CHRP Newsletter Autumn 2009

8/8/2019 CHRP Newsletter Autumn 2009

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CHRP Picket Greets ArroyoA picket organized by the migrant workers group Migrante and CHRP showed Presi-

dent Arroyo once again that she will be reminded of the human rights violations of her

government any time that she visits London. Her visit to a conference about the globaleconomic crisis organized by

The Economist magazine on

18 September at the exclu-

sive Riverbank Hotel was

met by Migrante and CHRP

members carrying placards

showing Mrs Arroyo grow-

ing fat as Filipinos starve.

A letter was handed to Phil-ippine Embassy officials

which noted

Your visit to London

aims to discuss economic

development in the Philippines. We do not believe that there can be any mean-ingful economic progress if the human rights of Filipino citizens are violated.

Madame President, you are the head of a state which stands accused of perpe-trating and rewarding political killings, disappearances, torture, and the vio-

lation of basic human rights.The letter called on Presi-

dent Arroyo to Stop Po-litical Killings and Disap-

pearances in the Philip-

pines. The letter was read

out on radio broadcasts in

the Philippines as part of

the news coverage on her

visit to London.

c/o PIPLinks, Finspace, 225-229 Seven Sisters Road,London, N4 2DA, UK

Phone: +44(0)207 263 1002 Email: [email protected]

Website: www.chrp.org.uk

Company Registration No. 6878754

Autumn 2009

Published in

London


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EDITORIAL

The Campaign for HumanRights in the Philippines(CHRP) is a volunteer organization thatseeks to highlight human rights abuses in

the Philippines. We note the continued

pattern of killings that have blighted the

country over the last decade killings of

journalists, students, lawyers, activists and

suspected criminals and the lamentable

failure of the Philippine government eitherto properly investigate these killings or in-

deed to place the due process of the law

above vigilantism. In the Philippines today,

the Police and the judiciary are not trusted

agencies. In this issue of our newsletter we

highlight these on-going problems but also

focus attention on moves towards constitu-

tional change (so-called cha-cha) and the

forthcoming elections. We also note, with

bemusement, that former British Prime

Minister Tony Blair has been to the Philip-pines in recent months to lecture about con-

flict resolution, and that senior Moro Is-

lamic Liberation Front (MILF) cadres have

been to Northern Ireland, as if the Northern

Ireland peace process were some holy grail

that can simply be transposed to another

country, another culture and different pro-

tagonists on the other side of the world,

and, as if by magic, produce peace. Laud-

able as Blairs and UK intentions may be,

peace in Mindanao will require sustainedand sincere engagement among partners

who actually know something about the

conflict and its causes. We also note the

passing of Cory Aquino. Cory Aquinos

death in August was reported in the interna-

tional press with the predictable eulogies.

Aquino has always been projected as a

saintly figure whose opposition leadership

following her husbands murder led to the

end of the brutal and corrupt dictatorship of

Ferdinand Marcos. The emergence of

Aquino was in fact sponsored by the US to

allow it to drop the increasingly embarrass-

ing Marcos who was failing to check

a radical and broadly based mass move-

ment. Cory was part of the traditional elite

as shown by the ruthless treatment of work-

ers on her own plantations. During her

presidency, progressive and democratic

reforms were steadily abandoned or re-

jected, and the military was allowed to become dangerously politicised. Today

political corruption continues to

be endemic in the Philippines and the

use of state-sponsored murder and tor-

ture by a military operating with impu-

nity is more rampant than ever.

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President Arroyo

Challenged to Act on

Indigenous RacialDiscrimination

The letter that was handed in and more in-

formation on this can be read at:- http://

philippines-cerd.blogspot.com/2009/09/

text-of-letter-from-piplinks-to.html

Indigenous Peoples Links (PIPLinks), a

UK-based support group on indigenous

rights, used the opportunity of the visit of

President Arroyo to London to also hand in

a letter raising issues around the recent

concluding observations of the United Na-

tions Committee on the Elimination of Ra-

cial Discrimination (CERD).

UK campaigners had been part of a Philip-

pine delegation that travelled to Geneva

when the CERD met in August 2009. The

CERD, which reviews how countrys are

implementing their obligations to elimina-

tion racial discrimination, was reviewing

the Philippine Governments overdue re-

port. They presented a shadow report,

and video, to counter Government claims

that there was no racial discrimination in

the Philippines. This particularly focus-

sed on how indigenous peoples were be-

ing seriously discriminated against, and

how the Philippine Government was fail-

ing to protect them, even though there isan enlightened law that is supposed to

protect them, called the Indigenous Peo-

ples Rights Act (IPRA). However, on the

ground the lands and lives of indigenous

peoples are under threat, often from the

activities of multinational companies,

such as mining companies, many of

them based in the UK.

