Extra judicial and political killings still major problem in Philippines

Malacanang Palace and the military were in denial mode on extra-judicial and political killings linked to counter –insurgency campaign against the left. The Arroyo has done concrete to stop killings of suspected enemies of the state. Poverty and social injustice are the root causes of insurgency. Massive corruption in the bureaucracy may have direct effect on rising poverty nationwide. As usual, Gloria Arroyo is in denial mode on corruption under her watch.

United Nations Special Rapporteur Philip Alston has blamed the Philippine government's counter-insurgency strategy against leftist rebels

United Nations Special Rapporteur Philip Alston has blamed the Philippine government's counter-insurgency strategy against leftist rebels as the reason for a large number of extra judicial killings to have taken place in the country. The killings of leftist activists have drastically increased in the last six years in the Philippines.

Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo called on Filipinos in Europe to put pressure on President Arroyo to stop the gross human rights violations in the Philippines

U.S. solons to Arroyo: Stop Extra-judicial Killings

Oberstar Raises Human Rights Concerns
Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Washington, DC - Forty-nine members of the U.S. Congress are speaking out about human rights abuses in the Philippines. Today, Congressman James L. Oberstar (MN) and Congressman Joe Pitts (PA) sent a bipartisan letter to Philippine President Gloria Macapagel Arroyo to express concern with current human rights violations taking place in that country.

Human rights groups have documented more than 800 cases of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines since 2001. The victims include religious workers, labor leaders, farmers, journalists and students. Just this year, it is estimated that pre-election violence claimed at least 110 victims before the country’s May 14th mid-term congressional elections.

The letter encourages the Arroyo government to take strong action to deter political violence and to investigate and prosecute those responsible for human rights crimes, which include extrajudicial killings and politically-motivated abductions and torture.

"Earlier this year, constituents brought to my attention their concerns with the inhumane killings in the Philippines." said Oberstar. "I hope this letter is an encouragement to President Arroyo to move forward to improve human rights in the Philippines and to bring to justice those who are responsible for these killings."

"I commend the Philippines Supreme Court for holding a summit to address the issue of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines," Pitts said. "This is an important development and I look forward to the implementation of plans discussed during the summit. However, the government must urgently address and resolve existing cases of disappearances and extrajudicial killings."

Malacañang’s Kill-Trillanes Plot Uncovered

AFP rogue chief General Esperon is capable of carrying-out sinister ‘Oplan Alan’. Ltsg. Trillanes victory on Monday polls is big slap to his bogus Commander-in-Chief Gloria Arroyo. God saves the Philippines!


Malacañang’s kill-Trillanes plot uncovered

Daily Tribune 05/14/2007

Supporters of Genuine Opposition (GO) senatorial candidate and Navy Lt. SG Antonio Trillanes IV have revealed an alleged Malacañang assassination plot against him that will be executed when he votes in today’s mid-term elections.

Text messages from the Trillanes camp began circu-lating last Saturday, saying the Arroyo administration has devised “Oplan (Operation Plan) Alan” for the assassination of the GO senatorial bet.

The operation plan is named after Trillanes’ deceased son.

“Trillanes’ camp uncovers Oplan Alan of the GMA (President Arroyo’s initials) administration. It is a plot to assassinate candidate Trillanes when he gets out of detention to vote on Monday and blame it on the NPA (New People’s Army). Let’s pass this message to let plotters know that we are watching them,” the text messages read.

The military yesterday assured the security of Trillanes, saying the Marine escorts of the GO senatorial

candidate would be capable of thwarting any attempt on his life when he casts his ballot in Caloocan City (Metro Manila) today.

“His security will be taken care of,” Marine spokesman Lt. Col. Ariel Caculitan said during a telephone interview, referring to Trillanes, who is detained at the Marines headquarters in Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City (Metro Manila).

Trillanes is in jail on charges of rebellion before the Makati City Regional Trial Court.

He is allegedly one of the six top core leaders of the Magdalo group of junior military officers who staged the short-lived Oakwood mutiny in July 2003.

“Definitely, he (Trillanes) will be escorted (by Marine custodians),” Caculitan said.

Trillanes and his fellow mutiny leaders are also undergoing trial in the military, through a general court martial, for violation of the Article of War 96 or conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman.

Defense Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. last Thursday said the NPA and its political wing, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), are supporting and endorsing the candidacy of Trillanes.

Caculitan said the Marine Corps has no information to support the alleged assassination plot.

“So far, we have not received any information about threats against him. We have no reports about such information,” he added.

Early this month, Trillanes said Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. had issued a directive to military commanders to ensure a 12-0 victory for Malacanang’s Team Unity senatorial candidates.

This was belied by Esperon, who challenged the Navy officer to substantiate his allegation.

National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales also yesterday linked Trillanes to the CPP-NPA).

