Press Release

Reference: Marie Hilao-Enriquez
December 3, 2007 Mobile No. +63917 817 6274

2007 Human Rights Report:
Only GMA ouster can improve human rights situation

The human rights watchdog KARAPATAN today renewed calls for the ouster of Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in order to improve the human rights and overall situation in the country.

"The civil, political, economic and social rights of every Filipino
are being violated by this dangerous, fascist regime. Arroyo's
continued implementation of her counterinsurgency program Oplan Bantay Laya II, the Anti-Terror Law and other draconian measures show her blatant disregard for the growing criticism of her regime's human rights record," said Marie Hilao-Enriquez, secretary general of the Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights (KARAPATAN).

In its 2007 year-end report, KARAPATAN said the number of cases went down this year, with 68 victims of extrajudicial killings and 26 enforced disappearances compared to 185 killings and 93 disappearances in 2006. However, militarization of rural and urban poor communities continues and victimizes the civilian population.

KARAPATAN attributes the lowered figures to the successful campaign to bring to international attention the extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, the mounting pressure on Arroyo from the US Senate, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, the diplomatic community and various local and international peoples' organizations and human rights groups.

The Arroyo regime is also under pressure this year as it prepares for the April 2008 Universal Periodic Review as a member of the UN Human Rights Council.

KARAPATAN documentation shows that from January 2001 up to October 31 this year, there are a total of 887 victims of extrajudicial killings, and 185 victims of enforced disappearances. Enriquez notes that among these cases, not a single perpetrator had been convicted and brought to jail.

"Even the remedial measure by the Supreme Court – the writ of amparo – is proving to be prone to be circumvented by the military. This has been shown by the pattern of several victims being coerced to declare that they wish to remain in custody of the military, effectively clearing the military of accountability in their abduction and torture," Enriquez said.

Enriquez said that the climate of impunity on human rights violations and terror, as well as the dissent and unrest among the people, will continue under the Arroyo regime. "It is not enough to just change a policy; the source of this policy must be removed. Mrs. Gloria Arroyo must go," Enriquez said. ###

NDFP Human Rights mission to UN takes up

disappearances,  peace talks

International Information Bureau
National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP)

December 03, 2007

[Utrecht, 03 December] An official mission from the National
Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) Human Rights
Committee (HRC) recently met with various officials of the
United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, concerning the
enforced disappearances of peace advocates and political
activists in the Philippines and the status of the peace
negotiations between the Manila government and the NDFP.
This was learned yesterday from officials of the NDFP based
in Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Danilo Borjal, member of the NDFP-HRC, headed the official
mission to the United Nations. He presented his report to
the NDFP Negotiating Panel on 30 November, saying that they
held substantial discussions with the UN Working Group on
Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) and with
various officers of the UN Office of the High Commissioner
for Human Rights about the enforced disappearance of NDFP
consultants, staff and their companions, the deteriorating
human rights situation in the Philippines and the peace
negotiations between the NDFP and the Government of the
Republic of the Philippines (GRP).

While in Geneva, the mission also had fruitful discussions
with Dr. Syméon Antoulas, Diplomatic Adviser of the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Edith
Baeriswyl, ICRC head of operations for East Asia, Southeast
Asia and the Pacific.

Borjal said that they had a meeting on 21 November with UN
WGEID Chairperson Santiago Corcuera of Mexico, and members  Joel Adebayo Adekanye of Nigeria, Saied Rajaie Khorasani of  the Islamic Republic of Iran and Darko Göttlicher of Croatia, to follow up on the numerous cases of involuntary
disappearances of NDFP personnel and their companions.

Taken  up during the discussions were the cases of NDFP Consultants  Leo Velasco, Cesar Batralo, Rogelio Calubad and Prudencio Calubid, NDFP staff members Federico Intise, Leopoldo Ancheta, Celina Palma and Philip Limjoco, and their
companions who were also abducted and have since been
disappeared, Gabriel Calubad, Nelly Intise, Gloria Soco and
Ariel Beloy.

