HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

2004: Year of ‘Open Terror’

3 HR workers killed; 6 persons abducted monthly

The human rights alliance, Karapatan, reports that the Arroyo administration’s “war against terrorism” has led to a reign of “open terror” directed against the Filipino people.  And the Hacienda Luisita massacre, it said, exemplifies the state of the human rights situation in the country, of legitimate courses of action being waged by the oppressed to fight for their rights and interests but find themselves victims of abuse by the state.

BY AUBREY STA. CRUZ MAKILAN
Bulatlat

Bloodied but unbowed: A wounded Hacienda Luisita striker Photo by Joel Capulong/Nordis

 “Open Terror” is how an activist, a doctor and a lawyer describe the human rights situation in the country under the Arroyo administration. Three human rights workers were killed and one is awaiting execution at the New Bilibid Prisons. An average of six forced disappearances every month for a total of 68 were reported from January to November 30 this year.  This figure surpassed the 30 cases of forced disappearances during the last three years.

The partial data compiled by the human rights alliance, Karapatan or the Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights, in its 2004 Report on the Philippine Human Rights Situation showed that there were 570 documented cases of human rights violations from January to November this year alone. These violations victimized 9,924 individuals, 441 families, 476 households, and 42 communities.

Karapatan’s records also showed that a total of 3,488 cases of human rights violations have been documented since January 2001 when Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assumed the presidency. These violations affected 193,871 individuals, 18,942 families, 106 communities, and 608 households.

State terrorism

The Karapatan report said the Nov. 16 massacre at the Hacienda Luisita highlights the human rights situation in the country today. Seven strikers were counted dead while other reports said there were 14 deaths in the massacre.

“When the state used its armed force to violently disperse the farm workers’ legitimate course of action to press for just wages and genuine land reform, at the crux of it, the state defended the monopoly of one of the richest and politically entrenched families in the country – the Cojuangcos,” it said.

Girlie Padilla, secretary general of the Ecumenical Movement for Justice and Peace (EMJP), on the other hand said the massacre is the “microcosm of the systemic disorder under the Macapagal-Arroyo administration.”

Aside from those killed, the violent dispersal of farm workers at Hacienda Luisita injured 114, unlawfully detained 110 and caused the disappearance of 39 others. Relatedly, there have been 5,033 victims of violent assaults against picket lines this year.

The report also stated that it is the state’s “war against terrorism” that has created the alarming rate of summary executions and massacres, enforced disappearances, torture, arbitrary and unlawful arrests and detentions, and other violations of basic democratic rights.

Karapatan recorded 45 victims of killings, 20 victims of frustrated killings, and 15 cases of strafing, indiscriminate firing and bombing victimizing 5, 599 individuals.

It further said that “state terrorism is the worse thing that can happen in a country where state security forces and paramilitary troops make no distinction between civilians and combatants.” The report added that “political beliefs and actions are regarded as terrorism to undermine forces opposed or critical to the government.”

It also noted that militarization has intensified with more troops being deployed in all regions of the country.  There are 39 battalions in Southern Tagalog, nine of which are in Mindoro; four battalions, one brigade and one division in Bicol; five battalions and one brigade in Cagayan Valley; 10 battalions in Western Mindanao; 10 battalions in Socsargen; nine battalions in Eastern Visayas; three brigades in Southern Mindanao; three brigades in North Central Mindanao; six battalions in Central Luzon; five battalions in Bohol; and two battalions in Cebu.

Thus, more and more communities are being held at the mercy of the military, it said. Karapatan has documented 14 cases of forcible evacuation/displacement during military operations affecting 3,106 individuals. Meanwhile, 68 households experienced destruction and divestment of property.

Padilla cited the deployment of the AFP’s Reengineered Special Operations Teams (RSOT) as one of the features of militarization in almost all the regions. She said soldiers enter communities and conduct systematic activities purportedly to get the sympathy of the villagers but end up terrorizing the rural populace. 

“It may look that no violations have been committed by the military in doing these but in truth, the people are more terrorized,” Padilla said.

“Interrogations, inclusion of names in the order-of-battle list, forcible signing of waivers and certifications for alleged rebel-returnees, surveillance, imposition of curfew, and control of food supply are just some of the RSOT’s schemes that terrorize the people,” Padilla said.

Legal people’s organizations have become targets of atrocities, too. Karapatan’s data showed that 48 members, officials, candidates, and volunteers of progressive political parties, such as Bayan Muna and Anakpawis, were killed since January 2001.

Union leader Samuel Bandilla, women organizer Melita Carvajal, and church worker Joel Baclao were gunned down in Leyte, Laguna, and Albay, respectively.

