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Asian rights group calls PHL ‘broken and lawless nation’

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In one of the harsher foreign assessments of the Philippines in recent times, a Hong Kong-based human rights group has called the Philippines a “broken and lawless nation.”

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) drew this conclusion after two more recent murders in Mindanao, where the victims were executed in front of family members, one of them in the presence of three young daughters.

But the non-government body also made an apparent reference to the eight Hong Kong tourists who died in the Manila hostage crisis last August 23 after botched police negotiations and a rescue attempt, describing the Philippines as a place where citizens “cannot hope to protect the foreigners on its soil.”

‘A broken and lawless nation’

In an article on its web site, the AHRC stated:

“In a country where an individual can no longer protect himself, he cannot protect his family; a family that cannot protect its members, cannot protect the community where they belong; and a person, a family and a community that cannot protect itself cannot protect a Nation. A Nation that cannot protect its own citizens, their families and the community where they live cannot hope to protect the foreigners on its soil. It is a broken and lawless nation.”

AHRC said it has become an “illusion” and “absurdity” for anyone to claim that there is protection and security for people in the Philippines.

The Philippine National Police and government spokesmen have a habit of assuring the foreign community that the country is safe, in the face of travel advisories to the contrary issued by foreign governments.

The human rights body said it has become ordinary for killings to be carried out by policemen, the military and the paramilitary forces working for them, and for killings to be perpetrated in broad daylight in crowded public places and in front of the victims’ families in their own homes.

Unreported cases

“Hundreds if not thousands” of stories go unreported and this has been taking place in the country for many years now, the AHRC lamented.

“A system of justice can still continue to exist on paper, structure and appearance, but its existence is meaningless once it departs from its original role of being a protector, it becomes the very opposite of what it was supposed to be; that is the protector of those within the system, protecting those who are already protected; securing those who are already secured. This is the type system that each Filipino lives in daily in their own country. Unless there is a discussion and organic realization by those who are part of the system of the need for reform to reexamine their purpose, its existence remains an object of contempt,” it said.

Mindanao murders

The AHRC cited the murders of Reynaldo Labrador of Davao City and Vicente Felisilda of Mawab, Compostela Valley, who were executed in front of their families.

Labrador, 39, was shot at 7:30 p.m. last Sept. 3 in front of wife Leonisa and daughters Reylon, 10; Raquel, 8; and Jennifer, 4, at their home in Paquibato District in Davao City.

He was a member of the Paquibato District Farmers Association (PADIFA), a local chapter of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP).

The gunmen escaped after the shooting. They left a note at the victim’s house that read: “Demonyo ka! Hiposon ka!” (You’re evil! You must be killed!)

Felisilda, 38, a farmer with four children and a member of Bayan Muna, was shot dead last September 9 at 7 p.m.

Both the KMP and Bayan Muna are leftist groups that the military has tagged as being communist front organizations. The Philippines has seen a spate of extrajudicial killings of activists committed by what international observers say are agents acting on behalf of the military, or by soldiers themselves.

What happened to Felisilda illustrates the brazenness exhibited by killers in the prevailing culture of impunity, the groups claimed.

The victim and and his elder brother Allan were resting inside a small hut in Mawab town, Compostela Valley after extracting meat from coconut shells on their farm.

While the brothers were resting, two gunmen arrived. They were wearing civilian clothes and armed with cal-.45 pistols.

“At first the two greeted the brothers and tried to make conversation with them by asking what they were doing. However, suddenly one of them shot Vicente at close range. Startled by what he saw, Allan ran for safety to a cliff nearby,” the AHRC said. – HS/TJD, GMANews.TV

Philippines: Families of those massacred at Maguindanao speak out

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Families of the victims of the massacre still live with threats
By Hazel Galang, Philippines campaigner, Amnesty International

Today many people in the Philippines are pausing to remember the Maguindanao massacre that thrust the nation into the international spotlight on 23 November last year: At least 57 people, including 32 media workers, travelling in a convoy to file a candidacy for a local politician were ambushed, brutally murdered and hastily buried on a hillside in Ampatuan, southern Philippines.

It was, and still is, the world’s largest ever single attack on journalists. Even for the Philippines, which has suffered from intermittent armed conflict, unexplained disappearances, and political killings, the scale of this tragedy is astounding.

The families of the slain are still scared, one year on. I arranged to meet with widows and mothers of those murdered at a secret safe house a few days ago. I had a password to get in, and walked into a dark compound at night – all the lights were turned off so that potential attackers would not be led to the site of the interview. At the first sign of trouble, our contact would speed-dial a number and the rest of the families gathered there would flee.

