London, June 2010

UK Filipinos mobilized inside one of Britain’s largest and most powerful trade unions last week, succeeding in getting its support for trade union rights in the Philippines and hosting a packed fringe meeting.

At the UNISON conference in Bournemouth held from June 14 – 18, Filipino workers for the first time addressed the more than 2,000 delegates, condemning the appalling human rights abuses suffered by workers in the Philippines and urging delegates to sign Motion 101.

Meanwhile, at the fringe meeting, ‘Violation of Trade Union Rights in the Philippines’, jointly hosted by Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines (CHRP), Amnesty International UK and UNISON, speakers informed delegates of the human rights situation in the Philippines and its links with migration and economic issues, also pressing delegates to sign the later passed motion calling on the UNISON National Executive Council (NEC) to seek greater linkages between UNISON and trade union movements in the Philippines, as well as working with the Filipino diaspora  in combating trade and human rights violations in the country, pressuring the UK government to take a stronger line with the Philippines government and raising awareness of the situation in the Philippines.

In the main conference hall, Filipina Josefina Paez, from Wolverhampton, highlighted the case of Edward Panganiban. She told delegates that:

“Filipino workers in the Philippines, like British workers, want to improve their pay and working conditions so they can provide better education, a better future and a decent standard of living for their families.

“As a migrant worker, these are also my aspirations. As a union activist in the UK, I can pursue these aspirations with the support of my union, UNISON and with the help of fellow trade unionists, without fear of being killed or harm coming to my family.”

Dong Dumilag, a Filipino living in Cardiff, Wales, spoke to delegates about the case of the ‘Morong 43’, pointing out to the conference that the case was taken by friends and relatives to the United Nations’ Human Rights Council in Geneva during the preceding week.

He said: “We want to campaign for the new government to stop impunity in the Philippines, prosecute those responsible for the murder and disappearances of workers, and to implement a sustainable economic programme so that Filipino workers are not forced to leave their country to earn a decent living.”

At the fringe meeting, a panel chaired by Amnesty International Trade Union Campaign Manager Shane Enright, joined by guest speaker Dan Borjal, Kevin O’Grady of the UNISON NEC International Committee, Jam Fagta of Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines and Amnesty International Secretariat Southeast Asia Researcher Hazel Galang spoke to a packed room of delegates before engaging in a lively question and answer session.

Mr Borjal, who flew in from Holland to address the fringe meeting, urged delegates to condemn the culture of impunity that surrounds extra-judicial killings in the Philippines, highlighting the job scarcity, privatization and union busting techniques – including assassination – that pervade the country. Delegates were also reminded of the massacre of more than 50 people in Maguindanao in November last year and given an overview of the current political and economic situation in the Philippines.

Both speeches and the fringe meeting had a strong impact on delegates, with the union unanimously adopting a resolution supporting a campaign against impunity in the Philippines – the first time it has adopted any policy on the Philippines.

Around 250,000 Filipinos work in the UK, more than half in the health sector and public services: it is now apparent that they are emerging as an organized force ready to mobilize on issues of social justice back home.

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Notes to Editors:

• The Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines was set up in July 2006 in response to the increasing number of political killings and human rights abuses taking place in the Philippines. Our objectives are: To put pressure on the Philippines Government to stop the political killings and defend human rights in the Philippines; to raise awareness in the UK about political repression in the Philippines with the aim of putting pressure on the Philippines Government to respect human rights; to spotlight British investment and trade links which benefit from human rights violations in the Philippines; to make links between the issues of poverty and political oppression in the Philippines and the situation of Filipino migrants in the UK.
• UNISON Britain and Europe’s biggest public sector union with more than 1.3 million members working in the public services, for private contractors providing public services and in the essential utilities. Members include frontline staff and managers working full or part time in local authorities, the NHS, the police service, colleges and schools, the electricity, gas and water industries, transport and the voluntary sector.