The CERD published an extensive set of

recommendations regarding the Govern-

ments implementation of indigenous

peoples rights, including urging the

Government to acknowledge that racial

discrimination exists in the Philippines

(which the Philippine Government con-

tinually denied). They also asked for a

review of how the IPRA law was, or

rather wasnt, working and asked the

Government to report within the year.

PIPLinks was keen to find out how theGovernment would respond to that. On

past experience there is not a great deal

of optimismespecially as the President

spent her time meeting with UK-based

mining companies rather than discussing

the issues of the rights of the poorest and

most marginalized of her people.

ILO investigates killings

of union activists

Condensed from a report by the Interna-tional Labor Rights Forum, Sep-

temb2009

The International Labor Organization

(ILO) is undertaking its first high level

mission to the Philippines from Septem-

ber 22nd to 29th to investigate serious

union rights violations including the kill-
http://philippines-cerd.blogspot.com/2009/09/text-of-letter-from-piplinks-to.htmlhttp://philippines-cerd.blogspot.com/2009/09/text-of-letter-from-piplinks-to.htmlhttp://philippines-cerd.blogspot.com/2009/09/text-of-letter-from-piplinks-to.htmlhttp://philippines-cerd.blogspot.com/2009/09/text-of-letter-from-piplinks-to.htmlhttp://www.ilo.org/http://www.ilo.org/http://www.ilo.org/http://philippines-cerd.blogspot.com/2009/09/text-of-letter-from-piplinks-to.htmlhttp://philippines-cerd.blogspot.com/2009/09/text-of-letter-from-piplinks-to.htmlhttp://philippines-cerd.blogspot.com/2009/09/text-of-letter-from-piplinks-to.html


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ing of 92 labor union leaders since 2001.

They will meet with families of victims

and survivors of unexplained killings,

enforced disappearances and labor-

related harassment, and they will inspecttwo major manufacturing plants in Cen-

tral and Southern Luzon.

The ILO mission was triggered by a

complaint the KMU brought before the

ILOs Committee on the Freedom of As-

sociation in 2006. In the complaint,

KMU alleged, Killings, grave threats,

continuous harassment and intimidation

and other forms of violence inflicted on

leaders, members, organizers, union sup-

porters/labor advocates of trade unions

and informal workers' organizations who

actively pursue their legitimate demands

at the local and national levels. Specifi-

cally, KMU mentioned the deaths of 64

trade unionists and advocates since Ar-

royo took power in 2001.

The ILO responded to the Complaints by

stating: The Committee deplores thegravity of the allegations made in this

case and the fact that more than a decade

after the filing of the last complaint on

this issue, inadequate progress has been

made by the Government with regard to

putting an end to killings, abductions,

disappearances and other serious human

rights violations which can only rein-

force a climate of violence and insecu-

rity and have an extremely damaging

effect on the exercise of trade unionr i g h t s .

As a result, the ILO made several rec-

ommendations to the Government of the

Philippines, including establishing an

independent judicial process in order to

review all allegations of violence, ending

prolonged military presence in the work-

place, and ensuring emergency measures

enacted by the government dont inter-

fere with workers legal rights to organ-

ize. Most importantly, it called on the

Philippine government to allow it to send

a team to look into the complaints and

establish more clear recommendations for

action. Yet, perhaps fearing what the ILOmay find, each time the ILO sought per-

mission to send a team to investigate the

violations and propose recommendations,

the Philippine government refused per-

mission. However following increasing

pressure from the international labor

movement and foreign governments at the

ILO this summer, the Philippine govern-

ment finally relented and allowed the ILO

to conduct its mission

The ILO Mission, though several

years late, is still extremely timely. Labor

activist in the Philippines continue to al-

lege government violence and harassment

targeted at workers and activist engaged

in organizing activities. KMU alleges

that: After the complaint, 28 more work-ers were [killed]. Also, a relatively new

form of repression hit the workers since

last year after the complaint: using

trumped up criminal charges to detain

workers.

