Gov’t HR Body Scored as Powerless
Negros: 5^th in rights violations nationwide

The government Commission on Human Rights (CHR), formed following the fall of the Marcos dictatorship, is falling short of expectations and is only good at paper work. The accusation was made by a Bayan leader on Human Rights Day and in the wake of the increase in the number of human rights abuses in the country.

By Karl G. Ombion and Edgar Cadagat
Bulatlat.com/Cobra-Ans

The Bayan leader made the accusation in the wake of the recent directive by the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) asking the Macapagal-Arroyo government to explain the circumstances in a number of human rights cases including the extra-judicial killing of human rights leader Eden Marcellana and peasant leader Eddie Gumanoy in Mindoro island.

Led by the Bayan leader, speakers representing various sectors of Negros denounced what they said were massive human rights violations committed by the government of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Fr. Jecson Davao, chairperson of the human rights group Karapatan-Negros, enumerated the various violations of civil, political and economic rights of the poor by the elite.

Repressive mechanisms

Casiño, a former student writer and leader, also pointed out that the government is now instigating repressive mechanisms such as the return of death penalty, setting up of checkpoints and implementation of a National ID system.

Laws have in fact been enacted that could have benefited the masses, said the Bayan leader, but then, the government has also two ways of implementing the laws:  ignore if beneficial to workers, farmers, indigenous peoples, students, urban poor, women and small fisherfolk; apply if they can be used to further the elite’s hold on power.

Casiño cited how big landowners violate the agrarian reform law and how big utility corporations impose onerous water and power rates to their hearts’ content.

As regards housing and allocation of urban land, the urban poor are always at the losing end, he said. He cited how squatters’ shanties near Congress were demolished to prettify the streets for U.S. President George W. Bush’s visit.

The militant leader also said that the Macapagal-Arroyo government has committed serious human rights violations that rival in number and brutality, if not surpass, those of previous regimes.

Casiño said that the human rights alliance Karapatan has documented 271 political killings, 32 of them Bayan and Bayan Muna members and officials, 10 were human rights workers under Karapatan, while there have been 150 cases of torture, 14 journalists killed, and 308 political prisoners still detained in the regime’s prison cells nationwide. Worse, 18 of them are women and 13 children.

According Casiño, the regions that hold the highest number of human rights violations are Southern Tagalog; Southern, Eastern and Central Mindanao; Bicol region; Northern Luzon; and Western Visayas which includes Negros island.

Battered Negros

Fr. Jecson meanwhile described how, under the Macapagal-Arroyo regime, “development aggression” has reared its ugly head.

This aggression is reportedly in the form of massive land grabbing, led no less by former Marcos crony and Macapagal-Arroyo’s ally Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr.; land use conversions; granting of concessions for destructive large-scale mining; and energy explorations by PNOC-EDC and other private groups.

As a result, 280 families have been uprooted from their lands and communities, 454 families have lost their livelihood, and several hundreds more have been displaced in coastal areas converted into so-called eco-tourism havens by the government, said Fr. Jecson.

In addition, unabated combat operations by the 303^rd Brigade troops and the paramilitary group RPA-ABB have driven thousands of poor peasant folks from their farms and villages in many parts of Negros.

Jecson said that under Macapagal-Arroyo, there have been 11 cases of warrantless arrests, 10 incidents of strafing and harassment, six torture, 12 illegal search and seizures, and seven rape cases including one allegedly by an RPA-ABB member.

Last year, a group of peasants including Moreto Arcadenia, was illegally arrested and tortured by soldiers of the 61^st IB PA and ranger units under the 3^rd ID PA. Arcadenia later died from torture. Before this, a leader of the militant National Federation of Sugarworkers (NFSW) in northern Negros, Tay Pedring Trabahador, was murdered allegedly by soldiers.

Reports also said there are at present 17 farmers and activists languishing in Negros’ jails for trumped-up criminal charges ranging from illegal possession of firearms, land occupations, and for fighting for their rights.

Compounding the list are the several thousands of sugar plantation and mill workers retrenched and some converted into contractual laborers, as the Philippine sugar industry continues to reel from the devastating effects of sugar industry’s backward technology, feudal system of management, massive sugar importation, and inability to compete in global market.

This is why, Jecson stressed, Negros is in the top five of the list of places with the highest number of human rights violations. Bulatlat.com / Cobra-Ans

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