For more general information, please visit:

www.chrp.org.uk

www.karapatan.org

For more information on UNISON, please visit:

http://www.unison.org.uk/

For more information on the case of Edward Panganiban or the ‘Morong 43’, please visit:

http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2010/3485/

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/metro-manila/06/18/10/noynoy-urged-release-morong-43

Contact details:

To arrange an interview, or for more information or pictures, contact Mark Dearn or Andy Whitmore.

Telephone (available out of hours ): (+44) 0775 439 5597

Email: comms@chrp.org.uk

The International Federation of Journalists (represented in the UK by the NUJ), Amnesty International and The Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines are holding a

Joint Forum on The Maguindanao Massacre: Impunity and Political Killings in the Philippines at 6.00 pm on Wednesday 3 March 2010 at the Human Rights Action Centre 17-25 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EA. Invited speakers include Aiden White, General Secretary IFJ, as well as speakers from Amnesty International and other expert analysts.

To book your free place please go to www.amnesty.org.uk/events. For further information contact Shane Enright, AIUK Trade Union Campaigns Manager, Email: shane.enright@amnesty.org.uk, Tel: +44 (0) 20 7033 1569

Download and distribute invitation.

]]> http://www.chrp.org.uk/2009/135/feed/ 0 http://www.chrp.org.uk/2009/%e2%80%98desaparecidos%e2%80%99-a-family%e2%80%99s-search-continues/ http://www.chrp.org.uk/2009/%e2%80%98desaparecidos%e2%80%99-a-family%e2%80%99s-search-continues/#comments Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:07:58 +0000 admin http://www.chrp.org.uk/?p=132 Business Mirror, By Stella Gonzales, http://businessmirror.com.ph/home/opinion/16438-desaparecidos-a-familys-search-continues.html

23 September 2009

MANILA—In September 2007 the United Nations Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearance sent a letter to the Philippine government urging it to investigate the case of Jonas Burgos, a 37-year-old agriculturist who was abducted five months earlier in a crowded mall in Quezon City, one of the major cities comprising the metropolitan area in the national capital region.

Two years have passed but Jonas’s family and friends are still looking for him.

According to Jonas’s mother, Edita, the victim’s four-year-old daughter has not stopped expecting to see her missing father one of these days. Edita recounts a time when the girl saw the silhouette of a male visitor in their house. Thinking that it was her father, the girl rushed to the man and called out “Tati”—her term of endearment for him, which is coined from “daddy” and the Filipino word “tatay” (father).

“When she saw that it wasn’t her father, she said ‘ay hindi pala’ [oh, it’s not him] and went back to what she was doing,” Edita told Inter Press Service in an interview on the very same day, September 21, human-rights groups were marking the 37th anniversary of the declaration of martial law, which spawned massive human rights abuses, by former dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

The girl—whose name is being withheld in keeping with Philippine laws protecting the right to privacy of children—may only have scant memories of her father because she was still very young when he went missing. But perhaps because she sees his pictures in their house, the girl seems to have a special bond with men of her father’s age and body build, Edita said. She said her granddaughter has been told in very simple language that her father ”was taken by bad men.”

Jonas, who had dedicated himself to teaching farmers natural farming techniques, was one of the 30 desaparecidos (disappeared) documented by the human-rights group Karapatan (Rights) in 2007, and one of the 202 enforced disappearances recorded from 2001 to March this year û during the administration of President Arroyo, whose human- rights record is said to have surpassed that of Marcos.

Several months after Jonas went missing, the license plate of the vehicle used in his abduction was traced to another car impounded in a military camp. It was a crucial lead in the search for the son of a press-freedom fighter and bolstered suspicions that he was abducted by military agents. The military, however, said the license plate was apparently stolen from the camp.

Jovito Palparan, the military general who headed the Army division where the vehicle used in Jonas’s abduction had been traced, is now a congressman or member of the House of Representatives in the country’s bicameral legislature. He has been repeatedly blamed for the numerous cases of extrajudicial killings in the regions where he was assigned.