UN Committee Condemns

Widespread use of

Torture in the Philippines

Information from Bulatlat and FIACAT

The United Nations Committee on

Torture (UNCAT) issued a report this

May 2009 expressing its grave concern


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at the routine and widespread use of

torture in the Philippines and the

climate of impunity for perpetrators

of acts of torture, including military,

police, and other State officials.

During two days of sittings of

the 42nd session of the UN Commit-

tee Against Torture, the Committee

heard two torture survivors, farmer

Raymund Ramalao and Pastor Berlin

Guerero of the United Church of Christ,

give personal testimony about their abduc-

tions and torture at the hands of the secu-

rity forces. Manalao was abducted with his

brother by the military in Bulucan, a prov-

ince north of Manila, and subjected to dif-

ferent forms of torture for 18 months. Pas-

tor Berlin Guerero was abducted by the

military in May last year and tortured. The

Philippine human rights organization Kara-

patan and the World Organisation Against

Torture (OMCT) presented a joint report

documenting 1,016 victims of torture from

2001 to 31 March, 2009. According to

Karapatan, Many people believe that tor-

ture has now become a covert national pol-

icy, together with extrajudicial killings,

enforced disappearances and other griev-

ous rights violations resorted to by the

State to quell the protests and dissent of the

people.

A 27-strong Philippine government

delegation headed by Executive Secretary

Eduardo Ermita, who is chair of the Phil-

ippines Presidential Human Rights Com-

mittee defended the governments human

rights record. Ermita was asked by UN-

CAT about government steps to address

the concerns expressed by Philip Alston,

the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial

summary or arbitrary executions, who vis-

ited the Philippines in 2008. Ermita re-

sponded that much of the UN special rap-

porteurs reports was unfounded, unbal-

anced, incomplete and at best premature.

Ermita emphatically asserted that in the

Philippines torture is not practiced by state

security forces.

After reviewing the evidence and

testimonies and other documentation, UN-

CAT concluded that in the Philippines tor-

ture was widespread and routine. They

noted that members of the security forces

who commit torture are seldom investi-

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gated and prosecuted, and that the perpe-

trators are either rarely convicted or sen-

tenced to lenient penalties that are not in

accordance with the grave nature of the

offences. The Committee also con-

demned the Human Security Act passed

in the Philippines in 2007 as having an

overly broad definition of terrorist

crimes and the provision allowing the

detention of suspects without warrant or

charge for up to 72 hours.

The Committee asked the Philip-

pine government to take immediate steps

to prevent acts of torture and ill-treatment

throughout the country and to announce a

policy of total elimination in respect of

any ill-treatment or torture by State offi-

cials. As part of this, the Philippines

should promptly implement effective

measures to ensure that all detainees are

afforded all fundamental legal safeguards

from the very outset of their detention.

These include the right to have access to a

lawyer and an independent medical ex-

amination, to notify a relative, and to be

informed of their rights at the time of de-

tention, including details of the charges

laid against them, as well as to appear be-

fore a judge within a time limit in accor-

dance with international standards. The

Committee has given the Filipino authori-

ties one year to improve this situation.

More Philippine

Journalists Targeted

Information from the Committee for the

Protection of Journalists

An unidentified attacker stabbed and fa-

tally shot Philippine radio commentator

Crispin Perez on 8 June 2009 in San Jos

in the central Philippines. The attack took

place in the broadcasters home shortly

after his morning show at the local

DWDO radio station. However, some

news reports indicate he was standing out-

side the station when he was attacked.

Perez was a former politician who had

also worked as a lawyer. Police told jour-

nalists they were investigating possible

motives for the murder. AFP cited a local

politician as saying that Perez had re-

cently made enemies over a local en-

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T_uKmE2wmoU/s400/free_press.jpg


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ergy deal but did not elaborate on the con-

tent of his radio programme.

The perpetrator fled on a motorcy-

cle, according to the news reports. Perez

was declared dead on arrival at the local

hospital. Perez is the fourth journalist to

be killed in the Philippines this year.

There have been 24 unsolved murders of

journalists in the last ten years, making

the Philippines the sixth most deadly

country in the world for journalists and

one of the few which is not an active war

zone. However, Philippine President Glo-

ria Macapagal-Arroyos chief aide, Edu-

ardo Ermita, recently declared that the 24

murders of journalists in Philippines had

all been properly attended to, in re-

sponse to the New York-based Committee

for the Protection of Journalists. It is out-

rageous for the Philippine government to

declare that these murders have been

properly attended to when not one single

conviction has been made in any of these

cases, said Joel Simon, the CPJs execu-

tive director. Theres no mystery how

the Philippines got on the CPJs global

impunity index Getting Away with Mur-

der 2009: the unsolved murders of 24

journalists. There is also no mystery how

the Philippine government can get off the

list: convict the killers of these journalists.

