men’s actions by saying that the visibility in the area was hampered by thick foliage.  But why shoot when their target is not even clear in the first place?  That is simply ridiculous,” Clamor said.

“The problem really is the orientation and training of Philippine soldiers given by US advisers.  Obama and Aquino are turning the Philippines into another Iraq and Afghanistan. This goes to show that even if there are rules of engagement to follow in the conduct of war, the AFP has only paid lip-service to that in their so-called ‘human rights’ handbook,” Clamor said.

Co was the president of the Philippine Native Plants Conservation Society, museum researcher at the University of the Philippines Institute of Biological Sciences (UP IBS), curator of the Jose Vera Santos Herbarium, worked with the Community Health, Education, Services and Training in the Cordillera Administrative Region (Chestcore) based in Baguio City and known for his selfless devotion in helping communities about medicinal plants for their own primary health care.

“First, they illegally arrested, tortured and detained 43 community health workers.  Now they may just have killed a top-rate botanist and a forest ranger. This puts the AFP’s interest on taking care of the environment, people’s health, or the most fundamental right to human life in very serious questions,” Karapatan said. ###
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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
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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.  It was established in 1995.