Joveth Velasco (left) and Gilbert Parani (right) at top right photo, as ISM delegates present an indictment paper against President Arroyo (above)                                                              Photos by Dabet Castañeda

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo may be dethroned from the Presidency not only for election cheating and jueteng payoffs but also for condoning the deaths of activists and civilians.

While legislators from the House of Representatives and the Senate remain embroiled in the amended impeachment complaint and the jueteng (an illegal numbers game) investigations, respectively, an international inquiry kicks off in the parliament of the streets. This time, it probes the President's culpability for political killings and at least 3,560 human rights violations incurred in her local “war against terror” as of Dec. 2004.

(Arroyo had earlier been indicted, together with U.S. President George W. Bush, in similar international tribunals in Tokyo and in New York over the war on Iraq last year.)

On Aug. 14-16, human rights advocates and families of the victims will convene with 85 foreign delegates from 16 countries, in the International Solidarity Mission (ISM) 2005.

Delegates to the ISM 2005 will visit and compile evidence from five areas all over the country where the grossest human rights violations (HRVs) have taken place: Mindoro Island in the Southern Tagalog region, Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac, Central Luzon, Samar Island in Eastern Visayas, and Surigao del Sur and Sulu in Mindanao.

The ISM 2005's findings will be submitted for trial at the International People's Tribunal, set on Aug. 19, at the University of the Philippines Film Center in Quezon City.

The President's culpability will be scrutinized by a trial endorsed by more than a hundred international personalities and institutions, including former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) academician and linguist Noam Chomsky, and former Justice of the Supreme Court of India Jittendra Sharma.

Impeachable offenses  

The tribunal coincides with the ongoing Congressional probes against Arroyo. The amended impeachment complaint pending in Congress charges the President with culpable violation of the Constitution, graft, bribery, betrayal of public trust and human rights violations (HRVs).

The HRVs constitute the most grievous among the five offenses, said ISM convenor Dr. Carol Pagaduan-Araullo, “(surpassing) cheating, lying, and corruption in terms of gravity and effect on people’s lives.”   

Statistics from human rights watchdog KARAPATAN show that the HRVs—ranging from killings to enforced disappearances--have affected at least 198,308 individuals, 18,977 families, 123 communities, and 1,016 households nationwide.

In a press conference last Aug. 12, ISM convenor Marie Hilao-Enriquez said that the findings of the solidarity mission and tribunal will be submitted to the impeachment prosecution team. These could be used as evidence in the impeachment complaint, she added.

Historically, this is not the first time an Asian head of state will face possible impeachment and possible incarceration for violating human rights and international humanitarian law.

In 1996, two former South Korean generals who also became presidents, Roh Tae-Woo and Chun Doo-Hwan, were convicted for their involvement in the Kwangju massacre in May 1980, in addition to charges of mutiny, treason and corruption. On May 18, 1980, Korean Special Forces allied with the U.S. clamped down on students and workers demonstrating against martial law. The ensuing clashes between demonstrators and state forces on May 27 left at least 2,000 people dead. 

The two ex-Presidents were tried in court 15 years after the massacre. Chun was sentenced to death but was later pardoned by President Kim Jae-Dung in 1997.

International scrutiny

In the Philippines, the degree of HRVs against civilians has reached alarming and unprecedented heights since Arroyo took over the presidency in January 2001.

These HRVs include the killings of human rights advocates, progressive clergy and lawyers, journalists, and activists.

Speaking at the ISM's press conference, Australian human rights lawyer Peter Broch cited the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) report on the Philippines as the most dangerous place in the world for journalists, and the 20 killings of human rights activists as more than enough reason enough for alarm.

Broch stressed that the violations incurred under Arroyo’s term is possibly “worse than what happened since the Marcos years.” “Tyrants should be made accountable for the violations,” he said.

“Our colleagues are being killed and attacked in this country,” added Turkish attorney Hakkan Karakus, president of the International Association of Peoples' Lawyers (IAPL), referring to the assassination of Bayan Muna affiliate Atty. Fidelito Dacut in Tacloban City, Leyte.

Many of the HRVs rose in conjunction with the political crisis besetting the Arroyo presidency. Hilao-Enriquez explained that the atrocities against civilians are part of the “bullying tactics of the GRP to force the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) to go back to negotiations.”

Kawal Ulanday, Bayan-USA spokesperson and a Filipino-American, expressed alarm over the killings. “Our taxes are being used to kill our families here,” Ulanday said.

The ISM delegation also aired a pre-recorded message by Clark. “Your five separate missions in critical areas in the Philippines, where repression has been greatest, killings systematic, assassinations were the greatest, fear and intimidation are prevalent, are of the utmost importance...With the major intervention of the United States, despotic countries and its agencies have control over that information so that the people of the world don’t know the truth,” the former U.S. attorney general said.

Also present at the press conference were human rights victims Joveth Velasco, Elena Velasco, Helen Parani and her three children. Parani’s youngest child, Gilbert, had his finger crushed when soldiers reportedly trampled on him while they were abducting his father. 

Rev. Canon Barry Naylor of the Diocese of Leicester, United Kingdom, stressed the need for international concern over the rising violations of human rights in the Philippines. Before, Naylor said, he learned about the killings and harassments only through second-hand reports and news.

“Now that I am here, I can speak with greater authority about the (situation). It can be brought to the peoples’ consciousness and the attention of people worldwide,” he said. 

GMA to face trial

The delegation presented at the press conference a draft copy of the indictment they will be delivering to President Arroyo before the International Peoples' Tribunal this week.

The Presidium of Judges at the Tribunal includes Lennox Hinds (US), Vice Chairperson of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL); Nobel Peace Prize nominee Irene Fernandez (Malaysia); Karakus; and IAPL honorary chair P.A Sebastian (India).

The delegation challenged the President to disprove her collusion in the HRVs committed since 2001. “This is an opportunity for the GMA government to prove that there is democracy in the country because high officials have higher responsibilities in upholding justice...one can not do justice with dirty hands,” Broch said. 

Clark likewise ended his message with a stern reproach to the President. “If you do not have integrity in government particularly the highest position, the presidency, you cannot expect the government to protect the people, to serve, to respond to the interests and demands of its people.” Bulatlat

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