The CPJ will continue to support the ef-

forts of the Philippine government in

solving these murders and we hope it can

exert every effort to ensure the prosecu-

tion of the remaining cases.

ELECTIONS AND

CHARTER CHANGE

(CHA-CHA)

Benny Clutario

Under the Philippines 1987 Constitution,

the President is allowed only one term in

office. Desperate to hang on to power,

Arroyos supporters in the Philippine

House of Representatives passed House

Resolution 1109 on 2 June 2009 enabling

themselves to convene the House as a

constituent assembly with the power to

amend the constitutioneven without the

concurrence of the Senate.

This was widely seen as a manoeu-

vre that could pave the way for a change

in the constitution to allow a switch in the

government set-up from presidential to

parliamentary form. President Arroyos

term of office is set to end in 2010. A

change in the form of government would

potentially allow Arroyo to run again as a

member of Parliament without any term


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limits and even become Prime Minister.

This has been met with protests by tens of

thousands who took to the streets in vari-

ous towns and cities across the Philip-

pines against this act of betrayal by the

Arroyo government.

Then former President Corazon

Aquino died. Hundreds of thousands

again took to the streets to bid farewell to

a former President who was clearly much

loved by the Filipino nation. In stark con-

trast, the incumbent President stood out as

a lone and isolated figure, widely reviled

and hated. The Filipino people clearly do

not want an extension to Arroyos term as

head of state. They want an end to corrupt

government and an end to extra judicial

killings.While President Arroyo and her

political supporters have had to rethink

their options and backtrack a bit, the pros-

pect of extending Arroyos term as Presi-

dent is not entirely off the agenda. With

the June 2010 elections fast approaching,

politicians are busy positioning them-

selves with a view towards running for

political office.

Forcing through the constituent

assembly idea would be a very unpopu-

lar measure, but Arroyo has consistently

acted in her own interests rather than

those of the country. Clearly, she wants to

remain in power by hook or by crook.

The recent announcement by Aquinos

son Noynoy to run for President may

yet add a new and unpredictable ingredi-

ent to the mix.

ACTION NETWORK

HUMAN RIGHTS -

PHILIPPINES

For further information on the findings of

the ANHR-P mission, contact philip-

[email protected]

The German-based Action Network Hu-

man Rights Philippines this year con-

ducted a human rights mission to look

into political killings in the Philippines.

Representatives met with Philippine gov-

ernment, military and police as well as

church officials, local human rights advo-

cates and victims and their families. De-

spite the declared willingness of the Phil-

ippines government to address the human

rights problem, the government denies

that there is any official policy regarding

deaths quads and maintains that the kill-

ings are carried out by armed groups in

the context of factional rivalries and

purges between and among criminal and
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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insurgent gangs and armed groups. How-

ever, the vast majority of the killings re-

main unsolved and this fact is having a

corrosive impact on the confidence of the

public in judiciary processes.

Police Death Squads in

Davao, Philippines

This is a summary of reports that ap-

peared in The Irish Times and The Inde-

pendent. David McNeill writes for The

Independent and other publications, in-

cluding The Irish Times and The Chroni-

cle of Higher Education. He is an Asia-

Pacific Journalco-ordinator. See David

McNeill, The Terminators. Police Death

Squads in the Philippines, The Asia-

Pacific Journal, Vol. 24, No. 6, June 15,

2009. See also David McNeill in Davao,

The Philippines http://japanfocus.org/-

David-McNeill/3174

Police death squads are out of control in

Davao in the southern Philippines, say

human rights campaigners, murdering

slum children, the poor, suspected crimi-

nals and political enemies with impunity.

Mayor Rodrigo Duterte boasts that he has

made Davao the safest urban zone in the

Philippines, but Davaos motto: love,

peace and progress is belied by an ugly

killing spree that has claimed nearly 900

lives, including dozens of children. The

mayor says they all deserved to die.

What I want to do is instil fear, he told

reporters in February. If you are doing an

illegal activity in my city, if you are a

criminal or part of a syndicate that preys

on the innocent people of the city, for as

long as I am the mayor, you are a legiti-

mate target of assassination.