One by one, these ordinary women emerged from the dark to talk to me, seeking justice from one of the most powerful families in the Philippines, whom they suspect murdered their children and husbands. Their loved ones were all journalists killed as they travelled with a convoy of supporters of a politician who was running against a member of the Ampatuan clan.

The families of the dead are not covered by the government witness protection programme, which is why they must go to such lengths to protect themselves. I could be a researcher from Amnesty International, or I could be a hit-man. Although members of the Ampatuan family are in detention, the clan still has private armies at its disposal.

The longer the trial of the suspects drags on, the longer they will be at risk. One potential court witness was killed before the hearing even started. The families of the dead are careful not to make any statements that may anger the perpetrators. The most vocal woman is the one who receives the most threatening phone calls and messages, although she is not the only one.

But more than thinking of their own safety, they worry for their children. A widow said one of her daughters “was working for a shop in a city a few hours away from Maguindanao, when a policeman from Maguindanao came up to her and said, ‘I recognize you. I saw you on the television. Wasn’t your father one of those who was massacred?’” She told her daughter to quit her job immediately and come home. “We did not know if the policeman was working under the Ampatuans,” she said. Her children do not give interviews, conscious of the danger, but her daughter may have been seen on television when the victims were buried.

One widow tells of a threat her daughter received on her dead father’s mobile phone. Both she and her daughter sent text messages to her husband trying to locate him on 23 November last year. His mobile phone was not recovered with his body, so they called it, and someone answered but hung up on them immediately. Her daughter tried the number again, and someone answered, saying “You keep on calling me. I can kill you.”

Aside from the physical threat, there are emotional wounds that have not healed.

Families are still recovering from the trauma of exhuming the dead bodies of their loved ones from this hillside ©APGraphicsbank

Another widow tells me the harrowing story of how her adult son who carried his father’s corpse after it was unearthed still suffers from trauma. He lost more than 20kg after the murder, and instead of sleeping at night, talks to his father’s portrait. Her son told her, “Ma, I carried Daddy’s body, but it’s no longer Daddy…One of his eyes was missing from its socket, his leg had been broken, his brain matter was dripping from his head. It’s no longer the father I know.”

The families of the victims need to receive counselling, but this has not been a priority as it is too expensive. For the most part, the murders have deprived them of their family breadwinner, and flying to Manila to attend the trial hearings has drained their finances. One widow said, “My son went to Saudi Arabia [to work] because he is determined that we will have money to keep me going to the court hearings long enough to see this case through. My children could not accept the loss of their father in such a brutal killing – his face was smashed and only his chin was left intact. We identified him through the mole on his chin.”

That they have lent their voices to the case at all is a tremendous act of courage and resilience. One of the women says even her neighbours criticize her for participating in the case, telling her “You are small fry. You will only last one year and then what? You cannot take them on.” She tells me she just ignores them and draws strength from her children and the other families who, like her, fight for justice.

Another of the widows describes how she and her family coped with her husband’s death: “When I first confirmed that he was one of those murdered, my blood pressure shot up to 190/180. I told myself to calm down… I have high blood pressure and I am diabetic… What will happen if I die, too? Who will take care of my children? So I took a cold shower and it was there where I cried. I told my children to be strong and not let their anger overcome them. To help them heal, I collected photos of their father taken from the happiest moments of his life. I put it in an album so our children can look at them when they miss their father. I set up a small table near our altar and placed their father’s photo there with flowers and a vigil candle which is lit the whole day. The light in that candle will continue to burn until we find justice for my husband.” (from Livewire, Amnesty International)

PHILIPPINES: Maguindanao massacre case demonstrates the delusion of the existence of a justice system

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AHRC-STM-234-2010

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission

It does not take much time for any rational person to agree that the families and the victims of the Maguindanao massacre must obtain justice. Anything less is unacceptable. The sheer evil that the perpetrators demonstrated in killing 57 innocent people, 32 of whom were journalists; and to disappear one person, in the manner that is already widely known, obviously stimulates outrage and condemnation.

But to demand for justice must also involve conscious thinking as to whether the institutions of justice to whom these demands are addressed can deliver it in a real sense. It is madness and foolishness for one to demand justice knowing full well that it is something that could not possibly be given. It is nothing less than self deception for a person to believe that something can be created from nothing. Water cannot be squeezed from boulders; nor can boulders be softened by hammering.