Gonzales said they will cooperate with the Department of National Defense (DND) to pin down Trillanes on the alleged link.

He, however, added he will pursue the investigation of the alleged link after today’s polls so that the political opposition will not take advantage of it for election purposes.

“Why not (conduct the probe)? Even before, we already had information they (in the Magdalo group had) contact with the CPP-NPA,” Gonzales said.

He added they will make public their evidence against Trillanes “in due time.”

Ebdane also last Thursday said the CPP-NPA is helping Trillanes in his campaign but the Defense chief refused to comment on who initiated the “arrangement.”

“This is a specific case, based on the intelligence report we got. It is probably true (that the CPP-NPA is helping Trillanes),” he added.

Ebdane said they do want to go into details “to protect our source, this is for the security of our source.”

While denying that the DND and Armed Forces leadership are behind the “hate campaign” against Trillanes, Ebdane, however, failed to control his emotions when he made a public appeal not to vote for candidates who are only popular but have no background on governance.

When asked who are the candidates he was referring to, the Defense chief said,” Even if I am a presidential appointee, who could stop me from voting for Team Unity?”

Sherwin C. Olaes and PNA

Political Killings As State Policy

The Logic of Killers

One only needs to analyze the statements of Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon to realize that extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances are all part of state policy.

BY BENJIE OLIVEROS
Bulatlat

The issue of political killings continues to hound the Arroyo administration. And rightfully so, because gauging from the reactions of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Department of Justice (DoJ), the horrible crimes of extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances seem to be far from being solved.

UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions Philip Alston underestimated the gravity of the problem when he compared the AFP to an alcoholic who is in a state of denial. Without assistance in rehabilitation, an alcoholic feels helpless because he is addicted to drinking. Extrajudicial executions, on the other hand, are consciously and systematically being done as part of the Arroyo administration’s counterinsurgency program called Oplan Bantay Laya (Operation Guard Freedom). The only thing common in them is the denial that the problem exists. The rest of the story

Peasant Leader Killied in Davao Del Sur

It’s another casualty of war . Some elements of the security forces were allegedly responsible for extra judicial killings, disappearances, torture, and arbitrary arrest and detention. The Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Hermogenes Esperon insists that the murder of political activists is mere communist propaganda, if not self-inflicted. UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Philip Alston and Melo Commission Report blamed the military for political killings. The Arroyo government is in a state of total denial.

Militant shot dead in Davao del Sur
Victim a party-list group coordinator

A PEASANT leader and provincial coordinator of the party-list group Anakpawis was shot dead yesterday morning in Davao del Sur by two motorcycle-riding masked men.
Victim Renato Pacaide, 45, was secretary general of the Nagkakaisang Magsasaka ng Davao del Sur, a provincial chapter of the militant farmers’ group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP).
Wilfredo Marbella, KMP internal deputy secretary general, said Pacaide was shot four times with a .45 caliber pistol at around 10:45 a.m. at Rizal avenue and Lim street in Digos City.
Marbella said Pacaide died at the Davao del Sur provincial hospital.
Camp Crame reports said Pacaide was with his daughter Michelle when attacked.
Investigators recovered three shells and a round of ammunition, two slugs and a wristwatch.
The killers escaped on their black Yamaha DT motorcycle.
The human rights group Karapatan listed Pacaide as the 835th victim of extra-judicial killings since President Arroyo assumed office in 2001.
The 834th victim was student leader Farly Alcanta, who was killed last February 15 in Camarines Norte. Malaya 03/03/2007

UN blames AFP for murders; GMA gov’t in total denial

The inept corrupt Arroyo government is just doing a lip service to stop political killings and rampant human rights violations. Gloria Arroyo oversaw an unparallel series of political assassinations of journalists, lawyers, church workers, and peasant and labor leaders, militant activists. The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has a constitutional mandate as protector of the people not annihilator of the Filipino people. Some rogue elements of the military (low level soldiers) cannot act alone without orders from their superior officers. The Arroyo regime all-out war against the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People's Army may be responsible for political killings of suspected CPP-NPA supporters. The military death squads take the law into their hands without due process. Suspects of the so-called enemies of the state have the right to a fair trial in court. The military top honchos are untouchables. Military support is the key factor for the political survival of discredited Gloria Arroyo regime. Defense chief Ebdane and AFP chief of staff General Esperon are involved in massive electoral fraud in 2004 presidential election and its subsequent cover-up operations. Arroyo cannot afford to alienate the military hierarchy she depends on to stay in power.



Military must admit extrajudicial killings- UN special rapporteur
Melo Commission Report
Gov’t Readies Reply to UN Rapporteur
Melo Commission Ignored Key Policy Issues on Killings

DoJ chief: ‘Sonamagun’ Alston no RP expert

UN blames AFP for murders; GMA gov’t in total denial

Daily Tribune 02/22/2007

The United Nations, through its special rapporteur, Philip Alston, in a press conference held yesterday, placed the blame on the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for many of the political murders that have rocked the country and pressed President Arroyo to rein in the bloodshedm stressing that the AFP and the Arroyo government are in almost “total denial’.

