Press statement

3 April 2008

References:
Fr. Rex Reyes, Jr., NCCP General Secretary and Head of Philippine UPR Watch delegation (Number)
Ruth Cervantes, Karapatan PIO and Philippine UPR Watch media liaison (09189790580)

HOLD THE ARROYO GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABLE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

We human rights advocates call on the United Nations Human Rights Council to hold the Arroyo regime accountable for the human rights violations in the country in the proceedings of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on the Philippines in Geneva, Switzerland next week.

Our organizations, whose members have bore the brunt of the extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and other forms of human rights violations, have banded to form the Philippine UPR Watch that will send a delegation to Geneva to bring to the attention of the international community the truth about the bloody human rights record of the Arroyo government.

We expect that the Philippine government report will conceal its gory record the same way it hides the truth about its corruption and other crimes from the public. This is why we also call on the UNHRC to read through the lines and the lies of the Arroyo regime.

The Arroyo regime has done nothing to put a stop to the violations. It has done nothing to prosecute the real perpetrators. It has done nothing to give justice to the victims and their families.

Despite the findings of Professor Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, the government has not satisfactorily implemented any of his recommendations. The remedies opened up by other branches of the State continue to be unavailing and ineffectual to the victims.

Worse, cover-ups and false attributions aggravate the impunity against State responsibility. No one has been credibly convicted even as the killings, disappearances, torture, illegal arrests and political persecution continue without let up. One more killing or disappearance is one too many.

Domestic and international pressure has compelled the Philippine government to undertake steps that are by and large either token measures or window dressing.

The Philippine government is bragging about “a clean human rights record” in the face of the European Union’s praise for the supposed decline in the number of killings and disappearances.

In 2007, a human rights defender is killed every week and disappeared every other week while in 2005 and 2006, the frequency in killings is every other day. In truth, the 'de-escalation' of killings and enforced disappearances committed by their troops on the population proves the UN expert’s findings that these violations are centrally-directed under Arroyo’s counterinsurgency program. The EU glossed over the fact that none of the perpetrators of the killings and disappearances have been punished by the courts.

We hope that the UNHRC will listen to the Filipino people’s call for justice, to help put a stop to impunity and human rights violations in the country. ###

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NEWS RELEASE
1 April 2008
 

References:
Marie Hilao-Enriquez, Karapatan Secretary General
Member, Philippine UPR Watch Delegation (09178176274)
Ruth Cervantes, Media Liaison (09189790580)

44 delegates is ‘too much’
Gov’t using taxpayers’ money to cover up bloody rights record at the UN?

About 44 government officials will be sent by the Arroyo government to Geneva when the Universal Periodic Review on the Philippines will be conducted by the UN Human Rights Council on April 11, 2008. This was the information gathered by the Philippine UPR Watch, a coalition of non-governmental organizations monitoring the UPR event.

This prompted them to ask, “If this is true, why would the Arroyo government need to send a number of delegates that is as big as the 47-member council?”

Philippine UPR Watch also expressed concern on taxpayers’ money being spent to cover the expenses for such a huge number of government envoys. “Will taxpayers’ money cover the expenses of 44 government delegates to the UN? This is a very expensive mobilization of representatives, when they should spend people’s money to alleviate the current rice shortage and provide for quality social services.”

The group said there is no lack of government representatives in the UN that would be able to answer the UNHRC during the review.

For the Philippine UPR Watch, the government has to send that many people and spend that much money because of its indefensible human rights atrocities.

“Sending 44 delegates to the UN is not the measure of government’s seriousness in addressing the human rights crisis in the Philippines but its desperation to cover up their bloody human rights record.”###

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Jonathan Sta. Rosa, HRV survivor

and brother of slain Pastor Isaias Sta. Rosa

Ruth Cervantes

KARAPATAN Public Information Officer

National Democratic Front of the Philippines
Monitoring Committee

Press Release
5 April 2008

Ermita as Head of GRP HR Committee a vicious insult and attack
against victims of human rights violations and their families

The Chairman of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) Human Rights Monitoring Committee Fidel V. Agcaoili today expressed outrage over the appointment of Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita as head of the GRP 44-team delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on April 11.

Agcaoili said that Ermita’s record as the US pointguard and the GRP’s mastermind orchestrating the gross and systematic campaign of human rights violations and political repression is a vicious insult and attack against the victims of human rights violations and their families.

“Ermita’s appointment as delegation head speaks volumes about the GRP's contempt for the Universal Periodic Review and the UN Human Rights Council as well as the desperation of the GRP in trying to cover-up its bloody human rights record. The rascal is a notorious human rights violator and a psy-war expert. The GRP intends to bamboozle the UNHRC utilizing Ermita’s notorious psywar expertise, and all efforts must be made to expose this,” he said.

“What business does a notorious human rights violator, the chief butcher of Arroyo, have speaking on human rights and to the UNHRC no less? His upcoming report to the UNHRC can only consist of lies regarding how the killings have stopped through the government’s supposed efforts. The fact is that the Arroyo regime has temporarily reduced the killings because of the people's outrage all over the world. It is clear that no military, police officer or killer asset of the regime has been convicted for any of the killings.”

