Statement of the Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights (PCTFHR)
December 10, 2007

Stop state terrorism, political repression and human rights violations of US-Arroyo regime!

On this 59th International Human Rights Day, the Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights (PCTFHR) condemns the deteriorating state of human rights, peace and democracy in the Philippines under the US-Arroyo regime.  Since President Arroyo came to power in 2001, there have been 887 victims of extra-judicial killings, 185 enforced disappearances, close to 200 assassination attempts and more than 1 million people forcibly displaced.  Despite the international outcry against these massive human rights violations, the killings continue – particularly the targetting of non-combatants and civilians who are active in legitimate and legal progressive organizations.

As Canadians and overseas Filipinos concerned with human rights, we have been part of the growing international movement naming the Arroyo regime as culpable for these human rights violations.  In November 2006, our Canadian Human Rights Fact-Finding Mission to the Philippines documented and, in fact, experienced first-hand, the wanton violations of the people’s civil, political, economic, cultural and social rights at the hands of this repressive regime.

Under the principle of command responsibility, President Arroyo as Commander-in-Chief of the Philippine military must be held accountable for the human rights violations.  In particular, the Arroyo regime continues to pursue the counter-insurgency program, Oplan Bantay Laya (Operation Freedom Watch), which gives license to the Philippine military to black-list, surveill, harass and “neutralize” (i.e. abduct, disappear or arbitrarily execute) ordinary Filipinos who are working through their people’s organizations to exercise and assert their democratic and human rights.  Subservient to the US imperialist “war on terror,” the Arroyo regime is desperate to maintain its show of military force to justify the influx of US military aid.  We are alarmed at the intensifying militarization of urban and rural communities, which is creating massive displacement and internal refugees particularly in Mindanao.

We join in support and solidarity with the call of KARAPATAN (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights) that Oplan Bantay Laya, an embodiment of the US-Arroyo’s regime state terrorism, must be junked.  We know that previous regimes have pursued similar counter-insurgency programs that have failed to wipe out the decades-old armed revolutionary movement led by the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army.  However, it is only through a resolution of the roots of the armed conflict through the people’s struggle for national and social liberation that a just and lasting peace can be built in the Philippines.

Being based in Canada, we also reiterate our demands to the Canadian government to help end the killings and disappearances in the Philippines.  The Canadian government must do more than merely express “concern” about the killings.  It must take more concrete and effective steps to publicly denounce the Arroyo regime by doing the following:

1.    Review Canada’s current relations with and withdraw all military aid, bilateral aid and multilateral aid to the Arroyo regime while the political killings and other human rights violations continue to occur;
2.    Redirect Canadian partnership aid towards progressive community-based groups like KARAPATAN that advocate genuine development and uphold human rights and the dignity of life;
3.    Pressure the Philippine government to respect international human rights convenants and agreements; and
4.    Hold a Parliamentary Hearing on the human rights situation in the Philippines.

Despite the grave condition of human rights under the Arroyo regime, we salute the continued militance and defiance of the Filipino people as they continue to uphold the principle of human rights and sovereignty in their pursuit of the struggle for national and social liberation.   Even as they face worsening conditions of poverty, joblessness, landlessness; even as the US-Arroyo regime seeks to suppress their democratic rights through policies of political repression; and even as that regime brazenly kills and disappears ordinary Filipinos working for the betterment of society, the Filipino people continue to stand up and fight against tyranny, repression and state terrorism.  We take inspiration and hope from their continued resistance and we will, in the spirit of international solidarity, continue to support their struggle for genuine peace, freedom and national democracy.

Stop the extra-judicial killings now!
Surface the disappeared!
Freedom for all political prisoners!
Junk Oplan Bantay Laya (Operation Freedom Watch)!
Canada, stop sending aid to the militarist and repressive US-Arroyo regime!
Long live the Filipino people’s struggle for human rights, for a just and lasting peace and for national and social liberation!
Long live international solidarity!

Statement of the Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights (PCTFHR)
December 10, 2007
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