Press Release -- 4 March 2010

Karapatan protests at AFP headquarters over recent killings
 

THE human rights group KARAPATAN picketed the gates of the AFP Headquarters at Camp Aguinaldo to denounce the alarming spate of extra-judicial killings (EJK’s) by suspected state security forces.
 

Three activists are the latest victims of EJK’s: BAYAN MUNA activist Rodel Estrellado of Barangay 3, Malilipot, Albay and B’laan tribal chief Rudy Dejos and his son Rody Rick Dejos of Barangay Zone-1, Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur.
 

According to KARAPATAN documentation, there are already ten victims of EJK’s by suspected state forces in eight weeks from January to February this year, and at least 40 victims since Pres. Aquino took office eight months ago. EJK’s are averaging more than once a week under Aquino.
 

“As the Aquino government talks peace, his troops are once again on a killing spree,” KARAPATAN spokesperson Jigs Clamor said
 

“The new Internal Peace and Security Plan (IPSP) ‘Bayanihan’ of the AFP, approved by Aquino, included so-called selective targets of military operations. This is no different from the Oplan Bantay-Laya of the AFP under Macapagal-Arroyo which killed 1,206 in nine years. Aquino seems "all talk and no action” in ordering state security forces to stop the killings. If Aquino really wants peace, he should stop the killings,” Clamor said.
 

Estrellado, 34, was abducted around 9:00 am on February 25 by four men posing as Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) agents as he was walking home after buying food for his family at the local market. He was forced to board a grey car with the plate number MXN 902 according to Vince Casilihan, Karapatan-Bikol regional coordinator.
 

Casilihan said that as early as 6:30 a.m. on the same day, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) through Major Razeleigh Cabunoc issued a statement that a New People’s Army (NPA) member, identified as a certain Elmer Estrellado, was killed in an encounter in Brgy. Buluang, Bato, Camarines Sur. This was also in a blotter report in PNP Bato filed later by Major Danilo Ambe and 2nd Lt. Maribel Donilla based in Mabaludbalud, Tigaon, Camarines Sur.
 

The “Elmer” reported by the military turned out to be Rodel. His remains was recovered by his family at a funeral parlor in Camarines Sur on February 27.
 

Meanwhile, the B’laan tribal chief and leader of the Zone-1 Farmers Association (ZOFA) in Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur affiliated with the Kilusang Magbubuid ng Pilipinas (KMP), Rudy Yalon-Dejos, 50, and his son Rody Rick, 26, were found dead with gunshot and stab wounds inside their house on February 27.
 

The Dejos family members were consistent targets of harassment and intimidation by soldiers from the 39th IB Philippine Army and members of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) since June last year.
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PUBLIC INFORMATION DESK
publicinfo@karapatan.org
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Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights
2nd Flr. Erythrina Bldg., #1 Maaralin corner Matatag Sts., Central District
Diliman, Quezon City, PHILIPPINES 1101
Telefax: (+63 2) 4354146
Web: http://www.karapatan.org

KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties. It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign. It was established in 1995.
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PRESS RELEASE
March 10, 2011
            
Military harassed funeral march for slain activists

Davao del Sur – Human rights group Karapatan condemned the harassment done by the AFP’s 39th Infantry Battalion during a funeral march yesterday (Mar 9) held for two slain farmer activists in Sta. Cruz, this town.

More than 500 members of human rights groups and farmers organizations held the funeral march for the father and son Rudy and Rudy Rick Dejos, both members of the Zone 1- Farmers Association (ZOFA) affiliated with Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP). The groups stopped over at the 39th Infantry Battalion detachment for an indignation protest action and proceeded to a funeral march when the elements of the 39th IB blocked their way and harassed the group.

According to Hanimay Suazo, Acting Deputy Secretary General of Karapatan, “The military insulted us. Wala baya lain nga dunay motibo sa pagpatay  sa duha kundili ang mga elemento sa 39th IB.”

