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<font size=3><b>2004 REPORT ON THE PHILIPPINE HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION
<br>
<br>
KARAPATAN- Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights<br>
December 10, 2004<br>
</b> <br>
Two words summarize the state of human rights in the Philippines
today: Hacienda Luisita. <br>
<br>
When the state used its armed force to violently disperse the hacienda
farm workers’ legitimate actions to press for just wages and authentic
land reform, it defended the monopoly of one of the richest and most
politically entrenched clans in the country – the Cojuangco family.
<br>
<br>
The carnage wrought on 5,000 striking farm workers, their families and
supporters in Hacienda Luisita on 16 November 2004 killed 14 people
(seven of which were identified) injured 114, unlawfully detained 110 and
caused the disappearance of 39 others. <br>
<br>
As in many cases in the past, the struggle for human rightsin this case
economic and political rights was answered by a hail of bullets from the
state. Immediately government blamed the massacre on “outsiders,”
“agitators” and the New People’s Army even before it could absolve the
armed policemen and soldiers who broke up the strike. The Hacienda
Luisita massacre merely highlights the prevalent and intensifying human
rights violations in the country. <br>
<br>
<b>State Terrorism<br>
</b>As a state policy, the Arroyo administration’s so-called war against
terrorismpatterned after and directly linked to the US-led war on
terror has led to gruesome and deplorable human rights violations all
over the country. It has led to an alarming rate of summary executions
and massacres, enforced disappearances, torture, arbitrary and unlawful
arrests, arbitrary and unlawful detentions, curtailment or open
violations of basic democratic rights as well as indiscriminate aerial
bombings, artillery and mortar fire, shelling, strafing, forced mass
evacuations, and harassment.<br>
<br>
From January to November 30, 2004, KARAPATAN documented <b>570 cases
</b>of human rights violations affecting <b>9924 people,</b> or
approximately <b>52 cases a month</b>. This year alone, there were
<b>68 victims</b> of enforced disappearance. An average of <b>6
persons</b> a month are abducted and made to disappear. From
2001 to 2004, a total of <b>3,488 cases</b> of human rights violations
were reported and documented under the Macapagal-Arroyo government.
<br>
<br>
Open terror reigns despite the absence of an open declaration of martial
law. For the human rights community, state terrorism is the worse thing
that can happen in the country. State security forces and paramilitary
troops make no distinction between civilians and combatants. Furthermore,
political beliefs and actions are labeled as “terrorism” to undermine
forces opposed to or critical to the
government. <br>
Militarization has intensified with more troops being deployed
nationwide, especially in Southern Tagalog (39 battalions, most
especially Mindoro with 9 battalions), Bicol (4 batallions 1 brigade and
1 division), Cagayan Valley (5 battalions and 1 brigade), Western
Mindanao (10 battalions), Socsargen (10 battalions), Eastern Visayas (9
battalions), Southern Mindanao (3 brigades), North Central Mindanao (3
brigades), Central Luzon (6 battalions), Bohol (5 battalions) and Cebu (2
battalions). <br>
<br>
More and more communities are being held hostage by the military.
Detachments are built in their midst, curfews are imposed, their
movements are strictly monitored. Public thinking is manipulated as
well by various psy-war operations. Local government officials such as
mayors and barangay captains lose control over the community as de facto
martial rule reigns.<br>
<br>
Legal democratic organizations have become targets of atrocities.
From 2001 to 2004, suspected state agents killed 48 members, officials,
candidates and volunteers of political parties identified with the Left,
such as Bayan Muna and AnakPawis. <br>
<br>
Leaders of people’s organizations are either killed or slapped with
harassment cases as in the case of BAYAN Southern Mindanao leader, Alvin
Luque, human rights activist and martial law survivor Marie
Hilao-Enriquez, and KARAPATAN Southern Tagalog’s Irein Cuasay.
