On February 28, 2022, at around 8:00 PM Agnes Mesina, Makabayan Cagayan Valley coordinator, was illegally arrested in Aparri, Cagayan, by elements of the Philippine National Police, allegedly for murder charges. Fabricated charges of murder at Tagum Regional Trial Court Branch 30 in Davao del Norte against Mesina, Cordillera Peoples Alliance Chairperson Windel Bolinget and four others were already dismissed on July 21, 2021.
Earlier, Mesina was with a group led by United Church of Christ in the Philippines for a Community Outreach Mercy Mission to Brgy. Sta Clara, Gonzaga, Cagayan, in the Cagayan Valley region when they were flagged down and blocked in a checkpoint by elements of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC). People blocking them held tarpaulins bearing her name and pictures together with the 4th nominee of Anakpawis Partylist, Isabelo Adviento. The two were accused as terrorists. There were reports that the two were subjected to red-taggings.
Late in the night of February 28, Ms Mesina was released because the arrest warrant was already dismissed, and she was taken to a hospital for a medical check up.
According to some residents, some of those who led the blockade were barangay officials from other barangays. The perpetrators harassed the Mercy Mission members, and they were not allowed to enter the Brgy Sta Clara area, thus denying humanitarian aid to the indigenous community. The officials took pictures of the team members, their vaccination cards and their vehicles. They were tailed by motorcycle riding men when they left the checkpoint.
The Community Outreach Mercy Mission was scheduled to bring humanitarian aid such as relief goods and psychosocial services to the indigenous people (Agta) in the area who were affected by the January 29, 2022, indiscriminate aerial bombing and strafing incident in Gonzaga. This illegal arrest of a Makabayan Bloc regional coordinator is harassment of government critics in the national election campaign period.
Five individuals including two volunteer teachers of the Save Our Schools Network, were killed at Brgy. Andap, New Bataan, Davao de Oro, Mindanao, the Philippines by elements of the 1001st Infantry Brigade of the 10th Infantry Division (ID), Philippine Army. These five victims were volunteer teachers Chad Booc and Gelejurain Ngujo II, community health worker Elgyn Balonga and two community volunteers as drivers.
Around 9:30 PM on February 23, 2022, the victims were travelling on their way back to Davao City after conducting field research at New Bataan, Davao de Oro. Elgyn Balonga was able to send a text message asking her family to fetch them. This was the last known contact with the group. On February 25 the 10th Infantry Division posted a press release on their official Facebook page falsely claiming that the five were killed in an alleged encounter and accusing them as New People’s Army fighters. However, information from locals said no encounter took place in the area. The families of the victims learned about the gruesome incident on February 25 because of the press release of the 10th ID.
Chad Booc was a cum laude graduate from University of the Philippines-Diliman with a degree in Computer Science. He was also an environmental advocate, a youth leader and a mentor to fellow youth who are calling for climate action. He became a volunteer teacher in the Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development (Alcadev) in Surigao del Sur in 2016. In 2020, he joined Lumad students and datus in Cebu where they sought sanctuary in one of the retreat houses of University of San Carlos-Talamban campus. On February 15, 2021, authorities raided the retreat house and arrested Booc and six others. Police filed trumped up charges against them which were eventually dismissed by the court. He was one of the petitioners against the Anti-Terrorism Law.
Gelejurain Ngujo II was a graduate of Liceo de Davao – Briz Campus in Tagum City with a degree in Secondary Education majoring in English. After graduation, he became a teacher in Community Technical College of Southeastern Mindanao (CTCSM). In 2018, he volunteered to become a teacher for the Bakwit School in Manila and then in Cebu in 2019 and 2020. He was also subjected to threats and intimidation for his work as a volunteer teacher for the Lumad school.
Balonga was a community health worker who served in the United Church of Christ in the Philippines-Haran, a Lumad sanctuary in Davao City, from 2013 to 2018. She facilitated medical students for their internship in UCCP Haran. She was also active in numerous medical missions in remote areas such as Talaingod and Kapalong, Davao del Norte.
Throughout their years of service, Chad, Jurain, and Elgyn had been subjected to threats, harassment, and intimidation, including death threats, red-tagging and terror-tagging, and surveillance, and were a focus of the National Task Force to end Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
Their remains were paraded as trophies, and at this stage the families of the five victims have not been able to retrieve the bodies of their loved ones.
We condemn the bloody massacre of the New Bataan 5 Massacre as a violation of human rights and International Humanitarian Law, call for an immediate and impartial investigation to identify the perpetrators who should then be prosecuted, and call for the respectful return of the victims’ remains to their families. This incident demonstrates the intensified state repression in the Philippines.
This year, the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines will be carrying out the Philippine Election 2022 International Observer Mission (IOM). The IOM will be publishing a series of bi-monthly bulletins leading up to the elections in May. To find a complete list of the bulletins that have been published so far, and to find out more about the IOM, please click here.
The IOM begins its work on the Philippine Election 2022 with the country already in an atmosphere of widespread, violent political and social repression, which has triggered an International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation of crimes against humanity and ongoing focus in the United National Human Rights Council. To set the campaign context, the IOM begins with a quick look at the main Presidential candidates who have been accredited by the COMELEC.