On February 27, the Dejoses, residents of Sitio Malusing, Brgy. Zone 1, Sta. Cruz, Davao Del Sur, were stabbed and shot dead. They were found past noon time within the premises of their home with their bodies bearing signs of torture. A fact-finding team composed of human rights advocates found out that their nails and fingers were smashed with a hammer and their bodies were black and blue from bruises.

Their families and the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas believe that only the 39th IB has motives in killing the two.

“My husband and son have been constantly persecuted by the military because of their political involvement. Every time there would be an encounter between the army and the NPA within the vicinity, they would automatically be subject to suspicion and be accosted,” said Mercy Dejos as she calls for justice over her family’s fate.

On June and December last year, the Dejoses filed two separate complaints of harassment, threat and intimidation against the 39th IB and members of the 39th IB – installed Barangay Defense System (BDS).

“We call on the authorities to speedily resolve this attack against human rights defender. We fear that under the Aquino government whose counter insurgency program Oplan Bayanihan is no different from the previous Oplans, the cases of victims of human rights violation will pile up just like what happened with over a thousand extrajudicial killing victims under the Arroyo administration,” Suazo said.

The Dejoses are the fourth and fifth victim of political killings in the region under the Aquino administration.#
 

A Luksang Parangal is an activity by friends and supporters of the dead where they pay tribute and extol their lives. The military, the principal suspect in the twin brutal murders, without an invitation, attended the tribute.

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Press Release
March 2, 2011

Reference: Danilo Ramos
Secretary General – KMP
0917-6073166

Noynoy government not satisfied with pro-landlord CARPer, uses Oplan Bayanihan to terrorize peasants; Oplan Bayanihan is sugar-coated state terrorism

“Noynoy wields so much power and yet he remains unsatisfied with his sham pro-landlord agrarian reform program, CARPer, to decimate militant and progressive peasants that he utilizes the country’s number 1 human rights violator – the AFP – and its ‘Oplan Bayanihan’ to make our prime agricultural lands ‘howling deserts’ devoid of farmers and agricultural workers,” Danilo Ramos intensely asserts.

“We condemn the vicious and dastardly killing of Rudy Yalon-Dejos, 50 and his son Rody Rick Dejos, 26 last February 27, 2011 in Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur. They belong to the B’laan tribe, of which Rudy serves as tribal chieftain. They are also peasants, with Rudy serving as Vice-Chair of Zone 1 Farmers Association or ZOFA. ZOFA is part of NAMASDDS – Davao del Sur, the regional chapter of KMP,” Ramos explains.

As per reports and urgent action updates dated March 1, 2011, the lifeless bodies of elder and younger Dejos were discovered in the afternoon of February 27 by Rudy’s wife, Mercy. They suffered stab and gunshot wounds. Their bodies bore bruises which suggest that they were tortured with great severity as evidenced by their smashed hands and nails.

“We demand that justice be served to Rudy and his son Rody Rick and all peasant victims of extra-judicial killings,” Ramos declares. “We have had enough of murders, enforced disappearances and political repression; we offer condolences to the families of our martyred peasants and pay tribute to their valiant stand to struggle for genuine agrarian reform and national democracy,” Ramos continues.

Landlessness is the principal difficulty which burdens farmers. The massive land use conversions and agriculture labor force statistics based on comparisons between the 1997-1998 Census and the 2002 Census of Agriculture shows that in Southern Mindanao, to which Davao del Sur is part, there are 8 landless peasants for every 10 peasants. CARP contributed largely to the ejectment of farmers and this consequent landlessness coupled with the heavy militarization to protect the interests of landlords and facilitate the entrance of large-scale destructive mining operations in the area.

Furthermore, the presence of large monopoly-market oriented investors like San Miguel Corporation, Coco Davao Inc., Franklin Baker Co., GSL Food Industries are direct manifestations that investors and bureaucrat capitalists are so eager to push out the remaining land-owning peasants and destroy the livelihood of tenant farmers in order to concentrate landholdings to themsleves. Oplan Bayanihan as the overarching state security program serves to protect the interests of big businesses in the countrysides and vainly suppress the growing peasant unrest.