Early this year, Karapatan’s secretary general Marie Hilao-Enriquez and 20 others were charged with violating BP 880 for holding a rally on Human Rights Day last year. Stated authorities cited Batas Pambansa 880 in filing the charges. The law, passed during martial law, prohibits the holding of rallies without permit from local government and police officials.

To suppress dissent, protest actions were violently dispersed. An example of this was the violent dispersal of the July 13 multi-sectoral rally led by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance) at Plaza Miranda, Quiapo, Manila.  The rally was held to push government to recall Philippine troops in Iraq in order to facilitate the release of Angelo de la Cruz, a migrant worker taken hostage by Iraqi militants. Television footages showed several protesters being bludgeoned by police forces. About 513 individuals have been hurt and/or arrested in the course of dispersals of mass actions during 2004. 

Attacks on HR workers

Impunity in the commission of human rights violations is worse when human rights workers themselves are not spared. Fourteen human rights workers have been killed since 2001, three of them – Isaias Manano, Leima Fortu and Atty. Juvy Magsino, were from Mindoro island. Manano was killed on April 28, Fortu and Magsino on February 13.

Public Interest Law Center (PILC) member lawyer Edre Olalia told Bulatlat that “open terror” is manifested with the killings of human rights workers. He added human rights workers were targeted during the martial law because they were also activists and organizers of people’s organizations and multi-sectoral alliances. Unlike now, they are killed because of their human rights work, he said.

Padilla said that these killings were done blatantly – shoot at in close range, in broad daylight and in public. Olalia added that these killings symbolically provided further impunity to the perpetrators.

Journalists suffer the same plight. After the death of Stephen Omais, 23, a journalist in Kalinga was tortured and found dead on December 1. The number of slain journalists since 2001 reached 28; 13 of them were killed this year.

Human rights workers are also subject to other forms of violations. Before sunrise of Oct. 9, suspected members of the Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPA-ABB) harassed Karapatan and EMJP staff, their visitors, and other families living in the compound.  The harassment, perpetrated by armed men, happened at the Karapatan office, which was two blocks away from the AFP hospital.

Ironically, human rights advocates joining fact-finding missions (FFMs) to investigate cases of human rights violations were also victimized. A 61-member FFM team was held hostage on April 16-17 by 20 armed men at the Protestant church and then in a Catholic church in Pinamalayan town, both in Mindoro Oriental. They were about to investigate reports of abductions and killings in the area.

Health professionals participating in fact-finding and medial missions were also not spared.

Dr. Reggie Pamugas, 34, secretary general of the Health Action for Human Rights (HAHR), said that since they formed the group in 2000, their doctors, nurses and other volunteers have experienced harassments. He, himself, has experienced harassments when he joined FFMs and medical missions conducted by Karapatan. He said these harassments happened even if they inform local officials before proceeding with the mission as a standard operating procedure.

For example, last Nov. 21, Karapatan, together with other church people, health professionals and lawyers, held a national fact-finding and medical mission to investigate reported abuses committed by the military in Abra de Ilog, Sta. Cruz, San Jose and Magsaysay, in Mindoro Occidental. At the same time, the mission intended to provide free medical services to the people there. After their courtesy call with Mayor Leonardo Abelleda of Sta. Cruz, the latter asked the municipality’s chief of police to ensure the team’s safety.

Earlier on Nov. 12 Karapatan wrote Lt. Gen. Efren L. Abu, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), requesting assistance for the “unhampered conduct of the NFFMM”. The letter was referred to Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz.  Not surprisingly, Padilla said, an official of the Civilian Affairs Division of the Philippine Army (PA) told them over the phone that they cannot ensure the team’s safety in the area.

While they were providing free medical services to the residents of Brgy. (Village) Armado in Abra de Ilog on Nov. 22, hooded men arrived carrying placards tagging the team as members of the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

Dr. Pamugas said the hooded men violently disrupted the medical mission. To avoid conflict, the team went toward Mamburao while being chased by hooded men who were riding a dump truck with government markings and license plates.

The next day, the team was in the municipal gym of the Sta. Cruz, again conducting a medical mission. At noon, a squad of soldiers arrived in an army truck and positioned themselves about 25 meters from the gym. The soldiers were followed by three government-owned dump trucks with about 20-35 people on board, many wearing bonnets and bandanas over their faces, and some with pistols tucked in their waists.  The team suspected that these were members of a paramilitary group such as the CAFGU.

When the group began harassing them, some members of the team sought the assistance of the officer-in-charge of the police station, which was only 30 meters from the gym. They were told by the police officer to just stay inside the gym. But the armed group started attacking members of the team, injuring nine of them and some patients. One soldier hit one health worker on the right chest with an M16 rifle.

Representatives from the mission led by lawyer Poch Cinco went to the police station to file a complaint and to have the incident recorded in the police blotter. They likewise requested a police escort to Abra de Ilog.