Citing Mr. Corcuera, Borjal said that the cases would be
taken up during the 83rd session of the UN WGEID. Any
response made by the GRP about these cases, according to Mr. Corcuera, would be included in that session's report. Borjal
said that the NDFP shall receive a copy of the UN WGEID's
83rd session report.

The NDFP-HRC mission also brought the UN officials
up-to-date on the ongoing peace negotiations between the
NDFP and the GRP and the people's movement in the
Philippines for national and social liberation. Borjal said
they turned over documents to Mr. Corcuera, including the
NDFP's Declaration of Undertaking on its Adherence to the
Geneva Conventions of 1949 and Protocol I, which has been
deposited with the Swiss Federal Council in July 1996.

"Our mission to Geneva was very productive," Borjal said.
"The various UN officials we met were sympathetic to the
issues we raised." They also met with Mr. Safir Syed of the
Office of the Special Rapporteur on Torture Dr. Manfred
Nowak, and brought up the torture and continued detention
for almost three years of 63-year-old NDFP Consultant Ms.
Angelina Ipong. Mr. Syed said they are aware of her case and
are following it up. They also met with an assistsant of
Martin Scheinin, the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and
Protection of Human Rights while Countering Terrorism, who
has sharply criticized the Arroyo regime's Anti-Terrorism
Act, euphemistically named "Human Security Act of 2007", for
gross violations of international human rights standards.

Borjal said they also followed-up on requests for the
Special Rapporteurs to investigate human rights violations
in the Philippines. Citing a UN human rights officer, he
said that "the GRP has not given the approval for the UN
Special Rapporteur's visit. The Arroyo government has been
trying to give some pretext to postpone the visit". #

REFERENCE:
Ruth de Leon
Executive Director
NDFP International Information Office
Tel.+31-30-2310431, Fax +31-84-7589930
Email: ndf@casema.nl

Download statement

Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines
Press Release
December 1, 2007

CPP demands immediate release of NDF peace consultant Elizabeth Principe

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today condemned the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for the abduction of Elizabeth Principe, a peace consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and demanded her immediate release.

Principe, 56, was abducted last November 28 by eight armed men in black special forces uniforms along P. Tuazon Avenue in Cubao, Quezon City and forced into a vehicle. The AFP later acknowledged that operatives of the Cagayan Valley-based Philippine Army 5th Infantry Division arrested Principe, but only after her release was demanded by the NDFP.

CPP spokesperson Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal echoed earlier statements by NDFP negotiating panel chief Luis Jalandoni that Principe is covered by the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) that provides for the free and unhindered passage and travel of negotiators, consultants and other personnel of both peace panels and protects them from surveillance, harassment, searches, arrest, detention, prosecution, interrogation and other similar action.

The CPP also demanded that the AFP respect Principe’s rights under the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), which was also duly signed by the NDFP and the Philippine government.

Rosal pointed out that even as formal peace talks await continuation, the JASIG remains
in force and should be respected and adhered to by the Arroyo regime.

“Principe’s abduction is the latest in a string of abductions of peace consultants and personnel of the NDFP being carried out by the fascist AFP. The Arroyo regime has once again exhibited outright contempt for human rights and wanton disregard for peace agreements.”

Rosal added that such continuing abductions depict the utter incorrigibility of the Arroyo regime even in the face of United Nations Human Rights Commission Special Rapporteur Philip Alston’s damning report that definitively pinpoints the Arroyo regime’s policies and the AFP’s “counterinsurgency” strategy as the framework within which the spate of killings and enforced disappearances are being perpetrated.

“The CPP and all revolutionary forces hold AFP commander-in- chief Gloria Arroyo responsible for Principe's abduction and any harm that may befall her while under custody of her military abductors,” added Rosal.

