Bulatlat

The Arroyo government has been keeping a secret political “list” of foreign nationals and some Filipinos residing abroad whom it doesn’t like. These foreign nationals have either joined human rights missions to the Philippines, signed petition letters demanding an end to extrajudicial killings, wrote about the government’s corrupt practices, lobbied their governments to end support to the Arroyo regime, or simply said something critical about the administration.

BY D. L. MONDELO
Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 29, August 26-September 1, 2007

The Arroyo government has been keeping a secret political “list” of foreign nationals and some Filipinos residing abroad that it doesn’t like. These foreign nationals have either joined human rights missions to the Philippines, signed petition letters demanding an end to extrajudicial killings, wrote about the government’s corrupt practices, lobbied their governments to end support to the Arroyo regime, or simply said something critical about the administration.

This secret “list” goes by several names – “blacklist,” “exclusion order,” “hold order” or simply a “watchlist” – distinctions of which, perhaps only the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID) or the Department of Justice (DoJ) knows.

With the recent passage of the Human Security Act (Anti-Terrorism Law), the Arroyo government seems to have used the “watchlist” as ammunition, to harass its foreign-based critics.

Because this list is supposedly secret, the foreign nationals on the list had no idea that they are in the list, and what the consequences are for them to be in the list.

This was exactly what horrified Dr. Annalisa Enrile, a U.S. citizen and assistant clinical professor at the University of Southern California’s School of Social Work and national chair of Gabriela Network (GABNet) USA, when she was barred from boarding her return flight to Los Angeles on Aug. 5 because her name was on the Bureau of Immigration’s “watchlist” and “hold-departure order” list.

She wasn’t told the reason(s) for her inclusion in the list, and why Philippine authorities were preventing her from leaving. She was instead asked to secure clearance from the recently-created Anti-Terrorism Council that includes Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, Cesar Garcia of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA), and Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr.

Dr. Enrile attended the 10th bi-annual Women’s International Solidarity Affair in the Philippines (WISAP) held in Manila last July, which was sponsored by the militant women’s alliance GABRIELA.

Two other U.S. residents, Ninotchka Rosca (a critically acclaimed novelist and known Filipino activist since the Marcos dictatorship) and Judith Mirkinson (a long-time women and human rights activist and researcher on international laws) who also attended the conference, were also in the list. They are both GABNet leaders like Dr. Enrile.

Together, the three have come to be known as the GABNet 3.

The three women were eventually allowed to return to the U.S. after they brought their case to the public, put pressure on their embassy to do something, and asserted their rights to speak out and criticize. Hours before their flight was to leave last Aug.14, their names and those of 500 foreign nationals were ordered removed from the list by the BID.  

A copy of the “watchlist” that Bulatlat was able to get hold of showed that the Arroyo government compiled a “blacklist” or “exclusion order” of foreign nationals before and during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Cebu. Its first open victim was American lawyer Brian Campbell who was refused entry into the Philippines to attend the ASEAN counter-summit activities upon arriving at the Ninoy Aquino international airport. Campbell was among the foreign participants to a human rights fact-finding mission to look into the extrajudicial killings.

Between November 2006 until the August 5, barring of Dr. Enrile, there were already several other unreported incidents whereby some of those in the “watchlist” who came to the Philippines were subjected to harassment at the immigration counters of the Ninoy Aquino international airport.

In February 2007, the BID lifted the “blacklist” but the names of the same 459 foreign nationals remained in its “watchlist.”   

A quick look at that “watchlist” would reveal some prominent names, among them are former U.S. Attorney-General Ramsey Clark, writer and academic Michael Chossudovsky of Canada, 2005 Right Livelihood (parallel Nobel prize) Awardee Irene Fernandez of Malaysia (also a juror in the recent Permanent People’s Tribunal [PPT] Second Session on the Philippines), former Norwegian diplomat Oystein Tveter (also a juror in the recent PPT session on the Philippines which found the Bush and Arroyo governments guilty of crimes against the Filipino people), acclaimed novelist Ninotchka Rosca and Rev. Barry Naylor of the Anglican Church in the UK. Rev. Naylor was the spokesperson of the International Solidarity Mission of August 2005 that looked into the spate of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

There are at least 30 Europeans in the list, a virtual “who’s who” in solidarity and development work for the Philippines. For instance, one name is a long-time official of a development agency dispensing official development assistance funds to major projects in the Philippines, another is a former European diplomat, still another is a political prisoner in his own country, while another has never even set foot on Philippine soil.

Like many other progressive Filipinos and militants who have denounced and described the list as “nebulous” and “preposterous,” European solidarity activists have been alarmed with the “watchlist” and the incident involving the three U.S. citizens, especially with the implementation of the HSA.

The Nederlands-Filippijnse Solidariteitsbeweging (NFS), the Dutch-Philippine Solidarity group, has described the hold order on the GABNet 3 as “dangerous.”

“We believe that the hold order against the three women activists is a serious matter which can be a precedent to gauge the effectivity of the Human Security Act of 2007 (HSA 2007), the newly passed anti-terror law,” a recent NFS statement read. Before the HSA, nobody can be held without charges, but with the HSA anybody can be held on mere suspicion.”

“These moves are a part of the anti-terrorist-law, but are mainly justified as such by the government to strike in desperate moves at any one that they feel as a threat to (their) existence or ‘stability.’ The anti-terrorist-law is not designed because of the existence of terrorists, but as an easy tool by the government to strike at any one they don’t like,” stressed Gerard (not his real name), a Belgian solidarity worker based in Manila, whose name is on the government “watchlist.”

According to Gerard, harassing progressive foreigners would be counterproductive for the Arroyo government, since it would only further politically discredit the regime locally and internationally, and barring foreign citizens from leaving the Philippines would force foreign embassies to get involved, as what happened when the U.S. embassy in Manila was forced to intervene in the harassment of its three citizens.

The European solidarity activists have vowed to bring the Arroyo government’s harassment of progressive foreigners to the attention of the international community.

“(As) regards calling the attention of the EU, I think it is also important to call for their sanctions and condemnation in relation to the ongoing political killings and disappearances. We urge the European embassies in Manila to be vigilant and to declare that they are ready to assist any of their constituents who might be harassed at the immigration in Manila,” stressed Daniel, another long-time European solidarity worker. Bulatlat