Ramos notes that the failure CARP brought and which CARPer will keep up together with RA 9742 also known as the Mining Act of 1995, will further result to the utter destruction of our peasantry’s vital resource – land. And the only other solution that the Noynoy-led government puts forward is to not only drive out peasants from their resources but to eradicate them as well with merciless brutality.

According to reports of KARAPATAN, of the 9 victims of human rights violations this year, 6 of them are peasants. Of these 6 peasants, three of them have been murdered.

“May this grief that we experience as we lose our peasants be turned to resolve so that we may defy and smash the power this oppressive and exploitative system continues to inflict on us farmers who feed our nation,” Ramos exhorts.###

The 39th IB of the Philippine Army sent a bunch of flowers to the family of Rudy and Rudyric, which the daughter, Marilyn, promptly  smashed to the ground and burned.

Media Release
15 March 2011

Hustisya slams Army’s charges against rights advocates

Davao City - A group of families and relatives of victims of political killings, HUSTISYA! denounced today Lt. Col. Oliver Artuz of the 39th Infantry Batallion for desperately trying to divert the military’s accountability to the death of Rudy Dejos and his son Rudyric Dejos of Brgy. Zone-1, Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur.

The group said that Artuz has revealed this by threatening to file cases against leaders of human rights and progressive organizations for illegal assembly during a funeral march last 09 March 2011.

“This is a clear harassment against human rights defenders. The 39th IB under Lt. Col. Artuz are desperate because the people of Sta. Cruz have spoken and have pinpointed to them as the perpetrators of the brutal killing of the Dejoses,” said Bayan Intise, spokesperson of HUSTISTYA! Southern Mindanao.

Intise said that initial result of the fact finding mission revealed that circumstantial evidence would point to the military’s culpability in this recent case of extra-judicial killing.

Intise added that documentation records of human rights group KARAPATAN showed that the military had previously threatened the victims to stop their activities in the peasant organizations that is asserting for their rights. Rudy Dejos was listed in the order of battle by the 39th IB soldiers who forced him to go to the military detachment for tactical interrogation. Last year, he was threatened by the military after knowing his involvement in a local chapter of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP).

“Despite the repeated attempts to intimidate and harass him, Rudy Dejos continued to work with the KMP and its campaigns for land and livelihood, and against the military’s barangay defense system (BDS),” Intese said.

“The BDS regulated and limited the movement of community folks and local food supply. Residents have been made to write about their whereabouts in a journal. Those who enter and leave the area are obliged to give their names. Community folks have been forced to watch the military posts. Further, leaders and members of progressive organizations have been subjected to intensive surveillance and vilification which have turned the whole community into a military garrison,” Intise added.

The group also cited KARAPATAN’s documentation showing that there were already twelve (12) victims of extra-judicial killings (EJKs) all over the country perpetrated by state security agents from January to February this year. There are already 40 victims of EJKs since Pres. Aquino took office eight months ago. Five of these victims were peasants in Southern Mindanao.

“The average incident of extra-judicial killings is more than once a week under Aquino which is very alarming despite the regime’s promise of upholding human rights. Political killings must be stopped now,” Intise added.###

FOR REFERENCE:

BAYAN INTISE
Spokesperson, HUSTISYA-SMR
0999-668-4249

Karapatan-SMR   Deputy Secretary General  Hanimay Suazo in a confrontation with 39th IB CO LtCol Oliver Artuz

Military encampment in a public place of Sitio Malusing Brgy Zone Sta Cruz DavaoSur

PRESS RELEASE
7 March 2010

KARAPATAN CHALLENGES NEW AFP CHIEF TO WEED OUT HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATORS

As President Aquino appointed Lt. Gen. Eduardo S.L. Oban Jr. as the new 42nd chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the human rights group KARAPATAN issued a challenge for Oban "to weed out human rights violators within the state security forces".

Karapatan spokesperson Jigs Clamor said that the top three priorities spelled by Gen. Oban did not include human rights as an integral part of the AFP reforms.