The CPP spokesperson also reiterated its call for the AFP to immediately acknowledge custody of all other NDFP peace consultants and personnel previously abducted and demanded the release of those who have not yet been summarily executed. Among those who remain missing to date are NDFP peace panel consultants Leo Velasco, Prudencio Calubid and Rogelio Calubad and their staff as well as civilians abducted with them. The AFP has consistently refused to acknowledge responsibility for their disappearance.#

■  NDFP condemns abduction of NDFP consultant Elizabeth Principe

■  Gabriela calls for release of 63-year old woman political prisoner

■  Serve the People: a Mustard Seed by: Ruel Muñasque

■  Southern Tagalog campus journalists call for release of detained alumni

■  AFP units in Panay responsible for assassination attempt on our nominee – Bayan Muna

■  Alston affirms extra-judicial killings is policy; Gloria Arroyo, Commander in Chief is accountable for human rights crisis - Maza

■  Arroyo should stop OBL II now - Karapatan

■  Labor centre encouraged by Alston report: cautions for continued
vigilance against extrajudicial killings

■  Final report of UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston on exdtrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions in the Philippines

■  GMA should “disappear” from government

◄ Leo Velasco, husband of Elizabeth, abducted in Feb. 2007

At Last, One of Them Has Been Found

Despite her three-day ordeal, Elizabeth Principe was in high spirits.
Read more

PRESS STATEMENT
03 December 2007

I am the only one surfaced among

the abducted DOJ 52

By ELIZABETH PRINCIPE
Consultant, NDFP Negotiating Panel

To extricate itself from further embarrassment and divert the attention from the people’s call for its resignation, the Arroyo regime was forced to surface me. I was abducted by the military last 28 November after undergoing a check-up at the Fern Laboratory in Quezon City and not in a shopping mall as maliciously peddled by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). My surfacing, just like the bombing of Glorietta, was intended to divert the attention from the people’s demand for Arroyo’s resignation.

I was forcibly abducted by 5-6 members of the military. I was blindfolded, handcuffed, and for 72 hours my ears were inundated with sounds. I was held incommunicado and interrogated inside the Intelligence Service Group at the Philippine Army Headquarters in Fort Bonifacio since 28 November. I was denied my right to counsel.

I was not even aware of the efforts of the Trillanes-Lim group, but I am ridiculously being implicated in the events that occurred at the Manila Peninsula Hotel.
 

Among the 52 persons listed and charged with rebellion by the Department of Justice (DOJ) under Oplan Bantay Laya, I am the only one who has been surfaced by the military. All the rest are still missing including my husband Leo Velasco. Although the military was against my surfacing, they chose to try to save the moribund regime of Gloria Arroyo.

It is a lie that my arrest stopped the big protest rally against the government last 30 November. The revolutionary actions against the government by the conscious and organized masses continue everyday in different forms all over the country.

Before the Filipino people I am criticizing myself for my laxity in taking security measures especially in this time of militant movement for the ouster of the Arroyo regime. #

REFERENCE:
Ruth de Leon
Executive Director
NDFP International Information Office
Tel.+31-30-2310431
Fax +31-84-7589930
Email: ndf@casema.nl

Download statement

Visiting Pastor Berlin Guerrero at the Cavite Provincial Jail

Photos courtesy of PCPR

The 2007 Year-End Report on the Human Rights Situation in the Philippines:

Some slides from the Powerpoint presentation

The Economic Situation

● 4.5M jobless, 7M underemployed
● 51.7% have regular wages
● 156 lose their jobs daily
● 7 out of 10 farmers are landless
● 3,400 leave the country everyday
 

Download Powerpoint Presentation      Part 01       Part 02

What OBL accomplished are the extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances of hundreds of men and women from among

● Political activists
● Peasants
● Workers
● Media practitioners
● Church people
● Lawyers
● Indigenous peoples
● Other civilians from various sectors of Philippine society.
 

Some casdes of Extra-judicial killings

Prof. Jose Ma. Cui, 53, shot dead on January 19 in his classroom.

