PUBLIC STATEMENT

http://amnesty.org.ph/news.php?item=news&id=132

9 February 2010

The worst pre-election violence in Philippine history – the Maguindanao massacre – has focused global attention on the human rights situation in the country. Now more than ever,candidates in the 10 May presidential elections need to clarify how they will address key human rights issues facing the country.

Today as the presidential campaign period officially begins, Amnesty International calls on all of the presidential candidates to make clear, public commitments on the actions they will take in the first 100 days of office to address serious human rights violations. In a public letter to the candidates, Amnesty International called on them to affirm their commitment to:

1) Revoke Executive Order 546, and ensure full accountability over all state-sponsored militias and paramilitary groups.

Despite the mass killing of 63 civilians on 23 November in Maguindanao, members of state-armed local groups and private armies are still free to operate in other parts of the country The Philippine government’s continued failure to establish accountability for members of these armed groups undermines the rule of law and denies human rights protection for civilians.

Within 100 days, the new Philippine president should revoke Executive Order 546, which allows for militia and paramilitary groups to provide active support in counterinsurgency operations. In practice, these groups have been ill-trained, unaccountable, poorly integrated into the military chain of command, and responsible for serious human rights violations. In some provinces, Civilian Volunteer Organizations(CVOs) effectively as private armies for local politicians, heightening the risk of pre-election violence.

2) Establish a presidential commission aimed at preventing and prosecuting enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions.

In the last decade, at least 200 Filipinos have been subjected to enforced disappearance, and as many as 1,100 have been executed in political killings. The incoming president needs to establish an impartial and independent commission to review these cases, with the aim of enabling timely and effective investigations and, where warranted, prosecutions.

The new president should initiate legislation that specifically criminalizes enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions. He or she should sign the UN Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances.

3) Order the administrationto fully implement the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement in order to ensure the safety and well-being of the displaced.

Despite the ceasefire in Mindanao,more than 125,000 people remain displaced by the 2008 armed conflict alone.To address this grave humanitarian situation, the incoming president should publicly instruct the administration to ensure that policies comply with the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.

Under the Guiding Principles,the government must ensure that the displaced are provided with adequate food, water, shelter, and clothing, as well as essential healthcare and sanitation. It must also guarantee unimpeded humanitarian access to are as under its control. In addition, the government must implement a sustainable plan of action so that the displaced can return to their villages, safely and voluntarily.

As commander-in-chief, the new president will be directly responsible for ensuring that the armed forces comply with international humanitarian law. As a core principle,this law explicitly prohibits direct or indiscriminate attacks against civilians, and this includes displaced persons and all other non-combatants.

10 February 2010

Dear Madame President,

We are gravely concerned that despite a succession of investigations and reports from the UN bodies concerned with extrajudicial killings and the use of torture; despite the horrendous massacre last November in Maguindanao, perpetrated by a private army approved by your government, the climate of impunity in the Philippines continues.

On 6 February 42 health workers and doctors involved in a training seminar in Morong, Rizal were arrested by the Rizal PNP. We are informed that these arrests were made using bogus warrants, that the arrested health workers and doctors were blindfolded and taken to a military camp, Camp Pinpin, headquarters of the 202 Infantry Brigade of the AFP.

The military has claimed that these health workers and doctors are part of the communist New People’s Army.  This follows a pattern familiar to anyone who observes the current wave of human rights abuses by the security forces in the Philippines, in which people are labeled as being communist rebels before being imprisoned, tortured or even killed.

The security forces appear to be expanding their targets of professional groups, perhaps because many of these groups have been critical of corruption and abuse of power by your government. Journalists, lawyers, human rights workers and now health professionals have all been targeted.