 

Agcaoili pointed out that being the chairman of the Anti-Terrorist Council of the Macapagal-Arroyo regime, Ermita stands only next to the bogus president as the one most responsible for implementing Oplan Bantay Laya I and II.

“He is also chairman of the Presidential Human Rights Committee which has done nothing but white-wash the atrocities of the regime. He heads the Internal Security Cluster of the Cabinet, the head of the Presidential Anti-Terrorism Task Force. His past is as checkered as his current career: he was with the Philippine Civil Action Group in Vietnam, coordinating with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in implementing Operation Phoenix.

“He was also head of civil-military relations during the time of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos and became deputy Chief of Staff for Operations of the AFP during the Aquino regime. This was a period when lawyers and congressional candidates of Partido ng Bayan were assassinated in the same pattern as the extrajudicial killings are being carried out today. He is the original organizer of hooded motorcycle-riding murderers who victimize legal activists,” he asserted.

Agcaoili said that Ermita’s appointment as delegation head exposes the cruel and callous character of the Arroyo regime. “This is a grave insult and attack against the victims and their families. Ermita’s mission to the UPR is clear: as head butcher of the Arroyo regime, he will deny the regime’s command responsibility and direct criminal culpability for the extrajudicial killings and lobby for the Philippines’ continued inclusion in the UNCHR. His appointment as head of the GRP delegation to the UPR makes a complete mockery of the process of the review,” he concluded.#

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■   A Look into the Complaints Submitted to the Joint Monitoring Committee, 4 June 2004 to 31 December 2007 - a publication of the NDFP Monitoring Commitgtee

News Release

April 7, 2008
For Reference: Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño, 0920-9035683

RP violating international commitments
Bayan Muna to bring real human rights picture to United Nations body

Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño will exert a major effort to dispute the Philippine National Report (PNR) to the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) that “aims to exhibit the Arroyo government’s best practices in hiding the truth and evading accountability for the continuing spate of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, militarization, and political persecution of civilians.”

Casiño will join UPR Watch, a coalition of human rights activists and victims, who flew to Geneva last week in time for the April 11 session of the UNHRC’s Universal Periodic Review or UPR, a mechanism to ensure the fulfillment of each UN member State of its human rights obligations and commitments. As a result of disturbing reports coming from the human rights situation in the Philippines, the Philippines was listed as one of the first countries up for review this month.

“The Arroyo government cover-up starts with its claim that its PNR was crafted ‘through a consultative and participatory process involving a wide range of stakeholders.’ The Philippine human rights community has told me that no such process occurred,” Casiño said.

Citing a critique of the PNR made by the UPR Watch, the militant solon said that “the PNR listed down Constitutional provisions, republic acts, presidential decrees, executive orders, administrative orders, plans, programs and structures related to the promotion and protection of human rights but omitted the fact that despite these, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and other human rights atrocities have become routinary and systematic under the Arroyo government.”

“It is public knowledge that from 2001 to 2006, the Arroyo government has always denied its responsibility for the killings. It was only in late 2006, when the uproar reached unprecedented international condemnation that the government started addressing the issue but in a self-serving manner. As late as last year, Professor Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, concluded that the AFP, was in a state of denial about the killings and disappearances,” Casiño said.

The Bayan Muna solon joined UPR Watch in reiterating the Alston report recommendations that the Philippine government has simply refused to adopt and implement, among others:

1. extrajudicial executions must be eliminated from counterinsurgency operations;
 

2. the principle of command responsibility be ensured as a basis for criminal liability to prosecute military officers;
 

3. the military practice of publicly linking political or other civil society groups to those engaged in rebellion be stopped;
 

4. all “orders of battles,” “watch lists,” and similar lists maintained by the AFP, PNP, or other elements of the national security system, be publicly identified with explanations as to their purposes, criteria for inclusion, and the number of names on each list;
 

5. the Inter-Agency Legal Action Group (IALAG) be abolished and efforts be focused on investigating and prosecuting those committing extrajudicial executions and other serious crimes rather than politically persecuting the State’s perceived enemies;
 

6. all directives, memoranda, and orders that impede the constitutionally mandated role of Congressional oversight in relation to the AFP and the PNP, particularly over military activities and allegations of human rights abuses be rescinded.

“Not one perpetrator coming from the security forces that ordered, condoned, tolerated, encouraged, induced, got linked to an extrajudicial killing or disappearance has been credibly and effectively punished. To date, there are only 4 dubious convictions out of a total of 902 extrajudicial killings, and 180 disappearances, but not one of these 4 includes any State official despite overwhelming reports and findings of their involvement in most of these cases,” Casiño quoted from the UPR Watch critique.