Siche Bustamante-Gandinao, 56, testified before UNSR Philip Alston on the killing of her father-in-law, Dalmacio Gandinao, and was shot dead on March 10.

 

Cont'd:

Alano Clerigo, 34, abducted, tortured and summarily executed on October 10. Witnesses saw him forcibly taken by elements of the Scout Rangers Company under the 1st Scout Ranger Batallion. He was buried alive after he was burned, slashed, mauled and castrated. He was a member of a local peasant organization in Bgy. Menchaca, Calatrava, Negros Occidental.

Some cases of Enforced disappearances

Luisa Posa-Dominado and Nilo Arado, abducted on April 12 in Oton, Iloilo
 

Leo Velasco, taken by six heavily armed men in broad daylight on February 19 in Cagayan de Oro City.
 

Joseph Jonas Burgos, taken by men who introduced themselves as police on April 28.
 

Some cases of Abduction, illegal arrest, torture and arbitrary detention

Lourdes Rubrico, 63, abducted on April 3. She was released on April 10 after she was forced to sign a paper agreeing to become a military asset.
 

Pastor Berlin Guerrero was abducted on March 29 in Biñan, Laguna.
 

Elizabeth Principe, a consultant of the GRP-NDFP negotiations, abducted by several armed men in Cubao, Q.C on November 28. She was later presented by the combined AFP and PNP to the media.

Cont'd:

Luicito Bustamante, abducted on October 27, and was released on November 14, after Judge Robillo granted the counsel’s request that Bustamante be presented in court. Bustamante narrated how he was, beaten up, forced to eat his own feces, and a plastic bag was wrapped around his head to suffocate him.

Dangerous Regime, Defiant People

The 2007 Human Rights Report (KARAPATAN)

 

Download the full report

Inquirer

Alston report: AFP behind killings

“STRIKINGLY UNCONVINCING” IS HOW A United Nations special rapporteur has dismissed the claim of Philippine authorities that the extrajudicial killings of leftist activists were a result of internal purges in the communist ranks.

Tribune

AFP systematically executing leftists — UN

The United Nations yesterday affirmed another national embarrassment under President Arroyo

Malaya

Alston: AFP hunting down, killing activists
Final report to UN traces abuses to new anti-reb tactic

BY ANTHONY IAN CRUZ

RECENT efforts of the Arroyo government to influence the final report of United Nations special rapporteur Philip Alston on political killings besetting the country have proved useless.

Full Story...

Press Release: Reference: Arman Albarillo, Sec.Gen.BAYAN-ST
Dec. 2, 2007 Contact number: 09217104859

Elements of 74th IB of the Phil. Army Hang Peasants,
Sow Fear Among Citizens in Quezon

Elements of the 74th IB of the Philippine Army continue to fester and terrorize the people of Pala-Ajos, Catanauan, Quezon. On the 20th of November, the said elements of the AFP hang upside down farmers named Felicisimo Helera and Vencio Mercado according to the internal refugees whom yesterday, Dec. 1, KARAPATAN – ST took into custody. The 23 internal refugees, 11 of whom are children, came from Bgy. Malaya, Catanauan, Quezon province. All are victims of the widespread militarization in the area who decided to leave their place because of extreme fear of the military.

Read more

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Press Release: Reference: Arman Albarillo, Sec.Gen.BAYAN-ST
Dec. 3, 2007 Contact number: 09217104859

Southern Tagalog Launches Jail Visits
on International Day of Political Prisoners

BAYAN-ST together with different sectors and organizations in ST joins the world in its commemoration of the International Day of Political Prisoners’ today, Dec. 3, 2007.There are two jail visits done in line with this. One in Camp Vicente Lim to visit the Tagaytay 5 and another one in Lucena City to be spearheaded by KASAMA – TK and KARAPATAN – Quezon. The mob shouts and chants other particular calls like humane treatment to all detained persons and to stop militarization in the countryside where majority of cases of illegal and arbitrary arrests take place.

Read more

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