Wrapping up an investigation into what rights groups say are more than 800 political assassinations, UN special envoy Alston said many of the killings stemmed from the military’s campaign against left-wing guerrillas.

Alston stressed that the Arroyo government was responsible for a climate of impunity but said he did not have evidence to support allegations by the nation’s leading human rights group that Mrs. Arroyo had ordered the murders.

Earlier, Alston was said to have briefed several Philippine officials, among whom was presidential legal counsel

Sergio Apostol, whom sources told the Tribune reportedly asked of Alston if he could defer making public his findings after the May elections, to which Alston reportedly replied that he was not here to engage in politics.

Alston said “the increase in extra-judicial executions in recent years is attributable, at least in part, to a shift in the military’s counter-insurgency strategy,” adding that “in some instances, such intimidation escalates into extra-judicial executions,” he said, stressing that many of the killings had been “convincingly attributed” to the military, which he said was in “almost total denial” and has refused to cooperate in conducting fair investigation on the unabated executions.

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez’s arguments against Palace critics were reduced to name calling once more yesterday as he denounced the delegation members of the UN as having allowed themselves to be misled by what the justice chief termed as ‘leftist groups’ propaganda.

Gonzalez also denounced Alston, calling him a hireling of the UN who could not even enter other countries.

“Mr. Alston is the one in denial of the atrocities of the other side... He’s been here only for one week and now he’s an expert in Philippine history,” said Gonzalez in a press briefing.

“You can tell that sonamagun that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.. In other countries, he cannot even enter ...We are very kind. We let everybody in and visit our kitchen and toilets,” he added.

Short of calling Alston an ingrate, Gonzalez said that the UN should stop interfering in the internal affairs of the Philippines.

He said Alston is just a “hired man of the UN” who came to the Philippines with “preconceived ideas” against government.

“Once somebody from that body comes here, basically he has a preconditioned mind. Whom did he first talk to? He talked to the Leftists. He allowed himself to be brainwashed first by the Leftists,” he said.

Concluding his 10-day fact-finding mission to the Philippines, particularly in Davao and Baguio, Alston used the analogy of alcoholism in describing the military’s reaction on allegations that it is behind the massive killings of militants.

“Recovering from alcoholism is to acknowledge that there is a problem. If a guy says ‘I’m not an alcoholic. I just have an occasional drink and that’s it. There’s no problem.’ That’s how I see the military these days. They occasionally make public statements, which are a little more yielding, but if you look at the systematic more legal response to the Melo commission report, which I received, it’s in denial and I think that’s the real position of the military,” Alston told the media.

He said Mrs. Arroyo needs to tell the military to respond effectively and authentically to the significant number of killings attributed to them.

He also pointed out that the President would have to tell the AFP that its reputation and effectiveness “will be considerably enhanced, rather than undermined, by acknowledging the facts and taking genuine steps to investigate.”

“When the Chief of the AFP contents himself with telephoning Maj. Gen. (Jovito) Palparan three times on order to satisfy himself that the persistent and extensive allegations against the General were entirely unfounded, rather than launching a thorough internal investigation, it is clear that there is still a very long way to go,” the UN official said.

Alston said he wants to hear a categorical statement from Mrs. Arroyo, the Defense Secretary and the military hierarchy that extra-judicial killings will not be tolerated.

He also stressed that he wanted the AFP to investigate seriously and methodically on the allegations “and not in a way that simply protects its own offices.”

Alston also underscored the importance of making public the Melo Commission Report.

“It is not for me to evaluate the Melo Report. That is for the people of the Philippines to do,” he pointed out, adding that the Melo report was never intended to be preliminary or interim.

“The need to get ‘leftists’ to testify is no reason to withhold a report which in some ways at least vindicates their claims,” he said.

“And extending a Commission whose composition has never succeeded in winning full cooperation seems unlikely to cure the problems still perceived by those groups. Immediate release of the report is an essential first step,” Alston added.

Alston also said that the focus on the military led-Task Force Usig and the Melo Commission is insufficient.

He said the bigger challenge confronting the government is how to restore the accountability mechanisms that the Philippine Constitution and Congress have put in place.

Alston said Executive Order 464 and later another gag order known as Memorandum Circular 108, which prohibits government officials from testifying in Congress, undermine the capacity of the legislative to hold the executive to account in any meaningful way.

He also noted that the country’s witness protection program is deeply flawed.

Instead of encouraging more witnesses to come forward, many of them intimidated and harassed.

