nquirer Headlines / Nation http://newsinfo.inq7.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view_article.php?article_id=21549 Raps poised against Arroyo in UN agency By Blanche Rivera Inquirer Posted date: September 18, 2006 ARMED WITH DEATH certificates, the leader of a Filipino peasant group flew to Switzerland yesterday to file charges against the Philippine government as a human rights violator before a United Nations body. Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) secretary-general Danilo Ramos left for Geneva on a trip his group said could embarrass President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo internationally, as she headed home from her own foreign trip that has been touted by Malacañang as having brought immense benefits to the country. In the complaint it is filing before the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), the KMP names Ms Arroyo, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon and retired Army Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan as representatives of a government involved in murder, torture, illegal arrests and political persecution, according to the group. The complaints may not bode well for the Philippines, which was elected to the UNHRC early this year. The Arroyo administration has already received calls from the international community to stop the extrajudicial killings in the country. The administration has denied involvement in the abuses and said it has ordered its security forces to investigate and stop them. ‘No justice here’ Ramos was carrying with him complaints and authorization letters from the victims of the alleged violations and their families, along with death certificates, police reports and other supporting documents to highlight what activists claim is a state-sanctioned violation of human rights in the Philippines. “We are filing these complaints at the United Nations Human Rights Council because we see that justice here in our country can hardly be attained because those in power, particularly Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo … are the ones masterminding the killings and are also doing everything to escape culpability,” Ramos said in a departure statement. An official of the UNHRC will interview Ramos when he formally files the complaint on Sept. 19 in Geneva, where the UNHRC is based. The KMP said it was initiating the complaint because 54 percent of those killed were peasants, based on records of the human rights group Karapatan. The group has placed at over 800 the number of noncombatant civilians killed since Ms Arroyo took office in 2001, and said that 319 of the victims were activists. “This is also our last recourse because Arroyo and her ilk have blocked all means for us to attain justice -- from the local courts to impeachment (in Congress). She has blocked them all,” KMP information officer Carl Ala said. The 12 complaints to be filed by Ramos were collated from victims in southern and central Luzon and Bicol, and would be the first to be filed by a farmers’ group against the government before the UNHRC. Murder, torture The 12 complaints dealt with, among others: • The murders of Isias Manano in Oriental Mindoro in 2004, Romy Malabanan in Laguna in 2003, Nicanor de los Santos in Antipolo City in 2001, Leodegario Punzal in Bulacan in 2005 and Armando Javier in Nueva Ecija last year. • The frustrated murder of Peter Gonzales in Quezon in 2004 and Amante Avelon in Zambales in March. • The torture and illegal arrest of the so-called “Tagaytay 5” in April, of the “Antipolo 4” in October 2005 and the “Lopez 6.” • The political persecution of KMP chair and Anakpawis party-list Rep. Rafael Mariano and Ramos. “This will embarrass the government internationally. The big implication is that the Philippines, a member of the UNHRC, is a violator of human rights,” KMP legal counsel Jobert Pahilga said in a phone interview. Pahilga said that while the KMP did not mean to embarrass the government, the group was left with no other recourse but to bring the issue before an international arbiter. “We have exhausted all remedies in the Philippines and nothing happened. Most of the cases did not even merit a thorough investigation because there were no suspects or witnesses while those that were investigated were just dismissed,” he said. Aside from the actual complaints, Ramos brought with him documents from the AFP and the Department of National Defense related to the government’s anti-insurgency campaign. Fair shake “These documents will prove to the international community, especially the UN, that it is indeed the policy of the Arroyo regime to kill progressive and militant group members,” Ramos said. The KMP said it did not trust the Task Force Usig of the Philippine National Police and the Melo Commission to give justice to the victims. “At least at the UNHRC, we will have a fair shake because it is independent of (Arroyo), unlike the Task Force Usig and the Melo Commission,” Ramos said. ^ Back to top ©Copyright 2001-2006 INQ7 Interactive, Inc. An INQUIRER and GMA Network Company