Enriquez along with some 20 others was charged with alleged violations of
BP 880 (Marcos’ no permit, no rally edict) for holding a rally on Human
Rights Day on December 10, 2003. <br>
<br>
Union leader Samuel Bandilla and community leader Melita Carvajal were
recently gunned down in Leyte and Laguna respectively.<br>
<br>
Joel Baclao, a church worker and volunteer of the Promotion of Church
People’s Response (PCPR) was shot dead in front of his house in Albay on
10 November 2004. Two months prior to his death, government soldiers
attempted to search his home without a warrant. On 30 October 2004, a
certain Butch Javier warned him that he should be careful because he was
already included in the military’s Order of Battle (OB).<br>
<br>
Violent dispersals by “crowd management teams” of the PNP and AFP mar
peaceful protests. A gathering in support of hostaged OFW Angelo
dela Cruz in Iraq was dispersed violently in Plaza Miranda no less, the
traditional venue for airing people’s grievances. <br>
<br>
<b>Enforced disappearances and torture<br><br>
</b>On September this year, soldiers belonging to the 16<sup>th</sup>
Infantry Batallion in Mindoro Occidental ransacked the home of farmer
Jomar Torreliza in the middle of the night. He was abducted and
tortured in captivity but managed to escape. The Torrelizas are now
unable to go back home for fear that soldiers would go back and kill
them.<br>
Torreliza is one of the 40 victims of torture documented in 2004.<br>
<br>
This year, some 68 persons have been victimized by enforced
disappearance. The brazenness by which this crime has been committed by
state agents is appalling. On August 17, three members of Bayan-Manila
were abducted in front of the twin churches in Bustillos, Sampaloc,
Manila at 4:30 in the afternoon in full-view of a few hundred
churchgoers, market vendors and bystanders. Nobody has dared to implicate
the real perpetrators of the crime for fear of their own safety. The
police initially said ISAFP (Intellligence Service of the Armed Forces of
the Philippines) coordinated the operation with them. ISAFP denies having
the three in their custody. <br>
<br>
The latest case of enforced disappearance is the case of 10 persons from
Mindoro Island who were abducted all at the same time on 6 November 2004
on board a jeep in Batangas City. Out of the ten, nine <i>(Danilo
Mayo, Analiza Espiritu, Mary Ann Babit, Ronnie Ferrer, Marichu Cataquis,
Precy Balmes, Christopher Malabanan, Lijan Gumnay, Rufino Tabares and
Paterno Atienza)</i> were presented at a press conference by the MIMAROPA
Police in Fort Bonifacio on 8 November 2004 but when their relatives and
counsel sought the arrested persons, they were nowhere to be found and
the military and police personnel manning the different camp detention
centers denied holding the nine missing persons.<br>
<br>
<br>
<b>Human rights work and journalism - dangerous jobs<br>
</b>On 23 November 2004, soldiers and goons in Mindoro Occidental
assaulted 58 members of a fact-finding and medical mission. At
least 10 were hurt. The team was composed of doctors, human rights
workers, priests, and lawyers who went to Mindoro to probe reports of
human rights violations allegedly perpetrated by the AFP.<br>
<br>
It is also in Mindoro where human rights lawyer and Naujan vice Mayor
Juvy Magsino, teacher and human rights worker Leima Fortu, and Isaias
Manano, a pastor’s son and successor to Leima Fortu as secretary general
of KARAPATAN Mindoro, were murdered by suspected elements of the
204<sup>th</sup> Brigade. Magsino and Fortu were killed on 13
February 2004. Manano on 28 April 2004. <br>
<br>
Three of the 14 human rights workers killed under the Macapagal-Arroyo
administration were slain in 2004.<br>
<br>
Human rights workers and journalists share the same plight. This
year alone, there were 12 journalists killed, bringing to 25 the total
number of journalists killed under the Macapagal-Arroyo
regime. <br>
<b> <br>
Still no justice for martial law victims<br>
</b>The Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at para sa
Amnestya (SELDA), the group of political prisoners that won the class
suit against Marcos in the US Federal Court, expressed outrage and alarm
over the surreptitious transfer of the $684 million Marcos ill-gotten
funds from the Philippine National Bank to the General Fund. The
fund transfer was done at the height of the election campaign, raising
fears that money was spent for Mrs. Arroyo’s presidential bid.<br>
<br>
The 12<sup>th</sup> Congress failed to pass the law that would have
facilitated the use of Marcos ill-gotten account to indemnify the martial
law victims. The 13<sup>th</sup> Congress is currently pushing for
a bill which SELDA members say is a mangled version that destroys the
intent and spirit of the proposed law.<br>
<b> <br>
Behind the walls of repression<br>
</b>The act of criminalizing political offenses has not ceased with the