“The WPP is impressive—on paper,” he said. “In practice…it is deeply flawed and would seem only to be truly effective in a very limited number of cases. 80 percent (of the cases) fail to move from the initial investigation to the actual prosecution stage,” he said.

Alston also said there is a need to provide legitimate space for leftist groups.

The AFP, he said, relies solely on figures and trends relating to the purges of the late 1980s, and on an alleged CPP-NPA document captured in May 2006 describing “Operation Bushfire”

“In the absence of much stronger supporting evidence this particular document bears all the hallmarks of a fabrication and cannot be taken as evidence of anything other than disinformation,” Alston noted.

He said the purge theory was pushed relentlessly by the AFP, which failed to distinguish the purging cases from the 1,227 extra judicial killings cited by the military from the number of cases acknowledged by the CPP-NPA.

He said while purging cases have occurred, even the most concerned about them, such as members of leftist groups, have suggested that they could not amount to even 10 percent of the total killings.

“The evidence offered by the military in support of this theory in especially unconvincing,” he said.

He also said that the term “unexplained killings” used by the government is “inept and misleading.”

Alston said it may be inappropriate in the context of a judicial process but human rights inquiries are more broad-ranging.

“One does not have to wait for a court to secure a conviction before one can conclude that human rights violations are occurring. The term ‘extra-judicial killings’ which has a long pedigree is far more accurate and should be used,” he said.

He added that there was a “problem of virtual impunity” which meant eight out of 10 cases failed to move from police investigation to prosecution.

“The present message is that if you want to preserve your life expectancy, don’t act as a witness in a criminal prosecution for killing,” he said.

The military, one of the most powerful institutions in the country, has accused rights groups of inflating the numbers of victims and said that many of those listed as dead were guerrillas killed in clashes with the armed forces.

But Alston said that, while leftist organizations were also guilty of propaganda, most of the cases they presented “proved credible under cross-examination.”

Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro, a military spokesman, said at least four soldiers were being investigated, and that one had been officially charged, but declined to comment when asked if Alston’s remarks were unfair.

Alston said his own final report would be released within three months, calling his remarks Wednesday “a general indication of some – but by no means all – of the issues to be addressed”.

The AFP yesterday maintained that many cases of unsolved killings of militant personalities were perpetrated by the New People’s Army (NPA) as part of their purging operations among their members suspected to be working with government authorities.

According to Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro, AFP public information chief said that the military leadership has cooperated fully on the investigation being conducted by the UN.

“Definitely we have documents to show, we have shown them documents that indeed – in the NPA group – there have been purging, and as a matter of fact, they have admitted before they conducted purging operations and they asked for an apology from the relatives of the victims,” Bacarro said.

“Their admission and apology can be considered as rectification because they realized later on that they were wrong in conducting the purging,” Bacarro said.

Task Forces Usig chief Supt. Geary Barias, also maintained that many of the killings were result of an internal purge within the communist rebel movement and defended Palparan, saying there was no evidence against him. Michaela P. del Callar, Ben Gines, Jr., Benjamin B. Pulta, Gina Peralta-Elorde and AFP

Publish Melo Commission Report, Protect Witnesses & Prosecute Gen. Palparan

The Filipino people have the constitutional right to information on matters of public concern. Mrs. Gloria Arroyo wants deeper investigation on alleged political killings by the military. An investigation after investigation may take 100 years before justice is attained to the victims. The Melo Commission Report is a public document and not a sole property of Gloria Arroyo. The Arroyo regime is trying to cover up the political killings and to protect the perpetrators. The regime’s all-out war against the communists may have resulted to the extra-judicial killings. It appears that the “Little President” ex-general Eduardo Ermita and his military clique cannot distinguish between legal Left and the armed partisans of the New People’s Army. The discredited Arroyo government revives the old communist bogey to gain public support and Uncle Sam’s military aid. United Nations special rapporteur Philip Alston described as "tragic" the cases of human rights violations presented to him during his visit to the Philippines.

Philippine Constitution the BILL OF RIGHTS Section 7 states: The right of the people to information on matters of public concern shall be recognized. Access to official records, and to documents and papers pertaining to official acts, transactions, or decisions, as well as to government research data used as basis for policy development, shall be afforded the citizen, subject to such limitations as may be provided by law.

February 2, 2007

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission

PHILIPPINES: Publish report, protect witnesses & prosecute Palparan

The Asian Human Rights Commission cautiously welcomes the findings of the Melo Commission that retired Major General Jovito Palparan Jr. and other military officers could be held liable for the unabated extrajudicial killings of human rights defenders, social campaigners, priests, political organisers and others in the Philippines. The final report of the commission, which was headed by former Supreme Court Justice Jose Melo, handed to the president this week, reportedly points to the complicity of military officers in the killings and suggests that Palparan and others had command responsibility for the deaths.