“We welcome and commend the Resolution of the European Parliament a week ago calling for international monitoring of the current Presidential Election Campaign in the Philippines, and urging other parliaments and governments to follow the lead given in this resolution,” said Mr. Peter Murphy, spokesperson for the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines today.
“This resolution was carried by a massive majority of Euro MPs, with 627 votes in favor, 26 against, and 31 abstentions, indicating support from almost all political tendencies. Yet, the Philippine and Indonesian governments denounced it as interference in the election process,” said Murphy.
Following a thorough summary of the many human rights violations documented under President Duterte, the resolution called:
“on the Philippine authorities to step up their efforts to ensure fair and free elections and a non-toxic environment for on- and offline campaigning; regrets, in this context, that the Philippine authorities have not invited the EU to conduct an election observation mission; calls on the Government of the Philippines to ensure a safe, free and fair electoral campaign and to take measures to ensure access for all to electoral resources; calls on the EU Delegation and EU Member States’ representations to support sending an international electoral mission and give their full support to independent local election observers, to regularly meet with them and to closely follow up on any incidents reported during the election campaign, including by addressing these concerns directly with the Philippine authorities.”
The parliament urged the European Commission to set a timeframe for the temporary removal of the General System of Preferences Plus from imports from the Philippines unless the human rights situation improved, and urged all member States to cease supplying weapons to the Philippines.
“ICHRP is organizing its own International Observer Mission for these important elections, following the thorough Investigate PH reporting on human rights violations in the Philippines last year,” said Murphy. “Our first bulletin will be issued on March 1.”
Concerns of possible violence and voter and candidate intimidation in the run-up to the May 9th vote in the Philippines: “…it is the government itself that is the problem, for six years it has cultivated a climate of fear and violence and that is now the backdrop for the upcoming election.”Peter Murphy, ICHRP
Today the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) launched the Philippine Election 2022 – International Observer Mission (IOM), which will provide independent monitoring of the Philippine Elections from the start of the campaign period in February to the May 9 vote, and the subsequent vote counting and the confirmation of elected candidates in June 2022. The reasons ICHRP initiated the International Observer Mission are two-fold:
Historically, Philippine elections have been characterized by inter-elite rivalry, warlordism, assassination, vote-buying corruption, intimidation and other forms of violence (Guns, Goons and Gold).
The current elections are occurring under a government whose members are under investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC), that was documented by INVESTIGATE PH (2021) to be not only perpetrating human rights violations but to be actively suppressing dissent and the opposition.
These concerns compel the international community to cast an inquiring eye on the Philippine elections to monitor the campaign, the vote and the outcome.
ICHRP has initiated the IOM in partnership with Kontra Daya, a Philippine based election watchdog. ICHRP is a global network of organizations, concerned for human rights in the Philippines and committed to campaigning for just and lasting peace in the country. Previous elections have witnessed high levels of violence against candidates, voters and even journalists. On the 23rd of November 2009, 32 journalists along with 26 other civilians were killed in an election-related massacre in Maguindanao, Mindanao, perpetrated by an incumbent candidate of the ruling party. It was the deadliest incident in the history of the mass media, but it is not an isolated incident. In the most recent elections in May 2019, at least 33 people were killed and 19 others wounded in several poll-related incidents leading up to voting day. The victims included 18 incumbents, four candidates, three former elected officials including a member of Congress and eight civilians including a broadcaster.
According to IOM Commissioner Rev. Michael Yoshii, “the election context itself is deeply troubling. As noted last year in the reports of INVESTIGATE PH findings, “state policies including the Anti-Terrorism Act have emboldened the police and military to attack activists, peasant leaders, and Indigenous Peoples. This suggests that those charged with protecting the polls are potential perpetrators of election violence”.
The INVESTIGATE PH report provides testimony about how the Philippine National Police (PNP) and The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) have been activated to conduct a war on dissenters morphing from killings in ‘anti-drug operations’ to killings of oppositionists and political opponents of the government. These reports highlight the heightened danger of the electoral process under the Duterte presidency.
IOM Commissioner Ms Sharan Burrow of the International Trade Union Confederation said, “It is expected that the government will favour candidates who will assist Duterte in escaping culpability for the alleged crimes against humanity his government has committed in its six-year reign of terror”.
There appears to be no shortage of candidates willing to shield Duterte from prosecution. The leading Presidential candidate Ferdinand (Bongbong) Marcos Jr, son of deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos, has indicated “that should he be elected as president, he will not assist the investigation of the ICC in the Philippines”. The leading candidate for vice-president is Sara Duterte, the daughter of the current President, who is also certain to try to shield her father from prosecution.
The Philippine Election 2022 International Observer Mission will have teams on the ground in all 12 regions throughout the campaign and post-campaign, gathering evidence, taking testimony from participants in the process and issue reports throughout the election period. The final report of the Election International Observer Mission will be submitted to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, member states of the Human Rights Council, the UN Human Rights Commission and the International Criminal Court.
Media inquires can be sent to:
Peter Murphy, Chairperson, ICHRP Global Council +61 418 312 301 chairperson@ichrp.net
