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‘Talk about political prisoners, too’

ICHRP Secretariat
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‘Talk about political prisoners, too’

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After releasing a powerful joint statement expressing alarm over the human rights situation in the Philippines, a letter came the way of 39 nations encouraging them to call for the freedom of some 430 political prisoners in the country.

“I enjoin these States to call for the immediate release of Bishop Carlo Morales and all political prisoners in the Philippines,” said Maria Teofilina Morales, wife of the Ozamiz diocesan bishop of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente, in an open letter that welcomed the united stance.

The 39 states, including Australia, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom, “remain concerned about the thousands of killings and climate of impunity associated with the war on drugs, and note recent stated commitments to observe due process in investigating these crimes.”

The statement, which also encouraged “safe spaces” for human rights defenders, among others, was read by Iceland on Sept. 28 at the 36th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. Morales was also in the city as a member of the Philippine UPR Watch delegation to the Universal Periodic Review.

In her letter, Morales said her husband has been detained since May 11, with National Democratic Front peace consultant Rommel Salinas. She said her husband was an advocate of the peace process and environmental justice.

Hitting the government’s denial of impunity in the country, she said: “The persecution of church leaders and their members advocating for just and lasting peace and the attacks against human rights defenders through the practice of filing trumped up charges by state security forces in the Philippines are among the visible signs of impunity.”

She also called on the 39 states to discontinue assistance going to the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the parties involved in issues of extrajudicial killings and militarization.

We publish the full letter below:

An Open Letter to the 39 Member States of the UN Human Rights Council* on the Immediate Release of Bishop Carlo Morales and all political prisoners in the Philippines

I am Maria Teofilina Morales, wife of The Rt. Revd. Carlo Morales, Bishop of the Diocese of Ozamis of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI), a member church of the World Council of Churches. I was with the Philippine UPR Watch, a delegation of victims of human rights violations, ecumenical leaders and human rights defenders, that participated in the recently concluded Universal Periodic Review on the Philippines in Geneva, Switzerland.

My husband has been in prison since May 11, 2017 on trumped up charges lodged by the state security forces to justify his illegal arrest and detention. I was arrested with him on that day, along with Isadome Dalid, IFI Diocesan driver and Mr. Rommel Salinas, peace consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). We were denied counsel during the first few hours of our detention. I and Mr. Dalid were freed a day after. Our daughters are gravely affected by this incident. They hope that they will be reunited with their father at the soonest time.

At present, there are 430 political prisoners in the country. There were also 848 cases of illegal arrests under the government of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. During the start of his term, President Duterte promised to release political prisoners, but majority of them are still languishing in jail and their numbers are increasing.

Bishop Carlo is a known peace advocate especially in Mindanao (the Southern part of the Philippines) and has been active in the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform, a network of church leaders in our country advocating for the peace negotiations between the government and the NDFP. He is also a strong advocate for a safe and healthy environment, in particular in the defense of indigenous communities against mining and other projects that endanger the lives of the indigenous peoples and national minorities. His continued detention is a form of harassment and is meant to deter other human rights defenders in continuing their work.

On behalf of the victims and relatives of human rights violations, I welcome the statement of the 39 Member States of the UN HRC expressing concerns on extrajudicial killings and attacks against human rights defenders in the Philippines. I enjoin these States to call for the immediate release of Bp. Carlo Morales and all political prisoners in the Philippines. The persecution of church leaders and their members advocating for just and lasting peace and the attacks against human rights defenders through the practice of filing trumped up charges by state security forces in the Philippines are among the visible signs of impunity. I appeal to the 39 States to halt on all foreign aid and assistance to the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines, lest these be used to further violate the people’s rights of my fellow Filipinos. #

*The 39 Member States of the UN HRC recently released a Joint Statement on the Philippines. These States are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Rumania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, UK, Ukraine and United States.

Revoke PH membership at UN rights council – Philippine UPR Watch

ICHRP Secretariat
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Revoke PH membership at UN rights council – Philippine UPR Watch

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Press Release | September 30, 2017

Amid the Philippine government’s continued denial of the existence of extrajudicial killings and the culture of impunity in the Philippines before United Nations processes, the Philippine UPR Watch, a delegation of victims of rights violations, ecumenical leaders, and human rights defenders who participated in the UN sessions in Geneva, Switzerland, called for the removal of the Philippines as a member of the UN Human Rights Council.

“Throughout the three cycles of the Universal Periodic Review, and most especially during the Duterte regime’s participation in the process, the Philippines has exhibited a total mockery of international human rights mechanisms,  with the government’s blatant distortion of facts on extrajudicial killings and human rights violations in the country, its record of using the UN as a platform to justify its crimes against the Filipino people, and its doubletalk on compliance to human rights instruments. We call on the UN to revoke the membership of Philippines at the UN HRC, especially as it continues its hardheaded position against any UN investigation on the killings,” said Philippine UPR Watch.