We call for:

• the immediate release of all those who have been unlawfully detained
• their safety to be ensured by the Government
• their confiscated property to be restored to them
• an investigation by the Commission on Human Rights Group and independent human rights groups into the conduct of this police raid
• a cessation of this pattern of “red labeling” leading to abuses by the military

Yours sincerely

Rev Canon Barry Naylor

Urban Canon and Parish Priest of the Abbey and Holy Spirit Team Ministries, Leicester
President – CHRP Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines

By Ronalyn V. Olea, http://www.bulatlat.com/main/2010/02/09/morong-43-cry-torture-satur-denounces-grandslam-day-for-impunity/2/

9 February 2010

MANILA — The 43 health workers who were arrested Saturday morning in Morong, Rizal province have been subjected to physical and psychological torture, colleagues said.

After three days, relatives and colleagues were finally able to visit the 43 detainees in Camp Capinpin, in Tanay, Rizal, through the intervention of Commission on Human Rights (CHR) chairperson Leila de Lima, who earlier denounced the military for refusing access to those detained.

The military and the police arrested the 43 health workers, including doctors, nurses and midwives on Saturday morning. Colleagues and relatives said the 43 were holding a health training and seminar but the military insisted that they were NPA members and were caught in the act of making explosives. On Tuesday, the military announced that several of those arrested had pending cases in courts and that at least one of them allegedly took part in a failed plot to assassinated then general and now congressman Jovito Palparan.

Some of the relatives were not able to see their loved ones, though. “The security was tight. Upon entry, we were subjected to body search twice. The soldiers also took photographs and videos of us,” said Roneo Clamor, deputy secretary-general of Karapatan and husband of Merry, a medical doctor who was among those detained. Clamor told Bulatlat that the health workers were arrested “at gun point, they were blindfolded, handcuffed and made to kneel down.”

In fact, the detainees were blindfolded for 36 hours, said Dr. Geneve Rivera, secretary-general of the Health Alliance for Democracy (Head). “Their blindfolds were only removed at 8 a.m. today, before CHR Chair de Lima was allowed entry to the camp,” Clamor said on Monday.

Clamor said de Lima talked to the military officers and stayed at the camp for more than three hours. “She made sure that we would be allowed to see our loved ones.”

In the Facebook page “Release Thehealthworkers,” de Lima is quoted as saying: “They are continuously handcuffed and blindfolded… they are not allowed to sleep, somebody else feeds food into their mouths, even when they urinate — somebody else pulls down their underwear.”

On Sunday, the CHR-National Capital Region (NCR) team was prevented from entering the camp. They waited at Camp Capinpin from 11 a.m. until the afternoon, to no avail. Lieutenant Colonel Noel Detoyato, civil-military operations chief of the brigade, defended the refusal to allow entry, saying it was caused by concerns over a possible “jailbreak.”

Bulatlat tried to reach de Lima on her mobile phone but got no answer.

Torture

Clamor said all of the detainees were subjected to relentless interrogation and were deprived of sleep. “They were made to sit the whole time,” he said. “They [interrogators] played good cop and bad cop. They asked all the personal details and some tried to force the detainees to admit that they are NPA [New People's Army] members.” On Monday, military officials said some of those arrested had confessed to being communist guerrillas and that they were willing to testify in court against the others.

Clamor said Dr. Alex Montes of the Community Medicine Development Foundation (Commed) was forced to admit that he is an NPA guerrilla. The NPA is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines that has been waging a Maoist revolution for more than four decades.

Rivera told Bulatlat that the detainees are heavily guarded, with a military officer — a lieutenant colonel as the lowest ranking officer — assigned to each of them. “They are being guarded even to the comfort rooms,” Rivera said. The 43 have been separated in different detention cells, added Rivera.

At 9:15 pm last night, the arrested health workers were subjected to inquest proceedings by a certain Romeo Samson of the Department of Justice (DOJ), according to Clamor. “Again, no counsel for the victims was present during the proceedings.”

“The military said they will file charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives. They issued a defective warrant and planted evidence against the health workers,” said Clamor.

Defective Warrant

Lawyer Julius Garcia Matibag, one of the legal counsels, pointed out the illegality and unconstitutionality of the warrant. During the raid, the owner of the farmhouse, Dr. Melecia Velmonte, protested the illegal search and arrests; she was ignored. Upon the intervention of Velmonte’s son, the soldiers presented a search warrant against a certain Mario Condes. “Condes is neither a resident of the house nor known to the Velmontes and to the participants of the training,” Matibag said.

