karapatan on latest killings and abductions

Gracel Galacio

9 years old, Grade II pupil, Compostela Valley

Killed: March 31, 2007

Alleged perpetrators: military elements belonging to the 8th Infantry Battralion of the Philippine Army led by 2nd Lt. Francia John Gabawa, platoon commanding officer. The military claimed she was an NPA "child warrior"

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► Inquirer: Rights group to bring ‘child warrior’ case to UN

► Inquirer: Kin, friends of slain girl say she’s no communist rebel

► CPP: Children like Grecil are fair game to the Arroyo regime's atrocious military operations

► GMAnewsTV: NPA ‘girl warrior’ killed in Compostela firefight

► GMAnewsTV: Unicef, CHR urged to probe 'NPA child warrior' case

► Inquirer: CPP urges Unicef to probe death of 9-year old in Compostela

► Inquirer: Rights group says military ‘child warrior’ yarn untrue

Arthur Orpilla

50 years old, peasant, married, with children; Village councilor and resident of Baggao town, Cagayan province; leader of the Anakpawis party-list in Baggao

Killed: March 27, 2007

Alleged perpetrators:Armed men suspected to be elements of the 17th Infantry Batallion, Phil. Army, led by 2^nd Lt. Johnny Calub

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Dionisio Battad

50 years old, peasant, married, with children, resident of Baggao town, Cagayan province; member of the Anakpawis party-list in Baggao

Killed: March 27, 2007

Alleged perpetrators:Armed men suspected to be elements of the 17th Infantry Batallion, Phil. Army, led by 2^nd Lt. Johnny Calub

Download: Urgent Action FactSheet

► Dalawang lider ng Anakpawis natagpuang patay sa Cagayan Valley; Pulitikal na pagpaslang sa mga progresibong partylist, mariing kinondena.

► GMAnewsTV:Killings continue: 2 militants found dead in Cagayan river

► After murder of two, Cagayan activist gets death threats

► GMAnewsTV: Canadian churches seek probe of RP killings

► Gabriela urges CHR: Expedite investigation on Grecil’s Case;

► Gabriela Holds Esperon Liable for Girl's Death

► ‘Child Soldiers’ Label Used by Military to Escape Accountability

► Troops play kids’ tunes to drown protest over child’s death

► DavaoToday feature: The Happy Life and Violent Death of Grecil Buya

Lourdes “Nay Ude” Rubrico
62 years old, widow with 4 children, resident of Dasmariñas Bagong Bayan, Cavite; Barangay Coordinator, Bayan Muna

Abducted: April 3, 2007
Alleged Perpetrators: six unidentified armed men on board a light brown van with plate number XRR428

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► Elderly activist leader abducted in Cavite

Abner L. Hizarsa
55 years old, store owner, resident of Subic, Zambales, former political detainee, member of SELDA

Abducted: March 22, 2007
Alleged Perpetrators: Armed men suspected to be military elements

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Josephine Nogoy
32 years old, married, with two-month old twins, resident of Talaga village, Tarlac

Abducted: March 27, 2007

Alleged Perpetrators: Armed men suspected to be military elements

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KARAPATAN held a press conference today and presented some relatives of the latest victims of state terrorism in the form of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances. This includes a 9-year old girl killed by the military in Compostela valley and was passed of as an NPA "child warrior" to justify the crime. Photo shows KMP officer Willy Marbella and Karapatan Secretary General Marie Hilao-enriquez describing the latest victims of state terrorism -- two Cagayan peasants and a 9-year old pupil in Compostela Valley.