An Army general has claimed that Burgos—who, witnesses said, shouted “I am only an activist” on the day he was seized by armed men—was a member of the New People’s Army, the revolutionary arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines. The official would not say whether  the communist rebels who abducted him.

On the legal front, the Court of Appeals ruled in 2008 on the petition filed by Jonas’s family, but it failed to resolve some important issues, including the alleged involvement of the military in the disappearance. This prompted the family to file another case, this time before the Supreme Court, where the case has been pending for more than a year now.

Edita has been a constant figure in human-rights rallies in the Philippines and has been speaking in various forums and conferences here and abroad to pressure the Philippine government into producing her son. She is leaving for Europe in October to speak before several audiences, part of her efforts to keep the public aware of the case of her son and those of other victims of enforced disappearances.

“These are small efforts just so people will not forget that Jonas is missing,” Edita said.

She has also been holding private meetings with politicians who have indicated interest in running in the May 2010 elections, when Filipinos voters will choose a new set of leaders, including president, vice president and legislators.

“I visit them and talk to them privately. I ask them if they will take up the cause of human rights if they are elected,” Edita said.

“Some, however, have told me that human rights will surely be one of their concerns when they are elected. And I told them that I will help them not just by voting for them but also by asking my friends to vote for them,” Edita said.

Edita strongly believes that the matter of enforced disappearances will end if there is political will, which is why she wants to support politicians who are committed to human rights. She said she would also campaign against those who have spotted human-rights record.

Edita is looking forward to the day when Arroyo, who has been blamed for the surge in human-rights violations in the country, leaves the presidency. “I think I will find my son only after Arroyo leaves,” Edita said.

She said that even those who personally know her family or her late husband—esteemed newspaper publisher Jose Burgos Jr.—are covering up Jonas’s disappearance “because of the message of Arroyo’s leadership to everybody down the line”—that their lives, their salaries would be at stake if they helped in Jonas’s case.

“I want [us to elect] honest people who will help end disappearances. If we do not put people there [in public office] who will be sincere in dismantling all the institutions used to abduct people, these disappearances will not end,” Edita said.

In her search for her missing son, Edita had been asked on several instances to identify the body of a heavily tortured male near Jonas’s age that was dumped in some province. She said she always has mixed emotions. “On the way to the site, I would keep praying that it isn’t Jonas. But after I am able to confirm that it’s not him, I could not rejoice because I know that there’s a mother out there somewhere searching for her son,” she said.

And on the few occasions when a ”disappeared” person is “released” by his or her captors and surfaces in a jail, Edita rejoices with other members of human-rights organizations. “You cannot imagine our happiness. There is much crying and shouting. At least one person was saved. Even if this person is in jail for some supposed crime, what’s important is that he is alive,” she said. It “as if it is my child who was released,” she said.

More than two years after Jonas’s abduction, Edita continues to believe that he is still alive—tortured, in solitary captivity, but alive. “I don’t want to think that he is dead. Our search is made easier when I think that I will find him alive,” she said.  Yet even if Jonas were already dead, Edita would still not stop searching for him, and neither would her search for justice. “There can only be closure after justice has been served,” she said.

“If he is dead, I am sure he is in heaven. If he is alive, I want him to know that all through these years, we did not give up the search for him.”

Dear President Arroyo,

Your visit to London aims to discuss economic development in the Philippines. We do not believe that there can be any meaningful economic progress if the human rights of Filipino citizens are violated.

Madame President, you are the head of a state which stands accused of perpetrating and rewarding political killings, disappearances, torture, and the violation of basic human rights. This situation has been investigated and documented by numerous United Nations bodies as well as human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and the World Council of Churches.

