Ka Bel greets Montreal audience

with raised clenched fist

Satur presents the Philippine national situation

CAP-CPC's Tess Tesalon introduces solons

Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights
Press Statement
 

Canadians appalled by Philippine Ambassador’s statements

The Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights is appalled by the outright lies of Jose Brillantes, Philippine Ambassador to Canada in a radio interview yesterday.

Following an interview with visiting solons Rep. Satur Ocampo and Rep. Luz Ilagan from the Philippines on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Brillantes tried to dispute the concerns raised by the Philippine congress representatives about the spate of political extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances and other human rights violations in the Philippines.

“The Philippine government acknowledges the killings are happening,” said Brillantes. “The numbers are off by a certain percentage.” Citing the investigations of the government-initiated Task Force Usig and the Melo Commissions, Brillantes also said the investigations are being ‘hampered by a lack of specifics.” He also said when asked that “not more than ten of the alleged killings can be attributed directly to military personnel” and that government investigations have shown “perpetrators were from the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF),” which he described as “ultra-rightist elements.”

The human rights alliance Karapatan, along with Amnesty International and other international bodies have raised concerns over the government responsibility in the many political killings and human rights violations. It is the common line of the government to lay the blame on the revolutionary movement when in fact it is clear from Philippine military documents that members of legal progressive organizations along with the revolutionary forces are being targeted under the military’s counter-insurgency Oplan Bantay Laya (Operation Freedom Watch).

Ambassador Brillantes should do more research into the well-documented human rights violations in the Philippines. According to Karapatan, since 2001 there have been 889 extra-judicial killings, 200 cases of enforced disappearances and over one million people displaced. These findings have also been documented by the Joint Monitoring Committee of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, formed under the mutually signed Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL).

Members of the PCTFHR themselves witnessed the rampant abuses of human rights violations and experienced the direct surveillance and harassment of the Philippine military while on their fact-finding mission to the Philippines in November 2006. A team of the mission was detained for several hours and questioned by elements of the 74th Infantry Battalion (IB) of the Philippine Army in San Narciso, Quezon Province, south of Manila while on the mission.

Mr. Brillantes’ lack of knowledge and understanding of the situation in the Philippines was also confirmed when he was directly confronted by members of the PCTFHR during a community forum in Vancouver in December 2007. After giving a glowing picture of the Philippine economy and asking Filipinos in Canada to continue sending remittances back home and encouraging our relatives to migrate, he said that he did not have a position on the state of human rights violations in the Philippines.

When Luningning Alcuitas-Imperial, Western Coordinator for the PCTFHR cited the numbers of human rights violations and the findings of the report of Philip Alston, the UN Special Rappoteur on extra-judicial killings which found the Arroyo government culpable for human rights violations and asked Brillantes for his position, he replied, “I don’t know,” and said he would have to look it up.

As the representative of the Arroyo government in Canada, we as Canadians are disappointed, yet not surprised by Ambassador Brillantes’ comments. His spins are not unlike the lies of Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita in his presentation recently to the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Universal Periodic Review on the Philippines in Geneva Switzerland. Ambassador Brillantes, like Ermita, called the Philippines a “vibrant democracy.”

As Canadian citizens, we question this definition as well as the Canadian government’s claim that the Philippines is a “functioning democracy.” We decry the use of our taxpayers’ money to support the fascist government of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

We demand that Canadian bilateral aid to the Philippines should instead be directed to organizations that are legitimately working for genuine human rights. We vow to continue to strengthen genuine stronger people-to-people solidarity with the Filipino people in their struggle for a just and lasting peace. We call on all Canadians to educate themselves about the root causes of the human rights violations in the Philippines and work concretely in solidarity campaigns to expose Canada’s complicity in these human rights violations.
Statement issued: April 17, 2008
--

British Columbia Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (BCCHRP)
Member of the Philippines-Canada Task Force for Human Rights (PCTFHR)
c/o Kalayaan Centre, 451 Powell Street, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, V6A 1G7
Phone/Fax: 604.215.1905 | http://www.kalayaancentre.net
To sign onto on-line URGENT ACTIONS please visit: http://www.psacbc.com/philippines/
 