Summary execution of two peasant leaders in Cagayan Vallely Victims: Arthur Orpilla ■ About 50 years old, peasant, married, with children ■ Village councilor and resident of Bagunot village, Baggao town, Cagayan province ■ Chair of the local chapter of Kagimungan (Alyansa dagiti Mannalon ti Cagayan or Kagimungan or Alliance of Farmer in Cagayan), and leader of the Anakpawis party-list in Baggao, Cagayan province Dionisio Battad ■ About 50 years old, peasant, married, with children resident of Bagunot village, Baggao town, Cagayan province ■ member of the local chapter of Kagimungan (Alyansa dagiti Mannalon ti Cagayan or Kagimungan or Alliance of Farmer in Cagayan), and ■ member of the Anakpawis party-list in Baggao, Cagayan Date of Incident: Abduction - 27 March 2007 Recovery of bodies – March 28 and April 3, 2007 Alleged Perpetrators: Armed men suspected to be elements of the 17th Infantry Batallion, Phil. Army, led by 2^nd Lt. Johnny Calub Account of Incident At around 4 pm on March 27, Orpilla and Battad informed their families that they were going to the military camp in the community to report to the commanding officer. Since last month, the two men had been forced to report to the military camp upon orders of the 17^th IB PA’s commanding officer 2^nd Lt. Johnny Calub. According to their relatives, since last month Orpilla and Battad had been reporting twice daily, every 8 am and 4 pm, at the military camp located in the community and just one kilometer away from the two victims’ respective homes. Also last month, the two men were also forced by the military to tell the local media that their peasant organization is a front of the Communist Party of the Philippines and New people’s Army (CPP-NPA). Orpilla and Battad were forced to do so because Calub had reportedly threatened them that if they did not, that the military will implicate them in the killing of former Kagimungan chair Joey Javier, who was killed by suspected soldiers last year. The two men are active members of KAGIMUNGAN, a local chapter of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Peasant Movement of the Philippines). When they failed to come home, their families feared that the two were taken by the military. The next day, in the morning of March 28, the body of Arthur Orpilla was found near the Magapit Bridge in Lallo, Cagayan province, Cagayan Valley region, bearing multiple stab wounds on the left shoulder. On April 3, the body of Dionisio Battad, with a gunshot wound in the head, was also found near the Magapit Bridge. The peasant group Kagimungan has been known in the region for pursuing agrarian struggles, such as the lowering of interest in farm loans, increase in prices of agricultural products, and the implementation of genuine agrarian reform. Urgent Action sheet in Word Format









	VANTAGE POINT GRAVE DIGGERS By Luis V. Teodoro THE ARROYO regime response to the national and international outcry against the extra-judicial killings that it at least tolerates and at most orchestrates as a national policy has so far been two-pronged. It denies that the killings are even occurring (they're not extra-judicial killings, they're merely "unexplained" ; besides, there have only been about a hundred or so-a mere "blood speck"-and not 830 as human rights groups have documented). But it is also trying to prove its claim that it's not the military that's responsible. It's the New People's Army as well as the leaders and members of legal left groups like Bayan Muna that are doing it in the course of an "internal purge" that began in the 1980s and continues to this day, says the regime chorus. Mrs. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's recent statements are part of the denial approach. Over the last month or so, she's declared that the Philippines is among the "most democratic" countries in Asia, and that her government is expanding democratic space. She has proclaimed, for all the world to hear, that she has "no tolerance" for human rights violations. After many months of silence about it, she also claimed on at least two recent occasions that she values press freedom. The approach is at least validated by Joseph Goebbels, who believed, and who was probably right, that if you repeat a lie no matter how big often enough, people will eventually believe it. Goebbels, who orchestrated the propaganda campaign against the Jews during the Nazi period in Germany, did add a cautionary note to the Big Lie, however. "The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie." Goebbels also declared that it is "vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State." Translation: you can only lie so much. If you keep declaring that the Philippines is a democratic, prosperous state, you must also conceal evidence to the contrary from the people. What's more, you must use all the state's resources to suppress dissent, because the truth will be your undoing. Although the Big Lie as propaganda technique is often attributed to Goebbels, he had a mentor. Adolf Hitler said something to the same effect in his book Mein Kampf, where he declared that a big lie rather than a small one is more likely to be believed for its very outrageousness. Like Mrs. Arroyo, Hitler also made it a policy never to admit mistakes or accept blame. Instead he attributed everything ill to his enemies, primarily the Jews, and later, when he was at war with them, the Allied forces. They may not have read Hitler or Goebbels, but the propagandists of the Arroyo regime apparently have the same instincts. In keeping with the principle of attributing everything to your enemies, the military has been trying to prove its claim that it's the NPA and its "allied" and "co-conspirator" organizations (i.e., the leftwing party list groups) that have been doing the killings of leftwing activists. Not only have the killings gone on for over 20 years, their victims have also included children. Thus did the military claim to find the remains of 67 alleged victims of an NPA purge some twenty years ago in Leyte. And thus has the military recently claimed to have found another grave, in which the remains included those of two children. All, including the children, were supposedly NPA guerillas the NPA itself executed, in the killing of whom the military had nothing to do with-- although the rapidity with which the graves are being discovered does suggest something else. The military has also filed charges of human rights violations against the NPA before the Commission on Human Rights. It has also lined up one witness after another to testify-more before the media than the courts-against Bayan Muna's Satur Ocampo, for one, and other people it alleges to be NPA guerillas. Since NPA guerillas are in rebellion against the Philippine state and will be difficult if not impossible to prosecute, one advantage the military can gain from the discovery of all those "gravesites" is to reinforce the suits now pending against Ocampo and others accused of mass murder in Leyte. But the even bigger gain-or so it hopes-is to prove UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston, Amnesty International, the Asian Human Rights Council, and other human rights groups wrong. All have uniformly identified the military as responsible for the killing of political activists, and all have described these killings as "extra-judicial" -i.e., they are a state responsibility. Will this tack work? Remember Goebbels' warning that for the big lie to prosper, it is necessary to shield the people from the truth. The imperatives of the big lie require an aggressive campaign not only to suppress free expression, but also a sustained effort to show that the country is not only a democracy but also a prosperous one in which no one is harassed or even killed for his or her views, and no one goes hungry. The big lie also demands proof that it's not the military but the NPA and the Communist Party of the Philippines- the regime's main enemies-that are doing the killings. Can the regime sustain this campaign without further damage to its basement-level credibility? Not likely. After all, it will require the discovery of more and more "graves", as well as bigger and bigger lies. It is almost certain that more graves will be found not only in Leyte but in other places all over the archipelago. The AFP after all knows where the bodies are literally buried, some of its units having put them there in the first place. But you can only go so far without digging your own grave, as the economy deteriorates and such other lies as that the country has never been more prosperous fall apart in the face of hunger, mass misery, injustice and official corruption. AFP chief of staff Hermogenes Esperon says neither he nor the AFP is an undertaker, and he's right. The more accurate term is grave-digger. --### Column of Luis Teodoro in txt format