Gen. Oban told the media that his top three priorities are reform against corruption, modernization and the counter-insurgency Internal Peace and Security Plan (IPSP) dubbed by the AFP as "Bayanihan".

"Oban has obviously left out human rights among his priorities. Although the IPSP Bayanihan purports to respect human rights, there are now 40 victims of political killings since Aquino took office, ten of whom were killed since the AFP's Bayanihan was launched. Suspected perpetrators are elements of the AFP and other state-sponsored forces. Gen. Oban should look into these," Clamor said.

Among the latest victims of extrajudicial killings were BAYAN MUNA activist Rodel Estrellado of Barangay 3, Malilipot, Albay and B’laan tribal chief Rudy Dejos and his son Rody Rick Dejos of Barangay Zone-1, Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur. Estrellado, who was abducted in Albay, was allegedly killed in an AFP encounter with the New People's Army in Camarines Sur last February 25. The Dejos father and son were killed last February 27 after having been harassed by AFP troops since July last year.
 

"Oban is duty-bound to weed out the human rights violators among the 130,000-strong AFP troops if he really wants reforms. So-called 'civil-military operations' for basic services to the communities are better left to government agencies and the 16-year old business of AFP modernization initiated by Congress in 1995 has only squandered the people's money. Plunder of the nation's coffers is bad enough. Perpetuating impunity and placing critics in coffins is worse," Karapatan stated.

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Reference: Jigs Clamor, Acting Secretary General (+63-920-946-6210)
Angge Santos, Media Liaison (+63-918-979-0580)
 

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PUBLIC INFORMATION DESK
publicinfo@karapatan.org
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights
2nd Flr. Erythrina Bldg., #1 Maaralin corner Matatag Sts., Central District
Diliman, Quezon City, PHILIPPINES 1101
Telefax: (+63 2) 4354146
Web: http://www.karapatan.org
 

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39th IB-AFP intelligence asset punished in Davao del Sur

Red partisans of the Magtanggol Roque Command-New People's Army in Southern Mindanao implemented the standing order against 39th IB-AFP intelligence asset Roldan Quitua, 24, last February 25 in Santa Cruz, Davao del Sur.

Contrary to the 10th ID-AFP's vehement claims, Quitua was not a civilian but was a long standing combat intelligence asset of the 39th IB-AFP. His case officer is 39th IB-AFP's Lt. Villegas. Quitua's father is a Cafgu member in Sinuron, Santa Cruz.

In the last quarter of 2008, Quitua was tasked by his military handler to enlist in the NPA to gather combat intelligence. He had a short stint inside the NPA and as his duplicity was about to be uncovered he immediately abandoned his post. Quitua fed intelligence information to the 39th IB-AFP on the location and troop disposition of the NPA unit that almost resulted into two defensive actions for the NPA. Both AFP raids were fortunately thwarted by the guerilla unit after timely information relayed by the revolutionary masses. In 39th IB-AFP military operations in Davao del Sur, Quitua was involved in harassing and intimidating the masses in Santa Cruz particularly residents who are vocal against the 39th IB-AFP's rights violations and the AFP-enforced Barangay Defense System.

The NPA lambasted the 10th ID-AFP's fabrication that Quitua was tortured by Red fighters while the standing order was enforced and the military's misrepresentation of Quitua as a civilian. Torture and barbarity are the 39th IB-AFP's trademark and not the people's army.

By rendering service to the 39th IB-AFP as an intelligence asset, Quitua ceased to be a civilian. As an active agent of the 39th IB-AFP combat intelligence unit, Quitua forfeited his protected status as a civilian and rendered himself a legitimate target of the NPA. The NDFP Declaration of undertaking to apply the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and protocol 1 of 1977 had clearly stated that personnel of the AFP, PNP, paramilitary units and their intelligence elements are considered legitimate military targets.

The case of intelligence asset Quitua should serve as a strong warning to counter-revolutionaries and fascist troops who continue to unleash their brutality against the people.

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