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Press Statement
July 20, 2007

Challenge to President Arroyo on her SONA:

Stop the Killings!

The Ecumenical Voice on Peace and Human Rights in the Philippines commends the Supreme Court especially Chief Justice Reynato Puno for an unprecedented and successful Summit on Extrajudicial Killings and Enforced Disappearances. Given the above, the Ecumenical Voice hopes that the Supreme Court will render a swift ruling on the constitutionality of the Human Security Act (HSA). Even as it does so, it is our fervent prayer that the Supreme Court will heed the pleading of many freedom-loving Filipinos that the HSA is not the way to genuine peace but rather a means to exacerbate the human rights crisis.

The Ecumenical Voice maintains that the gross and systematic violations of human rights characterized by the political persecution of progressive groups and active critics of government are being committed in the context of a relentless counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism program. As such, a review of the government's counter-insurgency program must be undertaken with urgency taking into account the various human rights instrumentalities enshrined in the Constitution and the Philippine government's obligations under various international instruments and covenants on respect for human rights. As the Summit correctly points out, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, as the Commander-in-Chief, has the command responsibility over the human rights violations committed by her troops. It would be good for her to order the review of Oplan Bantay Laya or better yet, to rescind it completely.

We challenge President Arroyo to act on the Summit recommendations. An initial step in accord with the Summit recommendations is for the president to order a stop to the killings. We also challenge her to immediately cause the suspension, investigation and prosecution of present and former members of security forces who have been credibly alleged to be responsible for gross violations of human rights.

News reports indicated that President Arroyo will unveil her vision of transforming the Philippines into a First World country in 20 years during the State of the Nation Address for the opening session of Congress. This is a lofty vision given that her counter-insurgency program based on the edict to crush the "enemies of the state" does not address the roots of dissent and civil unrest: grinding poverty, the continuing denial of basic social services, the proper disposition of our natural resources as opposed to corporate greed and a lopsided economic policy dependent on foreign aid and investments, corruption, electoral reform, among others. These concerns need genuine and long term resolutions and not generic statements or reactive solutions.

But the most urgent concern is to stop the killings. This is the cry of suffering and pain of hundreds of thousands of documented and undocumented victims of human rights abuses.


References:
Fr. Joe Dizon

(0919-8826487)

 Fr. Rex RB Reyes Jr.

 (929-37-45/925-17-65)
 

Convenors

80 plus year-old KADAMAY Chair Aling Mameng Diuneda marching  in  the lead group with KMU Chair Bong Labog, AGHAM Chair Dr. Gani Tapang and Kalikasan's Enteng Clemente.

People's SONA in Cotabato City

Photos courtesy of Suara Bangsamoro Partylist

Suara Bangsamoro lead Moro people’s protest against GMA’s SONA

Suara Bangsamoro led the protest rally of the Moro people in Cotabato City that criticized  President Gloria-Macapagal Arroyo’s use of Mindanao and “waging peace” with the Moro revolutionary groups as mere showcases for her seventh State of the Nation Address.

“Mere blueprints of super-regions and infrastructures are nothing if the Arroyo administration is not true to its word that they will prioritize peace in Mindanao,” said Amirah Ali Lidasan, national president of Suara Bangsamoro.

“President Arroyo has a lot to make-up for the Moro people and infrastructure projects cannot  erase her sins against the Moro people for parading falsely accused Moro people as a measurement of the success of her anti-terror measures and for defiling the Moro people’s struggle for right  to self-determination by equating it with terrorism,” said Lidasan.

Lidasan further said that contrary to President Arroyo’s promises of peace and economic prosperity  in Mindanao, the people of Mindanao still suffer poverty especially those in conflict areas.

“President Arroyo’s top agenda in Mindanao conflict areas is still militarization and continuing all-out war against revolutionary groups that propels the people to evacuate as marines and armies of the President troop their communities in the name of pursuing insurgents and terrorist groups,”
said Lidasan saying that instead of calling for an ultimatum against the MILF which might lead to an all-out war, the President should instead call for a thorough investigation on what really happened in Albaraka, Basilan and not immediately point fingers at the MILF for beheading members of the Philippine Marines.

Lidasan further lambasted the deployment of more military troops in areas of conflict and  criticized the continuing presence of US soldiers in the ARMM areas, specifically in conflict areas where communities and territories of the Moro National Liberation Front and Moro Islamic  Liberation Front abound.

“The infrastructure projects in Mindanao given by USAID and built by US troops are mere ploy for the permanent presence of US soldiers in Philippine soil and are being paid for by the blood of the Moro people in conflict-areas,” said Lidasan adding that the presence of US troops in MILF and  MNLF areas and their reported participation in combat is a glaring violation of our territorial rights and is being boasted by the President as her feat for the Moro people.

Lidasan further commented that the implementation of the Human Security Act belies the promises of  peace in Mindanao.

“There will be no room for peace in the hearts of the people of Mindanao not when all actions criticizing the government is interpreted as terrorism under the HSA, the implementation of the anti-terror bill will only sow terrorism against the people and will be further abused by law  enforcers who has a high record of human rights violations against the people,” said Lidasan.

Lidasan also cited that while the President called for summits against extra-judicial killings in  the country, activists are still hounded and are being killed in the provinces. Last week, two members of Anakpawis Partylist in Tacloban city were killed in a span of a week.
 