In November 2007 the report of Philip Alston the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Summary or Arbitrary Executions concluded that in the Philippines: “the Armed Forces have followed a deliberate strategy of hunting down the leaders of leftist organisations” and have  “eliminated civil society leaders, including human rights defenders, trade unionists and land reform advocates”. In May 2009 the United Nations Committee on Torture (UNCAT) reported the “routine and widespread use of torture” in the Philippines and a “climate of impunity”. In September 2009 a high level ILO Mission will visit the Philippines in response to “serious allegations of the murder of trade unionists, death threats, arrests of trade union leaders …and the militarization of workplaces in export processing zones and special economic zones.”

For the first half of 2009, the Philippines human rights organization Karapatan has documented 34 victims of extrajudicial killings, bringing the total recorded for the period from 21 January 2001 to 30 June 2009, to 1,032. In the same period the number of enforced disappearances came to 202. Only this week Amnesty International released a further public statement raising concerns about the safety of human rights defenders and calling on the Government to stand by its publicly stated commitment to the UN in 2008 not just to decrease political killings and enforced disappearances, but also to effectively implement reform in its witness protection program.

Madame President, we call on you to stop the political killings and to end the impunity of the armed forces in perpetrating murder, abduction and torture against the people of the Philippines.

 
Yours sincerely,
Canon Barry Naylor
President, Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines

Thursday 17 September 2009 (Embargoed until Friday 18 September 2009)

Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines (CHRP), an independent British-based human rights group, will protest alongside concerned members of the Filipino community on Friday, 18 September 2009, as the Philippine President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, delivers a keynote conference speech in London. President Arroyo is speaking at a conference sponsored by the Economist, whose central theme is emerging markets. She is expected to highlight economic growth in the Philippine economy.

However, the Reverend Canon Barry Naylor, Urban Canon of the Abbey and Holy Spirit Team Ministries in Leicester and President of CHRP, in an open letter to the president, noted “we do not believe that there can be any meaningful economic progress if the human rights of Filipino citizens are violated.” Canon Naylor lambasted Arroyo for being a head of state which stands accused of perpetrating and rewarding political killings, disappearances, torture and the violation of basic human rights.

“[These atrocities have] been investigated and documented by numerous United Nations bodies as well as other human rights organisations such as Amnesty International and the World Council of Churches,” continued Naylor in the group’s letter. The visit of President Arroyo virtually coincides with the release of another Amnesty statement, which raises concerns about the safety of human rights defenders after further recent extra-judicial killings.

“We will continue to make these issues known to the international community, gather wide support from the British public, and lobby both the UK government to put pressure on the Philippines to stop these human rights violations,” said Rafael Maramag, a volunteer advocate for CHRP.

President Arroyo has been criticized for her frequent travels abroad, most notably after reports of expensive dinners she enjoyed with her entourage during her latest visit to the US.

While in the UK, it is understood the Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo and British First Secretary of State Lord Mandelson will sign the RP-UK Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty. Recognising this, CHRP are calling for the UK Government to do more to focus on the poor implementation of the protection of human rights in the Philippines.

CHRP members plan to hand over their letter at the Philippine Embassy on the day of the protests, as well as distribute further copies at the demonstration.

On 21st October, CHRP will co-host with Amnesty International an event focusing on ‘enforced disappearances’ in the Philippines called “Abductions and Disappearances: Breaking the Chains of Impunity in the Philippines”. The main speakers will be Mrs Edith Burgos and her son JL, the mother and brother of the missing activist Jonas Burgos. They will highlight the serious and personal issues around the increasing number of ‘disappeared’ political activists.

- ENDS -

QUOTE: “Madame President, we call on you to stop the political killings and end the impunity of the armed forces in perpetrating murder, abductions and torture against the people of the Philippines,” concluded Rev. Naylor.

PHOTO OPPORTUNITIES: Photographs at the Protest Plaza Riverbank Hotel at Albert Embankment on 18 September at 3.15pm. Photographs, along with the stories of some of those killed, are available in JPEG format on request.