Canadian gov't urged to pressure RP on right situation


INQUIRER.net
Last updated 08:20am (Mla time) 05/17/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- A Canadian lawmaker and a human rights organization have called on that country's government to "exert pressure" on the Arroyo government to put a stop to extrajudicial killings and improve the Philippines' deteriorating human rights situation.

In a motion filed in the Canadian House of Commons before the May 14 elections, Francine Lalonde of Bloc Québécois, noting that "Canada provides assistance to the Philippines," suggested that "the Government of Canada should exert pressure on the government of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to take the necessary measures to correct this situation and to put an end to the political assassinations and impunity."

Lalonde noted " the serious deterioration of the human rights situation in the Philippines since 2001 and the systematic political assassinations taking place there as denounced by Amnesty International in 2006, by the Melo [Commission] report and by the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions [Philip Alston]," all of which linked state security forces to the killings and faulted the government for not acting to stop the bloodshed.

Lalonde's call was immediately supported by the Canada-based Stop the Killings Campaign, which noted that the lawmaker's motion had been supported by both the ruling Conservative party and the New Democratic Party, which represent the left-wing position.

"It is imperative that the Canadian government condemn these killings, and take action to ensure that Canadian tax dollars are not complicit in funding the political assassinations and human rights violations perpetrated by the Philippine military," Bern Jagunos, Stop the Killings Campaign organizer and United Church program coordinator for East Asia and the Philippines, said in a statement.

The group noted that the Canadian International Development Agency provides some Canadian $25 million in aid to the Philippines annually and that "there is roughly Canadian $1.5 billion in bilateral trade between Canada and the Philippines every year."

"The urgency of the action in Madame Lalonde's motion is highlighted by daily reports from the Philippines documenting an escalation of political killings, abductions, arbitrary arrests, detentions and other human rights violations in the run up to the election," the Stop the Killings statement said.


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