Relatives of the victims appeal for assistance in seeking justice for their kin.












Quick Facts, various statements and news features

Quick Facts: 12 victims of enforced disappearance in just 3 months 1-2. Gloria Pabillon, 40 and 17-year-old Mary Joy Opo (minor), abducted by suspected 19th IB PA, Albuera town, Leyte 3. Spouses Florentino and Betty Branzuela, who were abducted Jan. 19, in Brgy. Estaka, Dipolog City, Zamboanga del Norte 4. NGO worker Felicidad Katalbas, 53, abducted Jan 25 at the Kabankalan town proper, Negros Occidental 5. Leo Velasco, NDF consultant, abducted Feb. 19 in Cagayan de Oro 6. Romualdo Balbuena, 55, a peasant, abducted Feb. 25, in Quinapondan, Eastern Samar 7. Abner L. Hizarsa, 55, former political detainee and member of the Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainee Laban sa Detensyon at para sa Amnestiya (SELDA), abducted March 22 by suspected soldiers of the 24th IB PA in brgy. Ilwas, Subic, Zambales 8. Josephine Nogoy, 32, abducted March 27 in San Jose, Tarlac 9. Villamor Adona, 63, abducted March 27 in brgy. San Isidro, Sta. Ana, Pampanga 10. Lourdes Rubrico, 62, local leader of the urban poor group Kadamay, and barangay coordinator of Bayan Muna in Damariñas, Cavite, abducted April 3, Holy Tuesday, in Dasmariñas, Cavite		► Child-focused civil society groups urge CHR to probe, act on case of 9-year old girl-child killed by military in New Bataan, Compostela Valley ► Inquirer: Kin, friends of slain girl say she’s no communist rebel ► Inquirer: Rights group to bring ‘child warrior’ case to UN ► CPP: Children like Grecil are fair game to the Arroyo regime's atrocious military operations ► Civilian killed by the AFP, blamed to the NPA ► Bayan CL - Militants brace for resurgnece of death squad attacks in Central Luzon ► Cavite EMJP: PPO must refrain from wirting stories ► Kadamay Cavite: Nanay Ude sadyang sangkot sa mga usapin sa lupa ► Karapatan: CHR may yet find Palparan liable for political killings in Central Luzon ► Karapatan: Rising cases of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions committed after the UN Special Rapporteur report to the UN Humand Rights Council ► Inquirer: Gov’t forces accused of arson, abduction in Masbaten
		11. Leonardo Cabeles, peasant, married with 5 children, abducted April 3 in brgy. AltaVista, San Felipe town, Masbate province 12. Arthuro Orpilla and Dionisio Battad, leaders of the peasant group Kagimungan in Cagayan province went missing March 27 and were found dead in the Cagayan River under the Magapit Bridge in Lallo town1 Download Quick Facts in Word format

Bonus Tracks


		The Inquirer banner headline on this day was the raid by the NPA in Davao that increased their armory by more than 100 guns. Members of Karapatan and media shared the only Inquirer copy to read the details. The past two weeks have also seen raids and ambushes by the NPA in Abra, Isabela, Masbate and elsewere. That should tell the AFP to pull out its troops pronto from Metro Manila and assign them to the provinces. News on the raid: Inquirer1 Inquirer2 Manila Times


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