The inquiry's conclusion puts to rest police and military claims that the allegations against Palparan and his men are unsubstantiated. That the army is culpable for extrajudicial killings is no longer a matter of doubt: so what happens next?

The police and military predictably sprang to the defence of Palparan and his subordinates. In separate media interviews on January 30, Deputy Director General Avelino Razon and General Hermogenes Esperon Jr., chiefs of Task Force Usig and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) respectively, made remarks that there were no evidence against Palparan and he is no longer under military’s jurisdiction, since he retired in September 2006. The comments from Razon are all the more remarkable given that his task force was established to hunt for the persons responsible for killings, not defend the accused. They are also in direct contradiction to the Melo Commission, which based its findings largely upon police documents, as most complainants and witnesses refused to cooperate because of distrust and fear. The commission has admitted that its work was hampered by the lack of cooperation; notwithstanding, it was still able to obtain sufficient evidence to establish that the military could be held accountable.

The enormous threats facing witnesses and families of dead victims or those who have survived attacks are the biggest obstacles to obtaining justice and redress in cases of extrajudicial killing in the Philippines. The Asian Human Rights Commission has repeatedly drawn attention to the absence of protection for these persons as the primary reason that investigations there fail. For the police agency given the task of investigating persons alleged to have been involved in the killings to reject the findings of a presidential commission off-hand, instead of reviewing and building evidence against those identified as responsible, is completely unacceptable.

The police are duty-bound to recommend complainants and witnesses be given protection through the justice department, under the Witness Protection, Security and Benefit Act (RA 6981). If they have not done this promptly they are either negligent or ignorant. The result in either case is that it is much easier to reach the convenient conclusion that there is a "lack of evidence".

It is also ridiculous for the military to excuse itself from responsibility. The obligations of any armed forces for the actions of its personnel do not expire when someone retires from service. Esperon's acknowledgement that army personnel may have been involved in killings must be more deeply probed. Have any of the implicated persons ever been sanctioned, disarmed or punished? What action, if any, has been taken against them? These questions remain altogether unanswered.

The killings will only end when there are prosecutions. There will only be prosecutions when witnesses and victims are protected, rather than threatened and killed themselves, and the perpetrators are investigated, rather than defended. The Melo Commission has no power upon which to initiate these things itself. The responsibility instead rests on the person who ordered the inquiry: President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. She is now obliged to see that its findings are given meaning, and the responsible state agencies, notably Task Force Usig and the justice department, do their jobs and the accused, including Major General Jovito Palparan Jr., are brought before courts of justice. She must also have the report made public without delay, in order that there is complete disclosure of its findings. Withholding of the report will only deepen public distrust in her administration, and raise further doubts about the assurances of her government that it is acting in the interests of the victims and their families.

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.

Posted on 2007-02-02

Related Link:
Where is the Melo Report?

BAYAN: Evidence Showed Malacañang Sanctioned Killings

What is Operation Phoenix? Oplan Bantay Laya is patterned after Operation Phoenix in Vietnam. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative Colonel Edward Lansdale masterminded the 1950s counter-insurgency program of the Quirino government and later against the Vietcong. The CIA used death squads during the agrarian Huk rebellion in Central Luzon provinces.



Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN), a left-leaning activist group, claimed Tuesday "Cabinet-level documents" showed that Malacañang sanctioned extrajudicial killings in the country.

"The responsibility for the killings goes all the way up to Malacañang and the Cabinet Oversight Committee on Internal Security. We have seen Cabinet-level documents that show how these killings were sanctioned at the highest levels of office," BAYAN Secretary General Renato Reyes Jr. said in a press statement.

Reyes said BAYAN is set to present the evidence to international bodies Permanent People's Tribunal and the United Nations Special Rapporteurs, which is scheduled to visit the country this year.

Reyes said the documents detail a "step-by-step matrix" on how to "neutralize" legal organizations. He added that the document was presented to the Arroyo Cabinet.

The group, meanwhile, challenged Malacañang to abide by the Melo Commission's recommendation to pursue charges against retired Major General Jovito Palparan and other military field commanders for their involvement in the killings.

"If the Melo Commission report is to be believed, cases must be filed otherwise the Melo report will not really amount to much. It’s like telling us what we already know. We thus dare Raul Gonzalez and the Department of Justice to file the necessary cases against Palparan. This is the logical next step," Reyes said.

He also said President Arroyo, as commander-in-chief, should "take responsibility for the killings."

Karapatan, a left-leaning human rights group, said more than 700 leftist activists, farmers, community organizers and journalists have been killed since Mrs. Arroyo came to power in 2001.

On Saturday, Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos, member of the Melo Commission, said the body found out that aside from some members of the military, leftist groups and private armies of politicians were involved in a rash of politically-motivated killings in the country.

"There are different results in the killings. We have identified that there are killings really perpetuated by the military," Pueblos said. "There are other killings by politicians and the military, politicians and their goons and killings as part of a [family] vendetta."