He said the warrant does not describe with particularity the place to be searchef as it only indicates the address as “Bgy. Maybangcal, Morong, Rizal.” Section 2, Article III of the 1987 Philippine Constitution states that a search warrant or a warrant of arrest must specify the place to be searched or the persons or things to be seized.

Matibag also said the arresting team violated Section 8, Rule 126 of the Rules of Criminal Procedure when they searched the premises without the presence of the owner of the house or witnesses. According to the rules, no search shall be made except with the presence of the lawful occupant or any member of the family or in the absence of the latter, two witnesses of sufficient age and discretion residing in the same locality.

After the raid, the military alleged they found bomb-making materials, guns, and even a claymore mine under the beds of the health workers.

Legal Moves

Matibag said they will file a petition for habeas corpus Tuesday morning at the Supreme Court. Clamor said the detainees are determined to file counter charges against their captors.

In a separate statement, the party list group Bayan Muna said that it will file the necessary criminal and administrative charges against those who led the raid.

The military presented as evidence supposed Bayan Muna election paraphernalia. “This is another attempt to harass Bayan Muna and feed government propaganda to link the organization with the New People’s Army. It is nothing more than a partisan political act by the Arroyo government aimed at ensuring the electoral defeat of Bayan Muna, a prohibited act under election laws,” the group said.

It also said the authorities violated the Anti-Torture Act, which provides under Section 4 (b) for the imprisonment of military and police elements who “prohibit the victims from communicating with members of his/her family” and who blindfold those in their custody.

Disservice to the Poor

Meanwhile, the Council for Health and Development (CHD) criticized the Arroyo government for “terrorizing health professionals who have chosen to stay to serve the country.”

The CHD is the national organization of more than 50 community-based health programs in the entire Philippines. Its staff members were among those arrested.

Dr. Eleanor Jara, CHD executive director, lamented that the abducted health professionals and CHWs are among those that serve far-flung villages where government personnel and services are lacking or are simply absent. “Because of their passion and dedication to serve their fellow Filipinos, these health professionals and CHWs brave difficult work environments and meager salaries just so they could be of service where they are most needed,” Jara added.

“Instead of supporting and lauding their efforts and sacrifices, what does Mrs. Arroyo’s government do? Her military and police abduct these health professionals and CHWs and violate their rights. In effect, the delivery of health services in the poorest communities is derailed,” Jara said.

The ratio of doctor to patient in the Philippines is pegged by the Department of Health at 1:30,000.

“The military has done it again, this condemnable incident adds up to the long list of human-rights violation against health workers and community-based health practitioners,” Jara said.

Martial Law, Counter-Insurgency

In a press conference on Monday afternoon, Makabayan senatorial bet Satur Ocampo called the incident “a classic throwback to the martial law era.”

“This governmment already has a lot to answer for attacking the human rights of the Filipino people… Now we have the AFP abducting and harassing health professionals and personnel,” Ocampo said, adding “It’s a grandslam day for impunity.”

Clamor, of Karapatan, said the incident was part of the implementation of the Oplan Bantay Laya II, the counter-insurgency program of the Arroyo government. “Once again, this proves that the Arroyo government has not adhered to [UN Special Rapporteur Philip] Alston’s recommendations. Even with the abolition of the IALAG [Inter-Agency Legal Action Group], the filing of trumped-up charges continues.”