“The Philippine delegation cannot hide the bloody human rights record of the Arroyo government. Diplomatic technocratese will not be able to smokescreen the failure of the Philippine government to effectively and sincerely fulfill its pledges and commitments as a member of the UN Human Rights Council,” Casiño said. #

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■   Window dressing can't hide stench of Arroyo regime's bloody human rights record --Karapatan
 

■   Highlights of UPR Watch's critique of the Philippine National Report (PNR)

■   PowerPoint - Critique of the Philippine National Report

■   Report on Extrajudicial Killings and Enforced Disappearances in the Philippines by Japan's Human Rights Now

■   Alston report on the Philippines

■   NCCP Human Rights Report

■   Background resource on the Universal Periodic Review Information for NGOs

■   Factsheet: Work and structure of the Human Rights Council

■   Guidelines for NGOs on the UPR

Submissions to the Universal Periodic Review

by Bayan Muna

Submissions to the Universal Periodic Review

by KARAPATAN

■   List of Bayan Muna members forceably disappeared during the GMA administration, Jan. 21, 2001 to April 16, 2007

■   List of Bayan Muna members extra-judicially killed during the GMA administration, Jan. 21, 2001 to June 30, 2007

■   SUBMISSION: By the Non-government Organization BAYAN MUNA (People’s First) PARTY For the UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW related to the PHILIPPINES

■   RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT As part of the KARAPATAN Submission Related to the Philippines For the UPR First Session in April 2008

■   SUBMISSION by the Non-Government Organization, KARAPATAN Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights Related to the PHILIPPINES for the Upcoming Universal Periodic Review First Session April 2008

■   List Of Philippine Organizations Supporting The Karapatan Submission Related To The Philippines For The Upr April 2008

■   Urgent Action Update

Other Submissions

■   Submission by the Asian Legal Resource Centre to the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review on human rights in the Republic of the Philippines

■   Submission of GMA Watch: A Network for Human Rights, Government Accountability, and Justice in the Philippines

■   Submission by Philippine NGOs (Ibon Foundation and BAYAN*) to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Philippines with session scheduled for April 2008

■   The Human Rights situation of Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines -- submitted by the Indigenous Peoples Rights Monitor to the office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights for the Universal Periodic Review of the Philippine Government

■   Submission by the National Council of Churches in the Philippines

■   Submission by the NGO working group in Asia

BONUS TRACKS:

LESSON FOR TODAY

Wrong values outside school

by NORMA P. DOLLAGA

Kapatirang Simbahan Para Sa Bayan (Kasimbayan)

3/F NCCP, 879 EDSA, Quezon City

published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer

April 4, 2008

Education Secretary Jesli Lapus, saying that students must be insulated from politics, appealed to political groups and personalities not to bring their battle over the national broadband network deal to school campuses.

Must the youth be kept ignorant of the affairs of the state? Shouldn't teachers guide them so they can make informed decisions?

The youth know very well that they are being deprived of their right to quality education, which they see in the poor facilities of their schools and, worst, the growing number of their classmates who are dropping out because of poverty. Must they turn a blind eye to corruption? Must they act deaf and dumb amid the fraud and official lies? Must the children of the victims of extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances meekly submit to the injustice that has been done to them and their loved ones?

The trouble with the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration is that it is focused on covering up its evil rule by repressing the people's basic freedoms. Arroyo must be reminded that children must be taught and nurtured with the values needed to shape a better society.

Robert Fulghum, in his book "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten," has a lot to say about leadership and governance. Let me cite a few:

• Share everything.

• Play fair.

• Don't hit people.

• Put things back where you found them.

• Clean up your own mess.

• Don't take things that aren't yours.

• Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.

• Wash your hands before you eat.

• Flush.

But what do our children learn from the Arroyo administration?

• While in power, amass as much wealth as you can.

• Buy votes to win elections. And if you must, call the chair of the Commission on Elections to manipulate the results in your favor.

• Kill, abduct, harass, torture, persecute those who work for justice, peace and meaningful change.

• Go sell our sovereignty and patrimony. Mother Nature be damned as long as you earn from the sellout.

• Stealing public funds is OK. Never mind if people go hungry and are deprived of proper health care, quality education and decent shelter, as long as you and your family get richer and richer.

• But feign piety and make sure your religious activities are covered by the media.

• Cover up your corrupt dealings. If exposed, try to make "palusot" (e.g., find a scapegoat). If there's no way out, say "I am sorry" in public, but find ways to escape accountability.

• Keep your supporters loyal with bribes and political rewards. Distribute

"paper bags" every time you meet with them.

• Always assure everyone that you will step down at the end of your term, as the law provides, even if you have contrary plans.

While teachers struggle in the classroom to impart the right values, their students see, in real life, a solid example of governance by corruption, lies, cheating, thievery and murder.

The youth know very well that they are being deprived of their right to quality education, which they see in the poor facilities of their schools and, worst, the growing number of their classmates who are dropping out because of poverty.

Must they turn a blind eye to corruption?

Must they act deaf and dumb amid the fraud and official lies?

Must the children of the victims of extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances meekly submit to the injustice that has been done to them and their loved ones?

- Norma Dollaga, KASIMBAYAN

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