"There are also some killings perpetrated by the leftists," he said, referring to the communist New People's Army and its front groups.

"The thing that is bad in the country is that vigilante killings are tolerated," he said, referring to extrajudicial murders. ABS-CBN News

Related Links:
Melo Panel Tags Palparan In Slays
Palparan: Killings Not Part Of Our Operations
Focus on the Extrajudicial Killings in RP:
Operation Phoenix's Long Shadow
Stop the Killings

The Philippines: 2006 Worst Year For Human Rights

The Arroyo regime wants to insurgency by the year 2010. Psychological warfare, combat and target killing formula ended up with more deaths in the countryside and urban areas. Internal Security Operations (ISO) Oplan Bantay Laya and its death squads are responsible for the political killings. More than 800 activists, journalists, lawyers, farmers, workers and religious workers had been summary executed for their anti-Arroyo stand. The Arroyo government is just doing a lip service to stop political killings after international pressures.


2006 worst year for RP human rights

Daily Tribune 12/30/2006

Another record-high has been notched by President Arroyo and her administration, in line with political murders in the Philippines reaching their highest level in 2006 since the toppling of former President Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, human activists were quoted by Agence France Presse as saying.

Mrs. Arroyo’s poor record on political murders and human rights abuses have topped the numbers racked up by Marcos, Aquino, Ramos and Estrada years combined.

More than 180 activists —including journalists, human rights workers, left-wing politicians, trade unionists, judges and lawyers — were assassinated this year for their criticism of those in power, they say.

“An average of three extra-judicial killings are occurring every week in the country,” a Canadian human rights team concluded recently after a fact-finding mission to the Southeast Asian nation.

“A clear pattern of state-perpetrated politically motivated extra-judicial killings” was occurring in the country, the team said.

The Canadian team’s report has been dismissed by the Arroyo government as propaganda to serve the country’s communist insurgents who have been fighting a Maoist war for four decades in their bid to seize power.

But local human rights group Karapatan says it has recorded 185 such killings in 2006, the highest number since the regime of Marcos, renowed for his suppression of critics and ousted in 1986.

The sheer number has alarmed the European Union, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Roman Catholic Church, all of which have called on Mrs. Arroyo to take action to stop the bloodshed.

Archbishop Antonio Ledesma, vice-president of the Catholic Bishops Conference in this largely Roman Catholic country, said action must be taken irrespective of who was behind them.

“In the past, there were allegations of killings from the left and the right but regardless of which end of the political spectrum is responsible, public authorities should be even-handed in trying to resolve them,” he told AFP.

Opposition congressman Roilo Golez warned the “murderous year” was undermining democracy, in a nation with a history of coups and dictatorships.

The most high-profile murder came Dec. 16 when Rep. Luis Bersamin, an ally of the President representing the northern province of Abra, was shot dead along with his security aide outside a church in a Manila suburb after the completion of the wedding rites of a niece where he stood as a wedding sponsor.

Police say they have a witness who has linked Abra Gov. Vicente Valera to the killing. Valera has denied responsibility, saying he and Bersamin were longtime allies.

While the family of the slain Bersamin tags Valera as the mastermind of the murder of the congressman, along with a suspect who, in an affidavit, linked Valera to the murder, the Philippine National Police said the testimony was hearsay and that the police have no strong evidence to charge Valera at this time even as he remains a suspect.

Earlier senior government lawyer Nestor Ballacillo was shot dead along with his son also in a Manila suburb. Police said they had arrested a suspect.

In response to the bloodshed, Mrs. Arroyo has ordered an increase in the visibility of police and for officers to work closer with communities.

She has also set up a special commission to determine who are behind the slayings which has yet to report its findings.

The Melo Commission, a fact-finding body created by Mrs. Arroyo said it would be finished with its task by end December and submit its report to the President. But this early, several commissioners have said that the report would be based mainly on police and military accounts, which would then blame the leftists for these murders.

The Melo Commission, from the start, suffered credibility problems, as the body’s composition has as majority members, officials from the Justice Department, who are known to kowtow to Mrs. Arroyo’s directives.

The President, despite many calls for her to order her police and military to stop the killings by foreign governments and international church leaders, along with international press groups, has not done so, preferring instead to direct her attacks at the leftists groups and her other critics, saying it is the communists who have been behind all these political murders to destabilize her government.

Military and police officials have blamed at least some of the deaths on an internal purge or factional fighting within the 7,100-strong Communist Party’s New People’s Army.

The military, whose officers have also been accused of some of the killings, claim the overall numbers are bloated.

For its part, the New People’s Army has admitted carrying out purges in the past but has largely denied it is behind the latest spate of political murders.