Alston, who visited the country in February 2007, linked the extrajudicial killings and other rights abuses to the counter-insurgency program of the Arroyo government. One of his recommendations is the abolition of IALAG, a group created by virtue of Arroyo’s executive order and tasked to build up cases against so-called enemies of the state. (Bulatlat.com)

Victim(s):
Illegally Arrested and illegally detained (partial list)

Dr. Mary Mia, Health Education and Training Services coordinator for Council for Health and Development (CHD)
Dr. Alexis Montes
Gary Liberal, Registered Nurse (Jose Reyes Medical Memorial Center)
Teresa Quinawayan, Midwife
Lydia Ubera, health worker
Reynaldo Makabenta, health worker
Delia Ocasla, health worker
Jane Balleta, health worker
Janice Javier, health worker
Franco Remoroso, health worker
Ailene Monasteryo, health worker
Pearl Irene Martinez, health worker
Ellen Carandang, health worker
Dany Panero, health worker
Rayom Among, health worker
Emily Marquez, health worker

Threat, harassment and intimidation; Violation of domicile

Dr. Melecia Velmonte
Bob Velmonte
Bernardo Landag
Two caretakers
Place of the incident:
Residential compound of Dr. Melecia Velmonte in Bgy. Maybangcal, Morong, Rizal
Date of the incident:
06 February 2010, at 6:15 in the morning
Alledged perpetrator(s):
Joint elements of the 202nd Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army (202nd IBPA), and Rizal Philippine National Police (PNP) headed by Colonel Aurelio Baladad, commander of the 202nd Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army based in Tanay, Rizal and Police Superintendent Marion Balonglong of the Rizal PNP.
On February 1, around 40 medical practitioners and health workers participated in a First Responders Training, sponsored by the Community Medicine Foundation, Inc. (COMMED) and Council for Health and Development (CHD) at Dr. Melecia Velmonte’s Farm, a conference and training facility in Morong, Rizal.

Dr. Velmonte is a renowned and respected infectious disease specialist and a consultant at the Philippine General Hospital. Her farm is a regular venue of health trainings, with participants coming from both the communities and the academe.

According to initial reports gathered by Karapatan, at 6:15 am on February 6, 2010, around 300 heavily armed elements of the military and police forced their way into the farm of Dr. Melecia Velmonte in Bgy. Maybangcal, Morong, Rizal. At gunpoint, the military forced the caretaker to open the gates. Inside, the soldiers fanned out to different directions. They also kicked the main door to get into the building.

When Dr. Velmonte and her son, Bob demanded for a search warrant, they were merely brushed aside by the military.

All medical practitioners and health workers, were ordered to line up at the garage, frisked, and handcuffed. The victims were also questioned and photographed by the military, while another took a video recording of the interrogation. The male victims were then blindfolded with old shirts brought in by the soldiers and secured with packaging tape. All of the personal belongings of the victims were also taken by the military.

When the participants were already handcuffed, it was only then that Police Superintendent Marion P. Balonglong showed Bob a search warrant for a certain Mario Condes of Bgy. Maybangcal, Morong, Rizal, charged with illegal possession of firearms. The search warrant dated February 5, 2010 and issued by Judge Cesar A. Mangrobang of Branch 22 of the Imus, Cavite Regional Trial Court, did not indicate the exact address of the Velmonte compound.

Bob asserted that the warrant did not specify their address, and that Mario Condes, who is subject of the warrant, is not even the owner of the house, but he was ignored by the authorities.

Outside the compound, were eight (8) vehicles. Along with the four (4) 6 x 6 military trucks were two (2) Armored Personnel Carriers (APC), a KIA Pride car, and an ambulance. Some of the vehicles had no plate numbers while the rest of the license plates were either covered, or smeared with mud.

The health workers were forced into the military trucks and were brought to Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal, headquarters of the 202nd Infantry Brigade of Philippine Army.

The military declared that the victims were members of the New People’s Army because of the explosives allegedly found inside the compound. However, according to witnesses, the military conducted the search of the compound’s premises only after all of the victims, as well as the residents, were already outside the buildings. Witnesses also said that the military have brought in with them plastic bags with the GMA Kapuso logo printed on it.

Allegedly found were C4 explosives, a pistol with seven bullets, 3 grenades (one allegedly found under a pillow); beside the grenade were some improvised landmines. However, Bob said that they were not issued a receipt of the inventory of the said firearms and explosives.

The illegal search of the Velmonte compound ended at past 9:00 in the morning of Saturday, February 6, 2010.