Condemnation and press coverage

have failed to stop the summary execu-

tions of what Mayor Duterte calls

societys gar-

bage, Davaos

own slum dogs:

alleged petty drug

dealers, young

toughs and street

children. Vigilantes

have murdered 894

people in the lasthttp://3.bp.blogspot.com/_wLQt0uHm3UI/SrLhWp-430I/AAAAAAAAAEQ/-

G25uN6gtkc/S660/Silence+Kills.JPG
http://japanfocus.org/-David-McNeill/3174http://japanfocus.org/-David-McNeill/3174http://japanfocus.org/-David-McNeill/3174http://japanfocus.org/-David-McNeill/3174http://japanfocus.org/-David-McNeill/3174


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decade, including at

least 80 minors, ac-

cording to the Tam-

bayan Centre for

Childrens Rights, a

Christian NGO that

operates in Davaos

city centre. It is the

only organization

keeping a systematic

account of the execu-

tions. The youngest

victim was 12 years old.

The executions follow a similar

pattern. Police officers or government

officials from barangays local admin-

istrative units approach alleged trou-

blemakers to warn that they have made a

hit list known as the order of battle or,

in Davao, as the Dutertes list. Failure

to heed the warning by quitting illegal

activities or leaving town is a death sen-

tence, usually carried out by men on mo-

torbikes carrying butchers knives or .45

-caliber hand-guns. The vigilantes have

achieved their purpose: instilling terror

in the citys slums, says Renante Ven-

tula, who lives on Davaos streets.

When we talk about them, we do so in

low voices because we dont know who

is listening. Last October, he says his

friend was murdered in a local Internet

caf. He had been warned by the San

Pedro police. Two men arrived on mo-

torbikes without license plates, went into

the caf and took turns stabbing him. He

had ten stab wounds.

Officially sanctioned vigilantism

is spreading as the countrys economic

woes deepen, warns Edith Casiple, Tam-

bayans executive director. The prob-

lem is now all over the country. Other

leaders are copying Mayor Duterte. In

several cities, including the capital Ma-

nila, politicians have praised Davaos

style of rough justice. Police officers in

collusion with local city governments

across the southern island of Mindanao

are involved in targeted killingsknown

in the local press as salvagings and

rub-outs say human rights groups.

Executions have also been reported in

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the troubled holiday resort of Cebu. Philip-

pine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo,

who once appointed Duterte as an advisor

on peace and order, has largely turned a

blind eye to the murders, claims Human

Rights Watch (HRW). Can central govern-

ment influence events in Davao? As late as

April, Malacaang Palace, the presidents

official residence, publicly told Duterte that

he should regain control over the city police

force, but rejected talk of an investigation

into the killings. The mayor is an elected

official. We cant act on something that is

not based on actual facts on the ground,

said government spokesman Eduardo Er-

mita. Observers say Duterte is beyond the

reach of the president, who has distanced

herself from him. He is well protected po-litically and therefore untouchable, said

Irish priest and human rights campaigner,

Shay Cullen. However, on June 17 this year,

the Philippine Commission on Human

Rights (CHR) announced the formation of

an inter-agency task force that will look into

Davaos death squads. The CHR is con-

cerned because these killings demonstrate

violations of not only the right to life but

also the right of persons suspected of

crimes, the CHR said. The rights body will

head the task force composed of representa-

tives with ranks not lower than an assistant

secretary or its equivalent from 11 govern-

ment agencies, including the Department

of National Defence, Department of Jus-

tice, and Philippine National Police.

CHR said the agencies would have to

cooperate, citing its constitutional power

to request assistance of any department,

bureau, office or agency.


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Abductions and Disappearances:Breaking the Chains of Impunity in the

Philippines

For the past eight years, hu-man rights groups estimatethere have been over 200cases of enforced disappear-ances in the Philippines andnew cases are being reportedevery year. Victims of these

abductions come from allsectors of society from la-bour activists to humanrights defenders.

Not a single one of these cases has been solved. Families of the disap-peared continue to wait and search for their loved ones.

Mrs. Edita Burgos, the mother of the missing activist Jonas Burgos, who wasabducted by unknown elements in April 2007, has been actively seeking

justice and campaigning for the surfacing of her son for the past twoyears.

21 October 2009 6:00pmAmnesty InternationalHuman Rights Action Centre

17-25 New Inn Yard, London EC21 3EA

Speakers:Edita Burgos, DesaparecidosJL Burgos, Free Jonas Burgos Movement

Hazel Galang, Amnesty International Nick Sigler, UNISON

Documents

CHRP Newsletter Autumn 2009