Demands that are detached from reality will have no real contribution and are meaningless when attempting to afford redress to victims. It rather perpetuates, consciously or otherwise, the delusion of something that is not there. To make demands without any regard as to whether they would make sense in reality is nothing less than echoing popular demands, to satisfy a person or a group’s desire of having supported a cause. This is the usual gesture by politicians to show solidarity as they gain more by supporting rather than ignoring popular causes. If this is done to sustain interest in a massacre that most Filipinos could not fathom, that could still be done as it appears logical, but it should have been more on the realities and substance. What made this wrong is the denial to acknowledge what is reality.

The quest for justice must confront head-on the realities. Witnesses and families of the victims are being bought, over a hundred suspects remain at large, the criminal justice system allows out of court settlements, the continuing lack of protection to families, journalists and persons who are testifying and the repeated delays in court hearings that are endemic in Philippine courts is allowing this to happen. The quest must not also place limits on the punishment imposed upon the perpetrators, but should also have a clear judgement on the certainty that the perpetrators have committed the crime. That they would be convicted based on the evidence that the police and the prosecutors have collected in establishing their guilt; not due to popular demands and the public pressure and political consideration that is prevalent in political cases, like the Abadilla Five case.

If that case has taught us anything it has revealed that in the Philippines, cases are often decided not because of their merit but rather political pressure and consideration. The more pressure is applied, the more likely the possibility of redress for victims and punishment to perpetrators. Thus, in reality the system of justice functions contrary to how most people in developed systems of justice thought it should be. The question must be: can this type of institution of justice be considered competent, impartial and effective? Can this system of justice function on its own without pressure? No. If it is the contrary of what makes a system exist in a real sense, the country does not have it.

While it is easy for all to agree on demanding justice, that the perpetrators of the massacre must be punished and that murders of this magnitude must not happen again, but there is no real certainty that justice will be done. The people know full well that the case will not be resolved any time soon; not even in ten years to come. The journalists, the lawyers, witnesses, the widows and families of the dead also know this to be the case.

In the Maguindanao massacre hearing, the failure and inability of the police and the prosecutors–for example, of having all the accused arrested, the collection of forensic evidence, the DNA of disappeared victim Reynaldo Momay; the failure of the prosecution to admit a murdered witness to the Witness Protection Programme before he was killed, would draw negligible attention. But these failures have already rendered the delays of the trial of other accused due to them not being arrested and read with charges in court. The murder case of Momay could not be filed in court because his family do not have his body. The accounts of the murdered witness will never be heard in court. These types of failures will obviously have a consequence to the prosecution of the case.

Even the failure of the police to arrest the remaining accused is incredible. Part of the province has, for over a year now, been placed under a questionable State of Emergency. It is also in Mindanao where the largest military contingents are often deployed–who also share intelligence information with the police in arresting wanted persons; yet they fail to arrest them. This illustrates the incompetence of the law enforcement agencies. They are capable of arresting in no time at all ordinary persons and file fabricated charges on them in other cases; but they are incapable of arresting an accused in a high profile case.

Political trials are common in Philippine courts. The system of justice is not likely to function without pressure being applied. Thus, the more politically known the case is more the likelihood of having the case heard in court according to ‘legality’. However, this type of leverage on how the system functions is absent to the ordinary people involved in ordinary criminal cases. Thus, the system of justice itself perpetuates double standards in court cases. This explains the caution of “not to be complacent” and “of being vigilant” because the people know full well the system cannot function on its own.

The reality also remains that this same judicial system has failed to obtain justice and punish the perpetrators of the 78 killings of journalists since 1986. Of these cases, only two–the case of Edgar Damalerio and Marlene Esperat–are known to have been partly resolved. Thus, this outright failure could not simply be described as an elusive justice but illustrates the impossibility of justice being obtained. The manner in which the existing system of justice function reveals that it is not capable of delivering justice. However, there is still the delusion that it is exists. The people are trapped in a society where the choice of having nothing still appears plausible.

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About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.
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Asian Human Rights Commission
19/F, Go-Up Commercial Building,
998 Canton Road, Kowloon, Hongkong S.A.R.
Tel: +(852) – 2698-6339 Fax: +(852) – 2698-6367
facebook/twitter/youtube: humanrightsasia

Philippines: Most dangerous place for journalists

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by Robert Gonzaga, Central Luzon Desk, Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—The killing of 57 civilians and media people last year made the Philippines “the most dangerous place in the world for journalists,” said Frank La Rue, UN special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression.

La Rue spoke at the Journalism Asia Forum 2010 at the Manila Hotel Tuesday, the first anniversary of the so-called Maguindanao massacre that included 32 journalists.

The forum, organized by the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) and the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (Seapa), was attended by about 100 journalists from Asia and representatives from the United Nations, Philippine National Police, Department of Justice and international human rights groups.