The military and police arresting team were led by Col. Aurelio Baladad and Police Superintendent Marion Balonglong.

In the afternoon of the same day, Karapatan Deputy Secretary General Roneo Clamor, husband of Dr. Merry Mia, Olive Bernardo, Karapatan Services Head, along with Karapatan counsel, Atty. Ephraim Cortez, Dr. Geneve Rivera and Dr. Edelina De La Paz, chairperson of Health Action for Human Rights (HAHR), went to Camp Capinpin to inquire about the victims. They were not allowed to enter the camp premises.

As of this writing, the military has not allowed any of the relatives of the victims to see anyone of them.

Recommended action:
Send letters, emails or fax messages calling for:

The immediate release of the health workers who are illegally arrested and illegally detained at Camp Capinpin, Tanay, Rizal.
The government to ensure the safety of the victims and that they are not harmed; their belongings be returned immediately to them.
The immediate formation of an independent fact-finding and investigation team composed of representatives from human rights groups, the Church, local government, and the Commission on Human Rights that will look into raid and illegal arrest of the health workers conducting health skills training in Morong, Rizal.
The military to stop the labeling and targeting of human rights defenders as “members of front organizations of the communists” and “enemies of the state.”
The Philippine Government to be reminded that it is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and that it is also a party to all the major Human Rights instruments, thus it is bound to observe all of these instruments’ provisions.
You may send your communications to:

H.E. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
President of the Republic
Malacañang Palace,
JP Laurel St., San Miguel
Manila Philippines
Voice: (+632) 564 1451 to 80
Fax: (+632) 742-1641 / 929-3968
Cell#: (+ 63) 919 898 4622 / (+63) 917 839 8462
E-mail: corres@op.gov.ph / opnet@ops.gov.ph

Gen. Avelino Razon, Ret. PNP
Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process
Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP)
7th Floor Agustin Building I
Emerald Avenue
Pasig City 1605
Voice:+63 (2) 636 0701 to 066
Fax:+63 (2) 638 2216
osec@opapp.gov.ph

Norberto Gonzales
Secretary, Department of National Defense
Room 301 DND Building, Camp Emilio Aguinaldo,
E. de los Santos Avenue, Quezon City
Voice:+63(2) 911-9281 / 911-0488
Fax:+63(2) 911 6213
Email: osnd@philonline.com

Atty. Agnes Devanadera
Secretary, Department of Justice
Padre Faura St., Manila
Direct Line 521-8344; 5213721
Trunkline 523-84-81 loc.214
Fax: (+632) 521-1614
Email: soj@doj.gov.ph

Atty. Leila De Lima
Chairperson, Commission on Human Rights
SAAC Bldg., UP Complex
Commonwealth Avenue
Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
Voice: (+632) 928-5655, 926-6188
Fax: (+632) 929 0102
Email: chr.delima@yahoo.com
Please send us a copy of your email/mail/fax to the above-named government officials, to our address below.

URGENT ACTION Prepared by:

KARAPATAN (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights)
National Office
2/F Erythrina Bldg., #1 Maaralin cor Matatag Sts., Brgy. Central, Diliman, Quezon City 1100 PHILIPPINES
Voice/Fax: (+632) 435 4146
Email: urgentaction (at) karapatan.org
Website: www.karapatan.org

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.

5 February 2010

MANILA, Philippines – The  Free Jonas Burgos Movement, together with Desaparecidos and the Concerned Artists of the Philippines, will re-stage the monologue “Mrs. B,” February 5, 6, 12 and 13, 2010 at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani Auditorium at EDSA cor. Quezon Avenue.

“Mrs. B,” is the story of Mrs. Edith Burgos, mother of missing activist Jonas Burgos and wife of press freedom icon Joe Burgos Jr..

The play deals with a gamut of emotions a mother has to go through in looking for her missing son.

Seasoned actress-director Gina Alajar and Bibeth Orteza will alternately play the role of Mrs. B or Mrs. Edith Burgos.