But members of the paramilitary began throwing rocks at the bus where the participants took refuge, threatening to burn the bus. The fact-finding and medical mission team then went back to Batangas City via Abra de Ilog with a police escort.  They were forced to cut short the mission skipping San Jose and Magsaysay towns.

Dr. Pamugas said that the situation in Mindoro Island is the worst, much more than the situation in Mindanao. He said that they suspected that the police and military forces were in connivance with the paramilitary group that harassed them. He cited the inutility of the police in responding to their situation.

“Civilian authority is useless (in Mindoro) because of military rule,” he said.

“The government has a Commission on Human Rights and Department of Health but the problem is basic: the state is the perpetrator,” he said. “It’s like beating a person and treating him later with that person knowing that you’re the one who hit him in the first place.”

In this case, there’s no one to run to but to persons who are willing to help such as the HAHR, which provides medical services to the victims of violations committed by the state, he said.

Enforced disappearances and torture

This year’s cases of enforced disappearances affecting 68 individuals far surpassed the last two years’ record of 30. Added to this, 72 cases of illegal arrest have been recorded involving 301 individuals.

Like in the cases of killings, Padilla said abductions were done openly in broad daylight and in public. Perpetrators were armed and wore hoods but some of them still managed to regulate traffic to facilitate their movement like when Eduardo Serrano was abducted by armed men in civilian clothes on May 2. Serrano was later presented to the media as an arrested rebel after initially denying that he was under military custody. Also, it was only 4:30 p.m. of August 17 when three Bayan-Manila members were allegedly abducted by police officers in Sampaloc, Manila.

On Nov. 6, 10 people from Mindoro Occidental, who were on their way home from the hospital where they transported a patient, were abducted in Batangas. The police still deny taking custody of the ten even if the latter were already presented to media in a press conference held by the police last Nov. 8.

Jomar Torreliza, a farmer from Mindoro Oriental, was abducted and tortured last September. He escaped from his captors and took his family to safety but could not go back to their home for fear that soldiers would go back and kill him, the report said.

Jomar Torreliza is one of the 44 victims of torture documented this year.

Justice delayed

Reports that the $684 million Marcos ill-gotten funds had been transferred from an escrow account at the Philippine National Bank (PNB) to the General Fund of the government alarmed members of SELDA or Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at para sa Amnestiya (Organization of Ex-Detainees Against Detention and for Amnesty), an organization of former political prisoners during Martial Law. They fear that the funds have been dissipated during the presidential campaign. 

SELDA members have been fighting for their indemnification.  But the proposed bill that would amend the Agrarian Reform Law and facilitate the transfer of part of the funds sequestered from the Marcos family in their favor was not passed during the 12^th Congress.

There are 233 political prisoners languishing in jails all over the country. Five of them were sentenced to death.  One of them died while in prison. Of the 233, five are women and 12 are minors. So far, only 17 political prisoners have been released. Among them were Zenaida Llesis and her ailing baby Gabriela (LINK), Irene Plagtiosa and her daughter, and 13-year old Levy Malabanan who was in military custody since the age of nine.

The Arroyo administration committed to release 32 of them. Only 10 have been released due to the efforts of the government. 

Of the 124 detainees in the National Capital Region (NCR), 91 are Moro people suspected of being members of the Abu Sayyaf group.

Struggle’s gains and prospects

Karapatan was also able to secure the release of 17 political prisoners in 2004 through a combination of lobbying, political pressure, and legal court battles.  

It lobbied for the formation of the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC), which was launched last April 15, in compliance with the Comprehensive Agreement for Respect on Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL).  CARHRIHL was signed by both the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in 1998 as part of the on going peace negotiations.

Karapatan also presented a report to the pre-session meeting of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) of the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations.  Thus, Karapatan has utilized all local and international venues for redress.   

But according to Karapatan, it is cognizant of the limitations of legal battles. “By and large, it (law) does not cater to the demands of the majority of the people so they do not rely on the law alone,” Olalia said. “It is just an expression of the dominant interest in society, the small elite, and reflection of their interest.”

“Though the people should broaden their arena for struggle, it is still the strength of the mass movement and the people’s collective struggle that determines the success of a battle,” he said. “History and experience tell us that all benefits out of law are result of struggles.”

Karapatan foresees an increase in violations of human rights and international humanitarian law under the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.  The alliance attributes this to the culture of impunity engendered by the AFP and PNP; the harsh economic policies the Arroyo administration is implementing, and its continued submission to the United States’ war on “terror.”

Padilla however said, that “the state is increasingly committing violations because it is afraid of the growing resistance to its anti-people laws and policies.  But it is also this growing people’s resistance that will push forward the struggle for human rights.” Bulatlat

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