A Guatemalan, La Rue has worked on human rights cases for the past 25 years. He brought the first genocide case against the military dictatorship in his country.

La Rue said that countries experiencing a significant number of killings and harassment of their media workers “should first acknowledge that there is a problem” before the UN can step in to extend help.

Weak justice system

Rue said events like the Maguindanao massacre could be attributed to a weak justice system, negligence by the state to investigate and prosecute people behind such crimes, and an active policy of suppression and censorship.

But Justice Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III disagreed with La Rue’s view that the Philippines was the most dangerous place for media workers.

“The Maguindanao massacre is the deadliest attack on the media, but most definitely the Philippines is not a killing field for journalists. Iraq is number one,” Baraan, who also spoke at the forum, told the Inquirer.

A check with the website of the Committee to Protect Journalists’ impunity index placed Iraq and Somalia on the top two spots, respectively, with the Philippines coming in third.

Baraan, however, said La Rue’s observations on the Philippines’ justice system were generally accurate. He said that the Department of Justice should be actively involved in crime investigations.

“We are very interested in sitting down with Mr. La Rue and obtaining the UN’s assistance,” he said, especially in the technical aspects of crime fighting and training of investigators.

Unsolved murders

Nestor Burgos, chair of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), said the country ranked high among the most dangerous places for media workers even before the massacre in Maguindanao.

He said of the 143 murder cases of media workers that the NUJP had recorded since 1986, there had only been seven convictions.

Jose Manuel Diokno, chair of Free Legal Assistance Group, said filing suits was “not enough” to end impunity or the failure of the state to punish perpetrators of violence and human rights violations.

Diokno said Congress should craft a law and the Supreme Court should amend the rules of court to enforce a mechanism for preserving the testimony of witnesses.

With public prosecutors either bribed or intimidated and the courts and the Office of the Ombudsman “notoriously slow” in processing cases, Diokno said witnesses were unable to do their duty to testify. With a report from Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon

Combined military and police elements stormed and raided KARAPATAN office in Daet, Camarines Norte, Bicol, Philippines

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UA No: 2010-11-04
UA Date : 23 November 2010

UA Case : Illegal Arrest and Detention, Illegal Search and Seizure,
Threat/Harassment/Intimidation

Victim/s : Denver Bacolod
* 30 years old, male, single, human rights worker
* A resident of Talisay, Camarines Norte
* Staff, KARAPATAN-Camarines Norte
* Provincial Coordinator, Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT)
Esmeraldo “Tatay Smith” Bardon
* 60 years old, male, married with children
* A resident of Brgy. Old Camp, Capalonga, Camarines Norte
* Chairperson, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) or Philippine Peasant Movement in Camarines Norte

Mherlo Bermas
* 30 years old, male, single, farmer
* A resident of Brgy. Malatap, Labo, Camarines Norte
* Member, Kabataan Partylist

Elpidio Deluna
* 58 years old, male, married
* A resident of Brgy. Magang, Daet, Camarines Norte
* A former political detainee

Threat/Harassment/Intimidation

Maricel R. Delen
* 32 years old, female, human rights worker, widow with 1 child
* A resident of F. Pimentel Ave.,Pasig, Brgy. II, Daet, Camarines Norte
* Provincial Coordinator, KARAPATAN-Camarines Norte
* Treasurer, Gabriela-Camarines Norte
* Wife of Jason Delen, a victim of extrajudicial killing on 27 April 2006

Place of Incident : F. Pimentel Ave., Pasig, Brgy. II, Daet, Camarines Norte
Date of Incident : 22 November 2010, at around 10:30 in the morning
Alleged Perpetrator(s): combined elements of the Regional Philippine National
Police (PNP), 902nd Infantry Brigade (IB) attached to the
9th Infantry Division Philippine Army (IDPA)

Account of the Incident:
At around 10:30 in the morning of 22 November 2010, the combined elements of the Regional PNP and 902nd Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army (902nd IBPA) forcibly entered the office of KARAPATAN-Camarines Norte in F. Pimentel Ave.,Pasig, Brgy. II, Daet. KARAPATAN-Camarines Norte shares this office with the Makabayan (Nationalist) Coalition and the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas -Camarines Norte (KMP or the Philippine Peasant Movement-Camarines Norte).

Denver Bacolod, Esmeraldo “Tatay Smith” Bardon, Mherlo Bermas and Elpidio Deluna, who were inside the office, were illegally arrested and detained. The security forces searched the area and seized the following items: one laptop, one personal computer with printer, digital camera, handycam and six cellular phones.