Written by award-winning playwright Joi Barrios together with Grundy Constantino and Rowena Festin of the Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP), the monologue is directed by Soc Jose.

Edith’s son, Jonas, was tagged by the military as a member of the NPA.

He was allegedly abducted April 28, 2007 by four armed men and a woman while having lunch at the Hapag Kainan in Ever Gotesco.

Witnesses said that Jonas was dragged into a maroon Toyota Revo van with Plate number TAB 194. Earlier investigation of the PNP-CIDG traced the plate number to an impounded vehicle at the 56th IB headquarters Philippine Army Camp in Norzagaray, Bulacan.

Edith said Jonas is a member of Alyansang Magbubukid ng Bulacan and teaches organic farming to farmers.

Jonas will turned 40 years old this coming March 30.

Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines (CHRP) condemns the kidnapping and killing of at least 21 people yesterday in Maguindanao, Mindanao, southern Philippines, in an attack believed to be rooted in clan violence erupting in the run-up to the 2010 Philippines elections.

A group of up to 50, including 34 journalists, were travelling in convoy to the local Commission on Elections office to file a candidacy for the post of Governor of Maguindanao when they were stopped by up to100 armed men. Leading the group was the wife of the hopeful candidate, Ismael, ‘Toto’, Mangudadatu, Vice Mayor of Buluan, along with more of Mangudadatu’s relatives.

The Army has reportedly recovered 21 bodies, 13 female and eight male, some mutilated. It believes the remainder may have been buried. An army spokesman said militiamen deputized as government guards by the Ampatuan family were the ones who staged the kidnapping of the Mangudadatu clan members.

CHRP expresses its solidarity with the victims of this atrocity, and their families.

Alvin Carpio, CHRP chairperson said: “This massacre of innocent people trying to take part in the political process must be thoroughly investigated by the government, and those responsible brought to justice.
“With elections looming, it is critical that steps are taken now to prevent any further atrocities and to ensure that the Filipino people, political parties and politicians can partake in free elections without the threat of violence.
“We urge the international community to pay heed to the situation.”

The Ampatuan clan, traditionally dominant in Maguindanao, is led by Datu Andal Snr, Governor of Maginadanao since 2001. Andal – who was accused of murder by another rival clan in 2003 – is close to incumbent president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo: 90% of the votes in his district went to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in the 2004 elections, where in three towns Arroyo’s closest rival recorded no votes at all.

The rival Mangudadatu clan announced last year that it would challenge for the position of governor in Maguindanao.

Background:
Ismael Mangudatu’s bid to run for Governor of Maguindanao represents an attempt by the Mangudadatu clan to move in to an area traditionally dominated by the Ampatuan clan, where more than a dozen sons of Datu Andal Snr hold local executive positions such as town mayorships.

Andal is coming to the end of his third term in office, greatly increasing competition for the vacant post which it is believed he wants one of his sons to fill.

Magandatu power is more prominent in Sultan Kudarat province, where the clan has both a governor and a congressman (the former governor) who is a member of President Gloria Arroyo’s Lakas-Kampi-CMD party. Originally from Magindanao, the Magandadatu clan has up until recently had good relations with the Ampatuans.

Philippine news outlet ABS-CBN has reported a source claming that Andal presides over an army of at least 500 armed civilians. A memorandum was issued by Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno in 2006 authorizing the civilian volunteer organizations (CVOs) in Mindanao to bear arms, greatly strengthening the Ampatuan’s privatised army.

In the 2004 elections, Arroyo won 193,938 votes from Maguindanao’s 27 towns while closest rival Fernando Poe Jr., got only 59,892 votes. Poe did not get a single vote in 3 Maguindanao towns.

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.

Contact details:

To arrange an interview, or for more information or pictures, contact Andy Whitmore or Mark Dearn.
Telephone (available out of hours ): (+44) 0775 439 5597
Email: comms@chrp.org.uk

The Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines
c/o PIPLinks
Finspace
225-229 Seven Sisters Road
London
N4 2DA
www.chrp.org.uk

]]> 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