continued arrest and detention of activists, community organizers,
peasants, workers, women and even minors. <br>
<br>
To date, there are still 233 political prisoners languishing in jail,
among them Donato Continente, suspect in the 1989 killing of a US
military official and the Mamburao 7, farmers on framed-up murder charges
by their landlord. Four political prisoners have been
sentenced to death. They have been charged with common crimes to hide the
political nature of their continued detention.<br>
<br>
Despite the acquittal and release of 14 Moro prisoners last year, a dim
future still face the more than 100 Muslims in detention wrongfully
accused as members of the bandit group Abu Sayyaf and allegedly
perpetrating the kidnapping and murder of foreign nationals in
1999.<br>
<b> <br>
<a name="OLE_LINK1"></a>Intervention and action for human rights<br>
</b>KARAPATAN helped work for the release of 17 political prisoners in
2004, among them Zenaida Llesis and her ailing baby Gabriela, Irene
Plagtiosa and her daughter and 13-year old Levy Mabanan who was in the
custody of the military since he was nine years old.<br>
<br>
As confidence-building measure in its talks with the National Democratic
Front of the Philippines (NDFP), the Government of the Republic of the
Philippines (GRP) made a commitment to release 32 prisoners. Only
10 were actually released. Seven won their cases in court while the
remaining 15 are still incarcerated.<br>
<br>
KARAPATAN joined peace advocates in calling on the government to
establish the Joint Monitoring Committee in compliance with the
Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights and International
Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), a major peace agreement between the GRP and
NDFP<br>
<br>
In the peace talks and in the joint human rights monitoring body,
KARAPATAN took the opportunity to bring pressing human rights issues for
action of both parties. Survivors and families of human rights
violations victims were assisted in filing cases.<br>
<br>
In the past year, KARAPATAN sounded the alarm at the pre-session meeting
of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) of
the United Nations Human Rights Committee. The UN body acknowledged
the report and expressed concern “at reports of intimidation and threats
of retaliation impeding the right to an effective remedy for persons
whose rights and freedoms have been violated.”<br>
<br>
Human rights cases have been filed against perpetrators in various
courts. The same cases have also been brought to the court of
public opinion. One major setback to the improvement of the human
rights situation in the country is the culture of impunity engendered by
no less than the AFP Commander-In-Chief with the promotion of military
officials notorious for their human rights violations. Col. Jovito
Palparan of the 204<sup>th</sup> brigade and his successor Col. Fernando
Mesa were even promoted to two-star and one-star General,
respectively. <br>
<br>
To date, those displaced by intensive military operations in Mindoro
Oriental and in Mindanao have been unable to return to their domicile for
Mindoro is still heavily militarized.<br>
<br>
Another hindrance to the respect and promotion of human rights in the
country is the campaign and incitement to violence of state security
forces against Muslim communities and dissenters. <br>
<br>
<b>Prospects and Recommended action<br>
</b>Will the situation improve or worsen under the Macapagal-Arroyo
administration? <br>
<br>
If at present the Macapagal-Arroyo government uses force and intimidation
to quell the people’s legitimate dissent, we can expect more of the same,
especially with the harsh economic policies it intends to implement and
its continued submission to the US government’s war on terror.<br>
<br>
Human rights advocates protest, condemn and seek justice for various
human rights violations committed against the people by state security
forces. A swift and impartial investigation of the vicious
incidents is in order and punishment meted out on the guilty.<br>
<br>
Government must avert its repressive measures and its continued support
for the US-led wars of aggression in other countries. It must
decisively prosecute and convict, not reward, perpetrators of rights
violation.<br>
<br>
It is also imperative that the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for
Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law be seriously
implemented. <br>
<br>
A concrete step to alleviate the terrible human rights situation is to
immediately pull out the 204<sup>th</sup> brigade in Mindoro and in other
highly militarized areas to put a stop to human rights abuses
there.<br>
<br>
The public is strongly encouraged to know more about their rights and
find ways to individually and collectively assert these rights.<br><br>
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