At around 11:30 AM, Maricel R. Delen arrived at the office and she was surprised to find soldiers, in full battle gear, swarming the area. They were armed with rifles. She composed herself and calmly walked towards the small eatery in front of the office. She went straight to the back where she could see the office. She saw soldiers and policemen inside walking to and fro. She stayed inside the eatery for about 15 minutes but was forced to leave because soldiers were loitering nearby.

On her way out to the main road, she met Jun Quibral of radio DZMD, the godfather of her child, who told her that the office was raided because allegedly the residents were members of the New People’s Army (NPA). Maricel asked him, “I live there and you know me, am I an NPA?”

When she reached the main road, she met a soldier who asked her why she went inside the eatery. Fearing that she too would be arrested, she told him that she is a relative of the owner and she was allowed to go.

At around 12:00 noon, Mr. Santiago Mella, Jr., President of Makabayan Coalition and the Municipal Administrator of Daet rushed to the area upon learning of the raid. He found out that the raid was not coordinated with the Daet PNP. The two Daet policemen who were present at the raid were met by the police raiding team along the way and were told to come along with the team. Allegedly there was a search warrant in the name of Maricel R. Delen, Esmeraldo Bardon and a certain Carmen Carreon. The search warrant was reportedly with the soldiers and the Daet police did not have a copy.

The military, through the spokesperson of the 9th IDPA, Col. Leoncio Cirunay, granted an interview to the media claiming that the raid was due to the report that the KARAPATAN office served as a safehouse of the NPA and there were NPA members hiding there. They also alleged that it served as a recruitment center for the rebel group.

At around 3:00 PM, Tatay Smith was escorted out of the KARAPATAN office and was brought to the Provincial Police Station. An hour after, Denver, Mherlo and Elpidio were brought to the hospital for routine physical examination and later brought to the Daet Police Station.

By 6:00 PM, all four were gathered together at the Daet Police Station.

By afternoon of the following day, the victims underwent inquest proceedings. All of them were charged with Inciting to Sedition, Illegal Possession of Explosives and Rebellion. Earlier in the media interview with the military spokesperson, he claimed that in addition to the three charges, Tatay Smith was charged with Murder. But the charge sheet did not include the murder charge against Esmeraldo ‘Tatay Smith’ Bardon.

Elpidio was staying at the KARAPATAN office while undergoing treatment for tuberculosis which he acquired during his incarceration for trumped up cases that were all dismissed in October of this year.

Recommended Action:

Send letters, emails or fax messages calling for:
1.The immediate formation of an independent fact-finding and investigation team composed of representatives from human rights groups, the Church, local government, and the Commission on Human Rights that will look into the abovementioned violations against Denver Bacolod, Esmeraldo “Tatay Smith” Bardon, Mherlo Bermas, Elpidio Deluna and Maricel R. Delen;
2.The military to stop the labeling and targeting of human rights defenders as “members of front organizations of the communists” and “enemies of the state.”
3.The Philippine Government to withdraw its counterinsurgency program Oplan Bantay Laya (Operation Freedom Watch).
4. 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.

You may send your communications to:

H.E. Benigno C. Aquino III
President of the Republic
Malacañang Palace,
JP Laurel St., San Miguel
Manila Philippines
Voice: (+632) 564 1451 to 80
Fax: (+632) 742-1641 / 929-3968
E-mail: corres@op.gov.ph / opnet@ops.gov.ph

Sec. Teresita Quintos-Deles
Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process
Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP)
7th Floor Agustin Building I
Emerald Avenue
Pasig City 1605
Voice:+63 (2) 636 0701 to 066
Fax:+63 (2) 638 2216
osec@opapp.gov.ph

Ret. Lt. Gen. Voltaire T. Gazmin
Secretary, Department of National Defense
Room 301 DND Building, Camp Emilio Aguinaldo,
E. de los Santos Avenue, Quezon City
Voice:+63(2) 911-9281 / 911-0488
Fax:+63(2) 911 6213
Email: osnd@philonline.com

Atty. Leila De Lima
Secretary, Department of Justice
Padre Faura St., Manila
Direct Line 521-8344; 5213721
Trunkline  523-84-81 loc.214
Fax: (+632) 521-1614
Email:  soj@doj.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: chair.rosales.chr@gmail.com, lorettann@gmail.com

Please send us a copy of your email/mail/fax to the above-named government officials, to our address below.

URGENT ACTION Prepared by:
KARAPATAN (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights)
National Office
2/F Erythrina Bldg., #1 Maaralin cor Matatag Sts., Brgy. Central, Diliman, Quezon City 1100 PHILIPPINES
Voice/Fax: (+632) 435 4146
Email: urgentaction@karapatan.org
Website: www.karapatan.org