Lidasan also fears for the lives of her fellow Moro activists and Muslim religious teachers and  preachers whose names were put in streamers and pamphlets distributed by US troops identifying them as communist fronts and terrorists.
 

Leaders of Suara Bangsamoro, Liga ng Kabataang Moro, Kawagib Moro Human Rights, AnakBayan-Cotabato City and Gabriela-Cotabato City, take turns in lambasting GMA's seventh SONA calling her a liar for showcasing Mindanao as recipient of her peace and economic prosperity agenda.

“President Arroyo must punish state agents who are implicated in the killings of political  activists and journalists, and not turn the tables against the people by imposing the Human Security Act that will further aggravate the violations committed by state agents against the  people,” said Lidasan.

Lidasan also added that the implementation of HSA will leave no room for peace negotiations as the  President can arbitrarily proscribe the MILF and the MNLF as terrorists if the two will not succumb to her version of a peace negotiation.

Above statement in txt format

► GMA’s offer of peace and security for the SONA: Recycled promises, but no room for Moro people’s pursuit of justice

► The Moro people have had it with GMA's all-out wars! Make Room for Peace, Pull-out troops in Basilan
 

People's SONA in Legaspi City

Photos courtesy of Bayan Bikol

(L-R): Fred Mansos, Bayan-Albay; Jun dela torre, Urban Poor; Vince Casilihan, Karapatan-Bikol and Felix Paz of KMP-Bikol

About 500 protesters marched from Daraga, Albay to Legaspi City, passing by Camp Gen. Simeon Ola, the Regional Office of the PNP and AFP. Karapatan Bikol has listed 146 cases of extrajudicial killings attributed to the military.

Karapatan-Bikol and Bayan-Bikol led various sectoral organizations like Urban Poor, KMP-Bikol, KMU-Bikol,  Gabriela-Bicolana, Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and others.

■ Bayan - Bikol statement on SONA

Lanao Peoples' Summit on the real state of the nation

and GMA's Terror Law

Mindanao State University, Iligan City

Photos courtesy of BAYAN - Lanao

Media Release

23 July 2007

For reference: Anjo Bacarisas, BAYAN-Lanao Information officer (0910-379-2860)

Lanao Peoples’ Summit to GMA’s HSA:

Not in the name of our Moro brothers,

not in the name of our people

Over two hundred participants of religious, protestant churches, academe, human rights workers, urban poor and Moro people convened today through an activity dubbed ‘Lanao Peoples Summit on the Real State of the Nation and the Human Security Act’ in time of Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s seventh State of the Nation Address.

The Summit--sponsored by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan-Lanao), Promotion of Church People’s Response (PCPR-Lanao), Sisters’ Association of Mindanao (SAMIN), Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP-Lanao) and Liga ng Kabataang Moro (LKM)—tackled the present state of the nation under the Arroyo presidency and underscored the intense poverty the people are suffering and the Human Security Act which they said “meant to terrorize the people resisting GMA’s anti-people policies.”

In a Manifesto of Unity signed by the summit participants held at the CED Ampitheater in Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology in Iligan City, the group “maintains that the HSA had only been implemented to quell the critiques of the Arroyo administration” and “intensifies the suppression of the masses who are only expressing their dissent over the government’s neglect of the nation’s basic needs.”

The Summit participants also lambasted the state’s “magnification of the Moro-Christian conflict just to fabricate grounds for the creation of the anti-terror law.”  The Manifesto reads “in the pretext of going after the terrorists, communities have been bombed, ransacked and traumatized.  Families have been dislocated, threatened, and tortured in the government’s anti-insurgency campaign.”

According to Summit Convenor Fr. Rudy Juliada of the PCPR-Lanao, “in the present times, civilians are deprived of their basic rights, most especially, of the right to live. This is the real face of terrorism—and it is being perpetrated by the state.”

In the group’s discussion facilitated by the famous human rights advocate Atty. Beverly Selim-Musni of Karapatan, they pointed out that HSA’s term and definitions are subject to varied and slanted interpretations.  The participants agreed that the law is in fact a premise for martial law, for it allows warrantless arrests, violations of the right to privacy, extensive detention periods, and other provisions that are “in direct violation to the Philippine Constitution.”

The Summit ended via a candle lighting ceremony in memory of the close-to-nine hundred victims of extra-judicial killings in the Arroyo regime.###

Above statement in Word format

The Summit tackled the present state of the nation under the Arroyo presidency and underscored the intense poverty the people are suffering and the Human Security Act which is  “meant to terrorize the people resisting GMA’s anti-people policies.”

Human rights lawyer  Atty. Beverly Selim-Musni of Karapatan facillated the summit's discussion on the Terror Law and other human rights issues.

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BONUS TRACKS:

GMA Effigies from 2001 to 2006

by the UgatLahi Artist Collective

2001 - Gloria  in a Box

2002 - Spider Gloria

▲ A Philippine Collegian article on the effigy works of the UgatLahi Artist Collective for SONA 2001 to SONA 2006

Making the Manananggal or Reyna ng Kadiliman effigy -- from concept to frame and papermache  sculpture

■  About UgatLahi

■ Slide show: GMA Effigies, 2001-07