Several international press organizations have also called on Mrs. Arroyo to put a stop to the killings, but these calls have largely been unheeded by Malacañang. They also scored the Arroyo government for suppressing press freedom in the country through the filing of numerous libel suits by the presidential spouse, Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo against several journalists, including publishers, editors, reporters and columnists deemed critical of the government and of his alleged power and influence over government affairs.

The Freedom House based in the US has also scored the Philippines under Mrs. Arroyo for the loss of press freedom, pulling the country’s ranking from an earlier “free” to half-free” state.

Last February, Mrs. Arroyo issued Proclamation 1017, imposing a country-wide national emergency rule, where rallies were banned and demonstrators quickly dispersed, with their leaders arrested without warrants.

A newspaper, the Daily Tribune, was raided at midnight by police operatives and illegally searched and seized several documents, without a warrant. The police padlocked the printing press and offices while surrounding the Tribune offices for days.

Then Police chief Gen. Arturo Lomibao announced in a televised press conference that he and his police force would be taking over the editorial aspect of the paper.

The Tribune, along with others went to the high court to question the constitutionality of the emergency rule. This proclamation was struck down by the high court.

During a visit to Finland where European leaders were gathered for a summit, Mrs. Arroyo was also scored by these leaders on the deteriorating human rights situation in the country. In reply, Mrs. Arroyo said she had formed the Melo Commission to look into these murders, but ended up blaming the leftists and the communists, as her police and military do.

But blaming the communists and establishing a commission have failed to ease fears among many Filipinos about their own safety. With AFP


International Reactions Fail to Stop Killings and Disappearances
Stop Political Killings
Philippines: The Killing Fields of Asia

Mrs. Gloria Arroyo will be tried at the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal

The highlights of the complaint filed against bogus President Gloria Arroyo by Bagong Alyansang Makabayan and others at the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal, Hague, Netherlands. The formal trial starts March 2007.


1. Transgressions against the Filipino people's economic and political sovereignty and economic, social and cultural rights, including the exploitative imposition of "free market" globalization, economic plunder and destruction of the environment;

2. US military intervention and violations of the rights of the people to national self-determination and liberation through the imposition of the US war of terror, perpetuation of crimes against humanity, and misrepresentation of the people's right to national liberation and self-determination as "terrorism" and

3. Violations of human rights, especially civil and political rights, including summary executions, disappearances, massacres, torture as well as other vicious, brutal and systematic abuses and attacks on the basic democratic rights of the people.

Since Gloria Arroyo and her cohorts grabbed power in January 2001 coup, about 700 Filipinos have been murdered, extra-judicial killings and alleged targeted killings by state-sanctioned death squads. The victims of these brazen acts of violence were all unarmed citizens: lawyers, judges, journalists, and medical practitioners, members of cause-oriented groups, priests, church-workers, human rights advocates, laborers and farmers. WHY? Gloria Arroyo wants to permanently silence critics and dissenters of her corrupt and illegitimate regime for political survival.




Arroyo to be ‘tried’ before ‘int’l tribunal’


Full Circle: The Philippines and the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal
After Afghanistan and the former Yugoslavia, the Philippines will only be the third country in history to be the subject of a session twice by the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT). In 1980, the PPT convened a Session on the Philippines and found the Marcos dictatorship guilty of crimes against humanity after a trial. In March next year, the PPT will be hearing a case filed against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the U.S. government, and multi-national agencies “acting as their accomplices in violating the individual and collective rights of the Filipino people.”
BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat

After Afghanistan and the former Yugoslavia, the Philippines will only be the third country in history to be the subject of a session twice by the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT).
In the website of the PPT’s Second Session on the Philippines, the PPT is described as follows:
The Permanent Peoples' Tribunal is an international opinion tribunal, independent from any State authority. It examines and judges complaints regarding violations of human rights and rights of peoples that are submitted by the victims themselves or groups representing them. The Tribunal was founded in June 1979 in Italy by law experts, writers and other intellectuals. It succeeded the Russell Tribunals I and II or the International War Crimes Tribunal, which held two sessions in 1967 to expose the war crimes committed against the Vietnamese people.
The PPT is an organ of the Lelio Basso International Foundation for the Rights and Liberation of Peoples (FILB). Established in 1976 through the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Peoples at Algiers (also known as the Algiers Declaration), the FILB conducts historical and juridical studies based on what it calls the “Law for the Rights of Peoples.”
“The purpose is to contribute to the elaboration of principles to regulate a new order of relations which aim to promote peace, in that they are no longer based on hegemony but on interdependence,” reads an item on the FILB’s old website.
“The themes broached by the Foundation in these past years are interconnected and cut across the world crisis: democracy and market; environment and development model; relationship between development models and peoples' cultures; minorities and nation-State,” the website item further reads. “The South of the world is the main field for research, in that there more than anywhere else people are deprived of the fundamental rights due to every human being.”
The FILB was set up in 1976 by Lelio Basso, an Italian anti-Fascist activist, philosopher, lawyer, journalist and statesman. Basso sat in the Russell Tribunal, presided upon by internationally-respected British philosopher and human rights advocate Bertrand Russell to judge the crimes committed by the U.S. government in its war against Vietnam. In 1973, he worked to establish a second Russell Tribunal to examine the repression by U.S. sponsored regimes in Latin America. The PPT was established in 1979, a year after his death.
Salvatore Senese, an Italian legislator, is president of the PPT. Italian physician Gianni Tognoni is the PPT’s general secretary.
For its sessions, the PPT selects Member Jurors who are particularly noted for their moral and intellectual stature. It has held 34 sessions from 1979 to 2006.
In 1980, the PPT convened a Session on the Philippines to hear the case filed by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) against then President Ferdinand Marcos, the U.S. government, and U.S.-controlled financial institutions, multi-national corporations and commercial banks. The Marcos dictatorship, which was supported by the U.S. government, was specifically charged with violation of human rights and peoples rights, and crimes under international law.
After a trial, the PPT delivered a “Guilty” verdict on Marcos and his government – in effect becoming the first international body to condemn the Marcos dictatorship. It also recognized the NDFP and the MNLF as the “legitimate representatives” of the Filipino and Moro peoples, respectively.
The Member Jurors of the PPT First Session on the Philippines were: Sergio Mendes Arceo, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Guernavaca, Mexico; Richard Baumlin, Swiss legal scholar and parliamentarian; Harvey Cox, professor of theology at Harvard University and author of the book Secular City; Richard Falk, professor of international law at Princeton University and noted environmentalist; Andrea Giardina, professor of international law at the University of Naples; Francois Houtart, professor of sociology at the University of Louvain; Ajit Roy, Indian writer; Makoto Oda; Ernst Utrecht, professor at Sidney University and a fellow of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam; George Wald, Nobel Prize winner and president of the First Session on the Philippines; Muireann O’ Brian, Irish lawyer; and Gianni Tognoni, coordinator of the First Session on the Philippines.
Convening in The Hague this Oct. 30 is the PPT’s Second Session on the Philippines. In March next year, the PPT will be hearing a case filed against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the U.S. government, and multi-national agencies “acting as their accomplices in violating the individual and collective rights of the Filipino people.”
Filing the indictment on behalf of the Filipino people are: Hustisya (Justice), an organization of human rights victims under the Arroyo administration and their relatives; Desaparecidos, a group of relatives of victims of enforced disappearances; Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainee Laban sa Detensyon at para sa Amnestiya (SELDA or Society of Ex-Detainees Against Detention and for Amnesty); and the multi-sectoral Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance).
The indictment places the highest priority on what the plaintiffs describe as the violations of civil and political rights.
The indictment, in summary, focuses on the following:
Violations of human rights, especially civil and political rights, with particular focus on summary executions, disappearances, massacres, torture as well as other vicious, brutal and systematic abuses and attacks on the basic democratic rights of the people.
Violations of human rights, especially economic, social and cultural rights of the Filipino people through the imposition of “free market” globalization to exploit them; transgression of their economic sovereignty and national patrimony; various forms of economic plunder and attacks on their economic rights; and the destruction of the environment.
Violations of the rights of the people to national self-determination and liberation through the imposition of the U.S. war of terror; U.S. military intervention; as well as the perpetration of crimes against humanity and war crimes; misrepresentations of the people's right to national liberation and self-determination as terrorism and the baseless “terrorist” listing of individuals, organizations and other entities by the U.S. and other governments.
Tognoni will be presiding during the Second Session on the Philippines. Bulatlat

© 2006 Bulatlat ¦ Alipato Media Center
Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.

Melo Commision: Whitewash?

The creation of independent investigation body Melo Commission is another Moro-Moro stage by Malacanang Palace. I doubt its independence and fairness due to the presence of two commissionaires from the justice department. They report directly to discredited Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez. It was created to simply show the international community that Arroyo regime was doing something about these abuses and killings, while getting the commission to clear her police and military generals from charges of violations of human rights. The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) hinted that the fact finding body Melo Commission is a useless body since the witnesses often feared for their lives while the military made little effort to help with investigations. The new Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff General Esperon practically cleared retired Army major general Palparan for alleged human right abuses and extra-judicial killings in Central Luzon provinces and Mindoro Island. Military and police authorities investigating political killings already concluded that the communists are perpetrators of the murders without solid proof. Mrs. Gloria Arroyo is held hostage by military and police generals after the aborted February 25, 2006 coup. The discredited Arroyo presidency cannot condemn General Esperon led “military junta” for human right abuses and political killings. She owed the military and police support for political survival. Majority of Filipinos want her to be ousted from power.


US rights watchdog to Gloria Arroyo:
Match rhetoric with action
Link