Bishop Iniguez' contribution to the SC Summit on Extra-Judicial Killings and Enforced Disappearances

The extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in our country and the
apparent impunity connected with these are causes for deep national alarm.
These are connected with the right to life, "the most basic and fundamental
right and the condition for all other personal rights."

This summit is indeed commendable. It can turn into a veritable effort to
confront this area of human rights crisis objectively and with determination
towards satisfactory moves and hopefully solution.

I wish to mention the second session on the Philippines of the Permanent
Peoples' Tribunal (PPT) convened on October 30, 2006. The trial proper was held
in the Hague, Netherlands, on March 21-25, 2007.

Among the charges in gross and systematic violations of civil and political rights
was: "as of today, there has been 778 victims of extrajudicial killings, 370 have
survived political assassinations, 203 have been massacred, 186 abducted and
involuntarily disappeared, 502 have been tortured and hundreds of thousands
have been victims of illegal arrests and arbitrary detention, indiscriminate
bombings, artillery fire, strafing, arson, eviction, forced mass evacuation and
displacement, violent dispersals of peaceful rallies, food blockade, harassment,
surveillance, false labeling and demonization campaigns, etc." ( 3.1)
In the verdict issued on March 25, 2007, we find in no 6 the data on extrajudicial
killings, torture and forced disappearances: "An impressive amount of cases of
extrajudicial killings, disappearances and torture, often in combination with
each other, have been documented before the tribunal by oral testimonies by
survivors, witnesses and experts who provided also the opportunity of more in
depth questioning by the jury. Further for each of the cases a very detailed
account, including copies of original documents and certificates has been
available to the jury. The synoptic presentation of 839 cases of extrajudicial
killings in a table allows on one side the detailed view of the increasing number
of cases from the 98 in 2001 to the 213 in 2006, on the other side makes visible
the composition of this 'population' which is truly and fully representative of the
targeted killing strategy: persons associated with 'left' organizations, Church
people, community leaders, peasants, journalists, lawyers, people of the socalled
party list organizations (parliamentary oppositions) , human rights activists
or simply witnesses of extrajudicial killings. It also appears that most of the killings
have taken place in those regions of the country that are identified as 'priority
areas' in the Oplan Bantay Laya (the counter insurgency program dating from
2002, adopted in the framework of the anti-terrorism campaign after 9/11).
Victims are usually, prior to the attacks, subject to a vilification campaign by the
military or anti-communist vigilante groups. They are said to be members of the
CPP/NPA or its 'front organizations, ' labeled as 'terrorists' . In fact the victims are
often poor peasants campaigning some more loans, clergymen who have
criticized the government for its alleged inhuman politics, human rights workers
and others, peacefully, struggling for better conditions for the ordinary people
who have nothing to do with political violence?.

The overall picture made available to the jury on Charge 1 {Gross and
systematic violations of civil and political rights: extra-judicial killings,abduction
and disappearances, massacre, torture) Is in fact perfectly fitting the broader
scenario outlined in the discussion of the Oplan Bantay Laya. Having failed in its
earlier strategies to defeat the CPP and the NPA the government is now
concentrating its oppression in the political more than the military component of
the left opposition: the aim of 'neutralizing' legal institutions and organization
become an excuse for the killings of peaceful persons. The witness to the
tribunal, retired captain Danilo Vizmanos is explicit in the analysis of Oplan
Bantay Laya being not designed to engage New People's Army into armed
conflict with the Philippine army, but to attack, torture and kill defenseless noncombatants,
poor peasants and social activists."

With regard to the politics of impunity, "the absence of any serious attempt to
assure an investigation on the killings, has been confirmed by all the witness.
No photos, no fingerprints are taken, no other investigative measures applied,
no prosecution is started because of lack of evidence. Even the most brutal
atrocities hardly elicit any decisive action or even oral condemnation of the
government. The history of the Melo Commission reflects well this attitude of
denial: the government has been politically forced to install the commission with
the mandate to investigate the killings: despite the qualification of the facts as
'incidents', with no responsibilities of the army nor of the police, the government
tried everything to delay the publication, ultimately without success. Another
report, by UN social rapporteur Philip Alston, much more critical, has been totally
denied and even derided by the government."

"Conclusion: the Tribunal , having considered the evidence given before it, is of
the opinion that the reported killings, torture and forced disappearances fall
under responsibility of the Philippine government and are by no way justified in
terms of necessary measures against terrorism."

BISHOP DEOGRACIAS S I?IGUEZ, JR., D.D.
Catholic Bishop Conference of the Phils.
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