FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
19 April 2011

For Reference: Daisy Arago, Executive Director, Center for Trade Union and Human Rights, +3910.380.1897

The Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) condemned the killing of Santos “Ricky” Manrique, president of Federation of Miners’ Association in Pantukan (FEDMAP) Compostela Valley saying that the incident is characteristic of how huge mining corporations are also murdering local and small-scale mining groups.

“Whilst the murder of Manrique Santos is deplorable in itself, this incident is also reflective of the state of mining industry in the country where multinational companies are displacing small-scale local mining groups and communities of national minorities to allow MNCs to extract mineral resources in the country’s mountain ranges. With Aquino’s public private partnership, this trend will surely intensify,” says Daisy Arago, CTUHR executive director.

“It must also be mentioned that special units of the Armed Forces are usually assigned in mining sites to ‘render security guarding services, maintain peace and order, guarding and protecting installations and properties’ of mining companies. These are made possible through MOAs between local government units, the AFP and the mining companies like in Kitako Mining and Sagittarius Mines also in Southern Mindanao. Thus, it becomes almost a given that where there are mining operations, there are also military operations,” Arago noted.

According to reports, Manrique is one of the leaders who strongly oppose the entry of foreign mining corporations in a 1, 663 hectare gold-mining area in Kingking village in Pantukan. He is also a village councilor of Napnapan village.

Small scale miners in Pantukan have been opposing the joint operation of the Nationwide Development Corporation (NADECOR) and Russell Mining and Minerals Inc, a US-owned mining corporation.

Other than the Pantukan mining project, Manrique also opposed the entry of Napnapan Mineral Resources, Inc. (NMRI) that was allowed by the government to operate on a 4,912-hectare of land affecting small-scale miners in villages of Boringot, Biasong and Diat.

In April 12 at around 6:30 pm, two unidentified men barged in Manrique’s residence in Mendoza subdivision and shot the miner several times while he was having dinner. The gunmen immediately fled the crime scene riding a motorcycle that headed towards Tagum City. Santos sustained three gunshot wounds causing his death.

“The perpetrators couldn’t be any bolder by killing the victim in his very home. We condemn this grave human rights violation and we demand President Aquino to live his promise. When he won the presidency even before he first took office last year, Aquino promised to bring closure to human rights killings. Almost a year has passed yet killings of labor leaders and activists continue to rise with no one still being prosecuted,” Arago added.

Manrique is the fifth labor leader murdered under Aquino. He is the forty-fourth victim of extrajudicial killings since Aquino took office in June 2010.#

With reports from Nonoy Librado Development Foundation (NLDF) and sunstar.com.ph.

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Center for Trade Union and Human Rights, Inc
702 Culmat Bldg, 127 E. Rodriguez Avenue
Quezon city, 1112 Philippines
Telefax No. 632.4110256
email:ctuhr.philippines@gmail.com
website: www.ctuhr.org

CTUHR is an independent non government organization engaged in documentation, research and investigation of human rights violations committed against workers. It is also engaged in education, training and advocacy for workers rights and assist in the formation of workers and community organizations in the Philippines,

By Anne Marxze D. Umil, Bulatlat.com

MANILA – Asserting that the state is the primary violator of Filipino children’s rights, members of progressive women’s group Gabriela and Salinlahi Alliance for Children’s Concerns picketed the Department of National Defense (DND), April 5.

The groups said that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) should be held accountable for the grave violations committed against children as a result of its counterinsurgency programs. They also criticized President Benigno S. Aquino III’s internal security plan called the Oplan Bayanihan as the framework for these attacks.

The protest action was held in time for United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General (UN SRSG) for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy’s meeting with the military and government officials.

Coomaraswamy’s visit in the country from April 3 to 7 is part of the monitoring and reporting mechanism of the UN Security Council on the commitment of countries listed in the Annex 2 of Paris Principles
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“State violence against children must stop, the Aquino administration should scrap its counterinsurgency plan Oplan Bayanihan,” Gabriela said.

