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PRESS RELEASE
3 December 2011
International delegation pickets Philippine
Mission in Geneva vs. impunity
and continuing human rights violations in the Philippines
International delegates attending the counter event to the Global Forum on
Migration and Development (GFMD) staged a protest picket on December 1 at
the Philippine Mission in Geneva, Switzerland, on the continuing human
rights violations in the Philippines. They handed over to Ambassador Evan
Garcia, the head of the Philippine Mission, an open letter addressed to
Philippine president Benigno Aquino III.
The counter event to the GFMD was organized by the International Migrants
Alliance-Europe Section (IMA-Europe).
The delegation came from Germany, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Denmark, Italy,
Netherlands, Nigeria, Switzerland and the Philippines and were headed by
IMA-Europe coordinator Grace Punongbayan and Rev. Cesar Taguba of the
International Coordinating Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICCHRP).
The open letter addressed to President Aquino reads in part: “Your
government is now going into its one and a half years in office but not a
single perpetrator of human rights violations during the time of Arroyo
has been punished. In fact, under your administration, the human rights
organization KARAPATAN has already recorded the following violations in
its June-September 2011 report: 55 extrajudicial killings, 8 enforced
disappearances, 41 cases of torture, 151 illegal arrests and 4,224 victims
of forcible evacuation from rural villages.
“Only recently, an Italian priest, Fr. Pops Tenorio, was killed for
supporting the struggle of indigenous people in Mindanao against mining
operations that were destroying their ancestral lands.
“These human rights violations are the direct result of your
counter-insurgency program Oplan Bayanihan that replaced Arroyo’s infamous
Oplan Bantay Laya.”
The members of the delegation made known to the Philippine Mission their
deep concern on the impunity and continuing violations of human rights
despite the change of administration in the Philippines from Arroyo to
Aquino.
A representative of the German-Filipino Friendship Association (GFFA) told
Ambassador Garcia that for several years now they have been campaigning
for the resurfacing of James Balao, a victim of enforced disappearance. He
expressed indignation that their letters to Philippine government agencies
were never answered.
Responding to the remark of Ambassador Garcia that the Philippine
government is looking into the allegations of human rights violations, the
representative from IBON-Europe stressed that the families of the victims
and the victims themselves have suffered and waited long enough and they
could not wait any longer.
The delegates from Ecuador, Colombia and Bolivia pointed to the Philippine
ambassador their deep concern that the situation in the Philippines today
is similar to the time of the military dictatorships in Latin America in
the 1970s and 80s where the security forces carried out summary executions
and enforced disappearances against political activists, trade unionists
and other oppositionists. They expressed solidarity with the Filipino
people in their quest for justice.#
For Reference:
Rev. Cesar T. Taguba
MIGRANTE International Europe
bayanintl@gmail.com |
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Rally at the
Consulate TO, 1st Int’l Day to End Impunity
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November 28, 2011
By Joseph Smooke
CHANTING SLOGANS of “no justice, no peace” and “stop killing journalists,”
outside the Philippine Consulate, protesters attracted the attention of
passers-by and the Consulate General to the first International Day to End
Impunity.
Although unable to take a position himself, Toronto’s Consulate General
from the Philippines, Pedro Chan, agreed to forward a letter from
protesters to President Benigno (Noynoy) Aquino III demanding an end to
human rights abuses in the Philippines.
A vocal and spirited group of more
than a dozen protesters representing Filipino-Canadian organizations
marched and chanted outside the office tower that houses the Philippines
Consulate demanding an end to extrajudicial killings, and demanding that
those who are responsible for the Maguindanao Massacre and other abuses of
power be brought to justice. They presented a letter to Consulate General
Chan asking him to send it to Malacañang Palace. Bayan Canada and Migrante
Canada coordinated similar actions in Vancouver and Ottawa.
The letter demands President Aquino “to investigate, arrest and prosecute
the perpetrators of and accessories to extrajudicial killings, enforced
disappearances, and other human rights violations.” The letter also urges
the President “to continue the prosecution of former President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo and her cohorts, not only for the crime of electoral
sabotage, but also for other heinous crimes she committed against the
Filipino people…” The letter is co-signed by Bayan Canada, Anakbayan
Toronto, Gabriela Ontario, Migrante Canada, Philippines Network for
Justice and Peace, and the Community Alliance for Social Justice.
Cathy Carpio of the Filipino Migrant
Workers’ Movement (Migrante Canada) intoned “We will not tolerate a regime
that sustains itself on violence and brutality. We condemn its oppression
and injustice. We will not cease to resist. We take to the streets. And we
assert peoples’ democratic rights. The culture of impunity must end.”
“Stop the killings in the
Philippines! Justice now!” Jonathan Canchela of Bayan Canada’s voice lit
up the cold grey scene. “We call on the governments of the world,
especially the government of Noynoy Aquino to end impunity in the
Philippines. To stop killing journalists; to stop killing activists; to
stop killing farmers; to stop killing lawyers who are fighting for
justice, who are fighting for justice for the people.”
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