The group said the recent statements of presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella and Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano are no different from the Philippine government’s statements during the past two UPRs during the Macapagal-Arroyo and Aquino III regimes. “Through similar lines and sound bites, they have all painted a rosy picture of the human rights situation in the Philippines, while on the ground, the situation is getting worse for communities, with the drug war, the martial law in Mindanao and the continuing implementation of counter-insurgency programs,” they added.

Philippine UPR Watch also welcomed the statement of the thirty-nine states led by Iceland, that expressed concerns on the extrajudicial killings in relation to the drug war and rights violations against human rights defenders, indigenous peoples and journalists.

“The statement disproves the so-called win of the Philippine government at the UNHRC. We call on these States to withdraw their financial support, if any, for the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and other programs that abet the human rights violations and the Filipino people, lest the peoples’ money from these countries will be used to further worsen the current situation,” the group emphasized.

Philippine UPR Watch reiterated its call to the international community to keep watch on the worsening climate of impunity in the Philippines and to provide support for the Filipino people’s campaign against Duterte’s tyrannical acts.#

 

References (Heads of Delegation):
Atty. Ephraim Cortez, secretary general, National Union of Peoples Lawyers, +639175465798
Jigs Clamor, deputy secretary general, Karapatan, +63999772123

Filipino rights activists meet Belgian parliamentarians after PH UPR session at UN

ICHRP Secretariat
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Filipino rights activists meet Belgian parliamentarians after PH UPR session at UN

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Press Release | October 1, 2017

Speaking before the members of the Brussels parliament, human rights organizations under Philippine UPR Watch presented the worsening human rights situation in the Philippines as a result of government’s intensified counter-insurgency operation. The group highlighted the ongoing aerial bombardments of the Philippine army in Batangas Province which reportedly resulted to the killing of a minor and forcible evacuations of hundreds of families.

“As we speak before you, human rights violations continue to occur in the Philippines. In Batangas, a few kilometers away from the nation’s capital, hundreds of families were reportedly displaced while a minor died due to the ongoing aerial bombardments of the military,” said National Union of People’s Lawyers secretary general Atty. Ephraim Cortez, who also co-heads the delegation of Philippine UPR Watch that recently attended the 36th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.

In the said meeting with the Belgian parliamentarians last September 28 in Brussels, Cortez said that “the aerial bombings are being conducted by combined elements of the 202nd Infantry Brigade under the 2nd Infantry Division and 730th Combat Group of Philippine Air Force after an alleged encounter with New People’s Army last September 24. According to initial reports, some 50 families evacuated from Brgy. Cumba and 87 other families from Brgy.Talahib Pandayan. Human rights groups are also barred from giving humanitarian assistance to the evacuees.”

“We are very much alarmed over the incidents of aerial bombings in the country. Apparently, the government is hell-bent on using aerial strikes as part of its counter-insurgency operations in the peasant and minority communities across the country. We’ve seen this kind of scenario during the Marawi crisis, and it is undeniable that the civilians, especially women and children, are the most affected,” stressed Cortez adding that military airstrikes also took place in Magpet, North Cotabato last September 20.

Eule Rico Bonganay, secretary general of Salinlahi Alliance for Children’s Concerns and a member of the Philippine UPR Watch delegation also emphasized the impact of airstrikes and military operations on the education of children. “At least 15 schools are affected by the ongoing aerial strikes in Batangas City while Lumad students and teachers of Fr. Tentorio Memorial School have also evacuated after the reported bombing incident in Magpet, North Cotabato. Cases of military attacks on schools have increased after President Duterte threatened to bomb lumad schools in Mindanao last July 2017,” said Bonganay.

The delegation also took the opportunity to bring up other human rights concerns including the cases of drug-related killings as well as the systematic attacks against human rights defenders in the country.

At the end of the meeting, members of the Brussels parliament expressed their support and would explore possibilities of filing a parliamentary resolution to bring to the attention of their colleagues the plight of the Filipino people. #

References:

Atty. Ephraim Cortez, secretary general, National Union of Peoples Lawyers ,+639175465798

Eule Rico Bonganay, secretary general, Salinlahi

Statement of ICHRP-Pacific Northwest, USA

ICHRP Secretariat
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45 years after Ferdinand Marcos implemented Martial Law in the Philippines and enforced a policy of cruelty against the Filipino nation, President Rodrigo Duterte has declared Martial Law over Mindanao and threatened to enact Martial law over the whole country. In the strongest terms, U.S. based members of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines condemn the U.S.-Duterte’s regime’s declaration of Martial law, the aggressive militarization of the whole country, and the regime’s increasingly horrific human rights record.

Amidst the campaigns of human rights defenders, lawyers, farmers and church people for just and lasting peace in the Philippines, Duterte quickly stifled peace talks with the National Democratic Front, revealing the true intentions of the regime in its three wars — the war on drugs, the war against the Moro, and the war against the National Democratic Front —  all of which ultimately become a war against the basic rights of the Filipino to land and life. An estimated 13,000 have been killed in the drug war, and as of June 30, 2017 Karapatan documented 68 victims of political killings and 842 victims of illegal arrests, nationwide. At least 416,005 individuals were displaced and 357,569 were subjected to indiscriminate gunfire and aerial bombardment.