Violence against children continues under Aquino

Gert Ranjo-Libang, Gabriela deputy secretary general, said that Oplan Bayanihan has resulted to loss of children’s parents, forcible evacuation of children from their homes, illegal arrest, illegal recruitment of minors to paramilitary groups, torture, and rape.

Data from the Children’s Rehabilitation Center (CRC) showed that there are 953 children victims of human rights abuses perpetrated in the context of counterinsurgency operations within the first six months of the Aquino administration. Included in those violations is the branding of children victims as “child soldiers.”

“Branding children that they allegedly killed or captured during military operations as ‘child soldiers’ is the military’s ploy to avoid accountability over their violations,” Libang said, adding that in many instances, government troops either mistakenly or intentionally killed or arrested a child-civilian and covered up their lapse by declaring that the victims are “child soldiers.”

“While AFP claims that non-state actors such as revolutionary groups are recruiting minors, the fact is that AFP is the foremost recruiter of children for the use of military operations,” said Libang.

Salinlahi highlighted the cases of recruitment of minors to Cafgu in San Juan, Batangas [4] ; harassment of one family in Calinog, Iloilo resulting to the psychological instability of a young girl; torture of a teenage boy in Marihatag, Surigao del Sur [5]; and the attack on the B’laan Literacy and Learning Center [6] in Malapatan, Sarangani.

“We fear that at the end of Aquino’s term, the Arroyo administration’s bad human rights record would be approximated, if not surpassed by the AFP,” Melissa San Miguel, Salinlahi spokeswoman, said.

According to Salinlahi, former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s counterinsurgency program resulted to the death of 77 children. Fifty-nine others survived frustrated killings.

“Unfortunately, it is the same under the Aquino administration which continued Arroyo’s OBL then came up with its own Oplan Bayanihan. The gross violations are being carried out with the same impunity that has characterized its predecessor. The Aquino government must be made accountable not only for its violations but also for failing to give justice on the past administration’s violations, thus letting the clout of impunity in the country remain,” Gabriela’s Libang said.

Salinlahi also called on to the UN SRSG to hold the military accountable to human rights violation committed against children. “The culture of impunity remains as long as the AFP is allowed to escape accountability,” San Miguel said.

“We also urge her [Coomaraswamy] to highlight Philippine government’s counterinsurgency program as violative of the rights of children and the people, and draw on her mandate to help seek justice to victims,” Libang said.#

Multisectoral group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) condemned the killing of its local leader in Batangas at dawn today, April 11, which brought the total number of assassinated activists to 43 under the Aquino administration.

A report from BAYAN’s chapter in Batangas said that its Chairperson Kenet Reyes was shot dead by still unidentified gunmen at early morning today. Reyes was also the barangay captain of Barangay Maguihan in Lemery, Batangas.

“President Aquino has repeatedly assured the public that he will not tolerate the human rights atrocities against leaders and members of progressive organizations perpetrated by the previous Arroyo administration and state security forces. Yet the killings of activists continue under his watch. We can’t help but have serious doubts on the sincerity and resolve of this government to once and for all stop the extrajudicial killings and bring the perpetrators to justice”, BAYAN secretary general Renato Reyes said.

Kenet Reyes is the 43rd activist killed since Aquino took over Malacañang last July 2010 or a rate of one activist being killed every week. Before he was killed, Reyes alerted his colleagues that the local Philippine National Police (PNP) has deployed a unit at the barangay hall to supposedly ensure peace and order in the area.

Prior to his election as barangay captain, Reyes was also a former youth activist with Anakbayan and a member of the People First Coalition and the Bayan Muna partylist group.

“With the rate of the killings under Aquino, it’s turning out that the supposed matuwid na daan is stained by even more bloodshed and violence against activists and human rights advocates. If the government claims that it’s doing something to address the killings, their efforts are obviously not enough. The impunity with which the killings are being carried out under Gloria persists”, Reyes added.#