Download press statement
 

Ka Bel with community press people

Ka Bel with community leader

Satur and NDP Mulcair

Satur with president of FNAQ

Satur in action

Sautur with Filipino Nurses of Quebec

Luz Ilagan with Dolores Chew of South Asian Women's Centre

Registration of workshop participants in Montreal event

Tess Tesalona

Coordinator of CAP-CPC

Filipino community leaders luncheon in Montreal

Montreal Pulong Bayan

emcees

Satur discusses the RP national situation

CAP-CPC Malcolm opens the evening event

Satur with filmmaker Marie Boti

Jojo of the FNAQ gives solons parting gifts

British Columbia Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines
Press Release
April 14, 2008

Vancouver Labour Council Brings Resolution to National Labour Convention
MOMENTUM BUILDING AGAINST HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN THE PHILIPPINES

The Philippines is the second most dangerous country for trade unionists. In recognition of this, the labour movement in Canada is responding to the Filipinos’ call for support and solidarity.

Working with the B.C. Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (BCCHRP), a community-based solidarity organization, the Vancouver & District Labour Council (VDLC) has put forward a resolution to the upcoming Canadian Labour Congress Convention which will be held in Toronto from May 26 to 30, 2008.

The VDLC is the local organization of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) at the municipal level. The CLC, which represents 3.2 million unionized workers in Canada, works to strengthen solidarity between workers in Canada and other countries.

If the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) adopts the resolution in its present form, the CLC will:
1) Condemn the repression of human rights and trade union rights in the Philippines;
2) Support Filipino unions in their fight to realize an end to the killing and repression of trade unionists in the Philippines;
3) Demand that the Canadian government link its foreign aid to the Philippines to support for human rights and;
4) Join with the Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights (PCTFHR) in calling on the Canadian government to hold a Parliamentary Hearing on the human rights situation in the Philippines.

“As concerned Canadians and Filipino-Canadians, we are encouraged by the labour movement’s initiative to support human rights in the Philippines,” said May Farrales, Chairperson of BCCHRP, “We are confident that Canadian workers will realize the importance of the resolution as the repression and killing of trade union organizers in the Philippines must be condemned in the spirit of international workers’ solidarity,” says Farrales.

Ning Alcuitas, Western Coordinator of the PCTFHR adds, “The resolution is very positive. It will certainly help translate the groundswell of concern amongst Canadians and Filipino-Canadians over the deteriorating state of human rights and democracy in the Philippines into meaningful campaigns. We urgently need to continue to build and strengthen genuine people-to-people solidarity with the Filipino people.”

Since current Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo took power in 2001, she has spearheaded a bloody military counter-insurgency campaign that has resulted in more than 889 documented cases of extra-judicial killings (over 80 were trade unionists), 200 cases of enforced disappearances and the displacement of over one million people. - 30 -

For more information, please contact Laarni de los Reyes at bcchrp@kalayaancentre.net or
604-215-1905.
--
British Columbia Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (BCCHRP)
Member of the Philippines-Canada Task Force for Human Rights (PCTFHR)
c/o Kalayaan Centre, 451 Powell Street, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, V6A 1G7
Phone/Fax: 604.215.1905 | http://www.kalayaancentre.net
To sign onto on-line URGENT ACTIONS please visit: http://www.psacbc.com/philippines/

Download statement

Ka Luz's workshop on women and migrants

Ka Bel's workshop on Labour

Marie introduces Satur to progressive allies

Old friends reconnect with the solons

CAP-CPC's Malcolm Guy - National Coordinator of the tour

Evening event in Montreal

Filipino Nurses Assoc of Quebec

Media and publicity team of the Montreal organizing committee

◄Ka Bel and Luz look over Montreal souvenir programme

Community dinner and public forum in the evening►

BONUS TRACKS

He was one year younger last April 7, 2008  than he will be on the same day next year and friends of Ka Satur prepared a unique birthday cake and shared with him the joy of celebrating a milestone.

Belated birthday greetings, Ka Satur! -- from the Arkibong Bayan Web Team

Ka Satur's Birthday cake care

of the Filipino Nurses Assoc. of Quebec

Ka Satur returns from his meeting with the Ambassador and finds  a birthday cake

waiting for him

Montreal sings Happy Birtday to ka Satur

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