The actions of the Duterte regime are clear. When the people launched the campaign for Kapayapaan, for just and lasting peace, the U.S.-Duterte regime launched their own campaign, “Oplan Kapayapaan,” a war against the people–a military plan based off U.S. counter insurgency programs that mimics Oplan Bayanihan and Oplan Bantay Laya–wars of his predecessors–well known for human rights violations and forced disappearances.

Duterte’s continuation of war against the people and reconstitution of Martial Law 45 years after it was first declared is evidence that the people’s movement has the tyranny of the U.S.-Philippine State on its heels. The burgeoning people’s movement in the Philippines is demonstrating not only its strength but the relentless will of the people to claim their civil, political, social, economic, and cultural rights.

Resistance is the right of the Filipino people. Solidarity is our duty.

As the Pacific Northwest chapter of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines, we call for the immediate lifting of Martial law and express our deepest solidarity with the Filipino people’s movement for self-determination. In place of the continuing state violence against the people, we call for the continuation of the peace talks, and particularly the discussion and implementation of the Comprehensive Agreements on Social and Economic Reforms, which holds at its core the sovereignty of the Filipino people to assert their rights, particularly the national minorities, the Moro, the women and children who bear the brunt of human rights abuses under Martial Law.

Lift Martial Law! Continue the Peace Talks! End Tyranny!

Reference: Drew Elizarde-Miller, ICHRP-PNW, dcsmiller@gmail.com

 

*The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines is a global network of organizations outside the Philippines, concerned about the human rights situation in the Philippines and committed to campaign for just and lasting peace in the country. It aims to inform the international community about the grave human rights situation in the Philippines today. Beyond information dissemination, it calls on freedom loving peoples, organizations, political parties and governments all over the world to express their concern about the still deteriorating human rights situation in the Philippines and to help the tens of thousands of victims in their quest for justice.

Philippine UPR Delegation to hold protest rally at the UN vs. Duterte’s tyrannical rule

ICHRP Secretariat
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Philippine UPR Delegation to hold protest rally at the UN vs. Duterte’s tyrannical rule

Press Release (21 September 2017)

The 13-person delegation of the Philippine Universal Periodic Review Watch will hold a protest rally at the United Nations today as a show of support to the protest rally in Metro Manila against rising tyranny in the Philippines and to seek the support of UN member states and non-government organizations who are participating in the final session for the 2017 UN Universal Periodic Review ( UPR ) of Human Rights in the Philippines.

The protest rally at the famous Broken Chair near Palais de Nations, the venue for the 36th Session, will be participated in by different Filipino organizations who are presenting a case to the UN against the rising death toll under the Duterte administration due to his war on drugs, implementation of the US global “war on terror”, extra-judicial killing and the declaration of Martial Law in Mindanao.

The rally was planned to be conducted simultaneously with the rally in Metro Manila led by the Movement Against Tyranny which calls for a stop to the return of dictatorship in the Philippines and oppose all steps being done by the Duterte administration allies such as the impeachment process being prepared against Supreme Court Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno, the continued harassment of human rights defenders and activists.

“We appeal to the world leaders who are meeting today not to support the Duterte administration’s attack on the Filipino people and to hold his administration responsible for the hundreds of death due both to his anti-illegal drugs campaign called ‘Operation Tokhang” and politically-motivated killings under Oplan Kapayapaan,” said Roneo Clamor, spokesperson and co-head of delegation of the Philippine UPR Watch.

Delegates from the peasant sector, Lumad and Moro people will give testimonies on the impact of Duterte’s declaration of Martial Law in Mindanao and the use of military airstrikes that has caused the massive loss of lives and properties in Marawi.

The Philippine UPR Watch is composed of the 13-member delegation of rights defenders and sectoral representatives from peoples’ organizations, churches and institutions, some of whom have also been recently subjected to rights violations. They are as follows: Atty. Ephraim Cortez, National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (co-head of the delegation), Roneo S. Clamor, KARAPATAN (co-head of the delegation); members:  Eufemia Cullamat, Amirah Lidasan, Sandugo, Sharon Cabusao, Gabriela, Mary Joan Guan, Center for Women’s Resources (CWR), Eule Bonganay, Childrens’ Rehabilitation Center (CRC), Johanna Dela Cruz, National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), Maria Teofelina Morales, wife of Bishop Carlo Morales and from NCCP, Beverly Longid, IPMSDL-RMP, Antonio Flores, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), Bro. Ciriaco Santiago, Angie Gonzales and  Doris Wilson of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP).#

 

References (Heads of Delegation):

Atty. Ephraim Cortez, secretary general, National Union of Peoples Lawyers, (+63) 9175465798

Roneo Clamor, deputy secretary general, Karapatan, (+63) 9997721233

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