Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines

Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines (CHRP) Press Release

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. [Read more →]

For full pdf text of photo campaign, click here

Amnesty International: INDIVIDUAL AT RISK
James Balao, an activist working on Indigenous Peoples rights, was forcibly disappeared on 17 September 2008 in
Baguio City, Philippines. He was last seen near his home being roughly bundled by armed men into a white van.

One of the men who took him shouted at onlookers, and told them not to interfere becuase they were police officers
arresting James. A court has ordered the authorities to reveal where he is, and do no further harm to him, but has
not authorised his family to look for him in places of detention. He is one of hundreds of Filipinos who involuntarily
disappear and have not been found.

James, a member of the Indigenous Benguet Ibaloi tribe in the Cordillera region in Northern Philippines, dedicated
himself to research and fighting for Indigenous Peoples rights, particularly ancestral land rights. He helped write
articles in the Philippine Constitution pertaining to Indigenous Peoples. He is one of the founding members of the
Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA), which today is an alliance of local organizations from the different Indigenous
tribes in the Cordillera region.

Take action!
Join the call to Surface James Balao and Stop EnforcedDisappearances in the Philippines.
Take photos of yourself or with friends, ideally in front of a local landmark to show international solidarity, holding
up a message such as: “End Enforced Disappearances — the world is watching” or “Where is James Balao?” The photos will be used as part of an international solidarity campaign on the one-year anniversary of James’ disappearance, as well as other campaigns against enforced or involuntary disappearances. Email photos tophilmasteam@gmail.com by 31 October 2009.

They are usually the first to respond to cases of extrajudicial killings, torture and enforced disappearances in the Philippines. In a country where impunity prevails, these human-rights defenders have not been spared from the same atrocities that they are trying to stop.

By RONALYN V. OLEA, Bulatlat.com – http://www.bulatlat.com/main/2009/09/04/in-philippines-human-rights-advocates-live-dangerously/

4 September 2009

MANILA — In his seven years of involvement in human-rights advocacy, Fred Caña knows very well the risks it entails in a country where impunity prevails.

Caña is the secretary-general of Karapatan-Negros. Like any other human-rights worker, Caña’s tasks include documenting cases of human-rights violations, helping out the victims, survivors and their families seek justice and demanding accountability from perpetrators. For all these, the usual suspects for human-rights abuses have subjected Caña to surveillance, red baiting and different forms of harassment. [Read more →]

For full pdf text of the Executive Summary click here

For full text of Shattered Lives AI report, click here

“We inherited an age-old conflict in Mindanao, exacerbated by a politically popular but near-sighted
policy of massive retaliation. This only provoked the other side to continue the war.”
- President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo during her State of the Nation Address, 27 July 2009

REPORT SUMMARY
Yet another round of fighting between the Philippine government forces and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front
(MILF) has ended on 29 July 2009. The 2008-2009 hostilities, which displaced more than 750,000 persons
in total and led to numerous human rights abuses, officially ended with an agreement to resume peace
negotiations. One year after renewed violence between government security forces and armed groups,
Mindanao is finally beginning to see a possible end to the unrest and uncertainty— and perhaps even an end to
the 40-year armed conflict.

Their lives shattered by the armed conflict, hundreds of thousands of people in the Central Mindanao region of
southern Philippines faced the risk of unlawful killings, enforced disappearances, torture, arbitrary arrests,
displacement and burning and destruction of their homes at the hands of the Philippine armed forces, MILF
fighters, and local militias. With no means of making a living, the people have become dependent on aid.

In May 2009 the Mindanao conflict was identified as having the highest number of new internally displaced
persons worldwide1 and having “the most neglected displacement situation” in 2008. [Read more →]

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-102-2009
Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission
<http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/support.php?ua=UAC-102-2009>

21 August 2009

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes with deep concern regarding the continued detention of 19 workers who are facing fabricated charges for holding a strike two years ago. They were, at the time, protesting the illegal termination, demanding payment of minimum wages and other lawful benefits from their employers. One of the workers has already died after contracting tuberculosis which was aggravated by poor prison condition. [Read more →]

By RONALYN V. OLEA, Bulatlat.com – http://www.bulatlat.com/main/2009/08/21/for-doing-its-job-chr-is-now-under-attack/

21 August 2009

The Philippine military, through its attack dogs Pastor Alcover and Jovito Palparan, are trying to discredit the Commission on Human Rights and its chairperson, Leila de Lima. Human-rights groups are understandably concerned. “Now that the CHR chairperson insists on the mandate of the commission, they consider her as an enemy,” Marie Hilao-Enriquez of Karapatan said. “That is the most dangerous mindset.” [Read more →]

http://www.bworldonline.com/BW081809/content.php?id=073

18 August 2009

A BICAMERAL body yesterday endorsed for ratification a bill that seeks to penalize torture, and in the process strengthening the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to curb such practices. [Read more →]

“What the military does — labeling every dissenter as a communist —is dangerous,” Ms. Enriquez said. “They are in effect justifying the harassment, torture, abduction and even murder of Filipinos whose only crime was to speak out against the problems of society.”

By CARLOS H. CONDE, The New York Times – http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/world/asia/13iht-phils.html

13 August 2009

MANILA — Melissa Roxas, a 31-year-old artist and writer from Los Angeles, traveled to the Philippines in 2007 to learn more about the country of her birth. [Read more →]

http://www.malaya.com.ph/aug11/metro1.htm

11 August 2009

NEW People’s Army rebels raided a military detachment in Barangay Napungas, Davao del Norte while using a soldier, two village councilors and a child as human shields last Sunday. [Read more →]

TERESA CEROJANO, The Associated Press – http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/international-10/124991300778540.xml&;storylist=international

10 August 2009

MANILA, Philippines – President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s aides struggled to explain a reported $20,000 dinner bill racked up by her and her entourage in New York while the Philippines was mourning the passing of former leader Corazon Aquino. [Read more →]