Resolution urging the European Union and the European Parliament to stop economic and military aid to the Aquino government, and withdrawal of the €10-miilion aid under the EU-Philippine Justice Support Programme
WHEREAS, the Aquino government has been unjustly enjoying aid from the European Union that comes from taxpayers’ money; specifically, the Aquino government has been receiving EU money supposedly for it to comply with human rights conventions and international humanitarian laws, stop extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, illegal arrests, impunity and punishment of perpetrators of human rights abuses;
WHEREAS, the human rights record of the Aquino regime has been worsening since it took power in 2010; according to Karapatan, from July 20120 to April 2013, are142 victims of extrajudicial killings,164 cases of frustrated extrajudicial killings, and 62 victims of enforced disappearances, among the worst cases of human rights abuses;
WHEREAS, under the Aquino government, among the victims of extrajudicial killings include two European citizens, namely Dutch missionary Willem Geertman of the Netherlands who was killed in Pampanga province, and Italian Catholic priest Fr. Fausto Tentorio in Mindanao; their killings remain unresolved and unprosecuted, despite clear evidence of military complicity; both were killed because they were fulfilling the tenets of the European Convention on Political, Economic and Social Rights by being advocates of the people’s rights;
WHEREAS, impunity in the violations of human rights in the Philippines continues because the unjust and selfish interests of European big businesses and their equally greedy and corrupt Filipino collaborators in business and politics, that have resulted in unfair competition, corruption, environmental destruction, displacement of communities, maldevelopment, people’s resistance and state repression, are placed above the aspirations of the Filipino people for genuine democracy, social justice, development and peace;
BE IT RESOLVED THAT, the International Conference on Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines, and the newly-formed International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines, strongly urge the European Union and the European Parliament to stop economic and military aid to the Aquino government, specifically the withdrawal of the 10 million euro aid under the EU-Philippine Justice Support Programme.
Quezon City, Philippine
21 July 2013
Sponsored by:
Nederlands-Filippijns Solidariteitsbeweging (NFS)
The Family of Willem Geertman
Rice and Rights Network-Netherlands
Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines-Rome, Italy
