Members of the Canadian Human Rights Fact-Finding Mission to the Philippines marked the celebration of the International Human Rights Day by joining gatherings of various community organizations in forums that took the Canadian government to task for “paying lip service” to the intensifying human rights violations in the Philippines.
BY EDWIN MERCURIO
Contributed to Bulatlat.com
Members of the Canadian Human Rights Fact-Finding Mission to the Philippines marked the celebration of the International Human Rights Day by joining gatherings of various community organizations in forums that took the Canadian government to task for “paying lip service” to the intensifying human rights violations in the Philippines.
The returning Canadians chose the weekend of International Human Rights Day (Dec. 10) to bring the findings of their mission back to the Canadian public.
From Nov. 15 to 22, 2006, the fact-finding mission of nine Canadians from four cities witnessed first-hand the impact of the political killings, abductions, enforced disappearances and harassment on grassroots communities in the Philippines.
In Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, the participants of the mission returned to their communities to share with over 150 Canadians and Filipino community members combined during community forums their harrowing experience traveling to the Philippines – a country that the delegation describes as one gripped by growing military rule and marked by the breakdown of civilian authority.
Since current Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took power in 2001, Karapatan(Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights) has documented over 800 victims of political killings and 208 forced disappearances.
The returning delegation of Canadians explained that many of the 800 victims and 208 disappeared were ordinary civilians who were most likely “assassinated” by the Philippine military and its agents because of their involvement in legal and democratic organizations that have been openly critical of the Arroyo government.
They blasted the Arroyo regime for its paranoia in dealing with critics of her regime with her counter-insurgency program dubbed Oplan Bantay Laya (Operation Freedom Watch) which links ordinary civilians engaged in legal struggles to the underground armed resistance movement of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army (CPP-NPA).
“What is clearly happening is that Arroyo and her military agents are arbitrarily labeling community leaders and ordinary citizens as guerilla fighters or supporters,” explained Beth Grayer, a community organizer from Vancouver who visited the northern part of the Philippines. “This form of paranoid tagging is wreaking havoc on the lives of regular peasants and people as everyone is suspected as a ‘terrorist’ until they can prove themselves innocent.”
In response to the testimonials of the returning delegation, the forum participants questioned the role of Canadian foreign aid in helping to prop up the Arroyo regime and her military campaign. $22 million in Canadian foreign aid is being sent to the Philippines in the form of Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) funding to local projects. Based on data from the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), Canada is among the top six aid donors to the Philippines.
On Dec. 10, Peter Sutherland, Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines, announced that Canada will help strengthen small and medium enterprises in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) using the rational that supporting business development will result in peace and stability.
The returning delegates questioned the immediate and long-term negative consequences of such funding as the aid is going to the repressive and militarist Arroyo regime and possibly providing fuel to her military campaign.
“Our Canadian tax dollars seem to be going to help Arroyo’s counter-insurgency program that is wreaking terror on the majority of the Filipino people,” explained Cecilia Diocson, Eastern Coordinator of the PCTHRF who joined the fact-finding team in Southern Tagalog that was harassed by the military, “We would rather have our dollars going to progressive community-based groups like Karapatan that advocate genuine development and uphold human rights and the dignity of life,” Diocson added.
All the forum participants expressed great interest in the final report of the Fact-Finding Mission that is set to come out in January 2007, discussing ways of bringing the report and mission’s recommendations to the other grassroots organizations, churches, the media, trade unions, the larger Canadian and Filipino community and the government of Canada.
The PCTHRF looks forward to building from the positive gains of the Fact-Finding Mission and continuing to foster genuine and meaningful people-to-people solidarity between the people of Canada and the Philippines. (Bulatlat.com)
