Oppose Attacks on Democracy
and Human Rights in the Philippines
Australia and the rest of the
international community have a moral obligation to make sure that
democracy in the Philippines does not die. President Arroyo has to act to
stop the political persecution and physical attacks upon people who
advocate for civil liberties and human rights. I encourage her to continue
with her statements and back this up with positive, reinforced action. I
encourage all Australians to show their opposition to the ongoing attacks
on democracy and human rights in the Philippines. I commend
this report to the Senate.
SPEECH BY SEN.
GAVIN MARSHALL
Labour Party, Victoria, Australia
Posted by Bulatlat
I
am taking this opportunity in the adjournment debate tonight to alert the
Senate to a report launched at Parliament House yesterday. The report,
entitled Getting Away with Murder: Impunity for Those Targeting Church
Workers in the Philippines, was produced by the Uniting Church in
Australia’s Justice and International Mission Unit. This report serves to
highlight the numerous cases of murders and death threats perpetrated
against the citizens of the Philippines and provides a detailed
description of 14 cases of Uniting (sic) Church of Christ members
who have been murdered in the past two years.
The Philippines has a well-documented past of political unrest, with the
suppression of workers, unionists, social justice advocates, political
activists and, indeed, church members. I, along with many other
Australians, can vividly recall the toppling of the disgraced Marcos
regime. Following that, most of us could have easily assumed that
democracy is alive and well in the Philippines; however, this is simply
not the case. Since Gloria Arroyo came to power in January 2001, over 600
civilians, including trade union leaders, environmentalists, lawyers,
municipal councillors and journalists, have been killed. As this report
reveals, amongst the dead are pastors, priests and lay members of the
various churches in the Philippines. In addition to this, many more
activists have had threats made against them or assassination attempts
made on their lives.
The common factor in all of these cases is that the victims have been
outspoken on issues of poverty and justice. They have advocated for poor
and oppressed people in the Philippines, for workers’ rights, for civil
liberties and for human rights, and some have been directly critical of
the government. Most notably and perhaps most tragically, the common link
between these deaths is that they could have been prevented through
government intervention. In almost all of these cases, the prime suspects
are government military intelligence units. As a consequence, very few of
them have been adequately investigated and the perpetrators of these
heinous crimes have not been brought to justice.
These themes are corroborated by Amnesty International, who on Tuesday
released their report into human rights abuses in the Philippines. The
Amnesty International report states that:
The
common features in the methodology of the attacks, leftist profile of the
victims, and an apparent culture of impunity shielding the perpetrators,
has led Amnesty International to believe that the killings are not an
unconnected series of criminal murders, armed robberies or other unlawful
killings. Rather they constitute a pattern of politically targeted
extrajudicial executions taking place within the broader context of a
continuing counter-insurgency campaign. The organisation remains gravely
concerned at repeated credible reports that members of the security forces
have been directly involved in the attacks, or else have tolerated,
acquiesced to, or been complicit in them.
Despite being a signatory to
a number of international treaties protecting human rights and having the
protection of human rights enshrined in legislation, this report affirms
that since President Arroyo came to power:
... a
national human rights organisation has documented 4,207 cases of human
rights violations, which include killings, enforced disappearances,
illegal arrests and unlawful detention, indiscriminate firings and
forcible evacuation.
In
launching the report, Rev. Gregor Henderson, President of the Uniting
Church in Australia, remarked that it was with a great sadness and
solidarity with which he presented the report. He informed us of his visit
last year to an indigenous village in the highlands of the Philippines
which, prior to his visit, had suffered from two weeks of occupation by
the Filipino army. During his time there the reverend had met with 14
members of the village who had told him of the suffering and devastation
they had experienced at the hands of the army who, in an attempt to force
out Communist guerrillas, had shot at civilians and had forced them to be
relocated.
The most heart wrenching
story Reverend Henderson relayed to the members and senators who were
present at the launch yesterday was that of a nine-year-old from the same
village. This young boy told the story of how during the occupation a
soldier had stood over him with a rifle pointed at his head. The Filipino
soldier told the boy that he may as well kill him immediately because if
he grew up he would turn into a communist guerrilla and they would kill
him then anyway. The soldier then forced the boy to dig a grave in the
ground with his bare hands—a grave that would be for himself, his father
and his mother. Fortunately for this young boy, a military officer
intervened and his life was saved. But this story serves to highlight the
sad and tragic threats that the poor and oppressed people of the
Philippines face daily at the hands of the military.
As I indicated earlier, the
report documents cases of murder in the Philippines. Amongst them is the
case of Rev. Edison Lapuz. Reverend Lapuz was an advocate in both the
church and his local community. His pastoral work exposed him to the
issues facing the marginalised in the community. At the time of his death
he was the convenor of a civil liberties group made up of lawyers. This
group focused on investigating cases of murders and human rights abuses,
with the goal of pursuing legal avenues to resolve them.
His involvement in this group
brought him to the attention of the local military authorities and the
police, who surveyed his activities. Prior to his death, the commanding
officer of the local military detachment visited the home of Reverend
Lapuz’s father on several occasions to find out information on the
whereabouts of Reverend Lapuz. Reverend Lapuz was murdered on 12 May 2005.
He and a friend were shot by two masked assailants who later fled on
motorbikes. No-one has ever been arrested for this murder.
Tragically, this story is
typical of the other 13 cases compiled in the report and so many other
cases of murder in the Philippines. From the cases cited in the report,
its authors have come to conclude that the most likely perpetrators are
the security forces in the Philippines. This conclusion is supported by
the Commission on Human Rights in the Philippines itself.
In response to the recurrent
murders, President Arroyo has made numerous public statements condemning
them. However, there is not yet any evidence of action. This lack of
tangible evidence of a commitment from the government to protecting human
rights has resulted in the report concluding that the killings have
received tacit approval from the government of the Philippines.
What can we learn from a
report like this? The report identifies a need for strong institutional
reform. It calls for an adequate witness protection program and a properly
resourced human rights commission within the Philippines. We as senators
also need to look at the role that Australia plays in providing support to
the Philippines. The Philippines is currently the sixth largest recipient
of Australian development assistance. In the last financial year Australia
provided the Philippines with over $21 million in official development
assistance. As an economic donor to the country we have an obligation to
ensure that our financial assistance to the Philippines does not support
or promote these atrocities in any way whatsoever.
We also have a moral
obligation to continually raise our concerns with the government of the
Philippines. The report goes further, and recommends that Australia offer
financial assistance to the Philippines government that is conditionally
directed to the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines. It also
suggests that Australia provide assistance to NGOs that are working to
promote the protection of human rights in the Philippines. These are
positive recommendations that we as leaders in the region should heed.
In summing up, I would like
to congratulate the authors of this report. Whilst the release of a report
like this is always marked with sadness and regret, I congratulate Ms. Caz
Coleman, Dr. Mark Zirnsak and Ms. Kerryn Clarke for bringing these abuses
to the attention of the Australian community. I would also like to take
this opportunity to acknowledge that the launch of the report was attended
by His Excellency Ernesto de Leon, the Philippine Ambassador to Australia.
I welcome the ambassador’s willingness to listen to our concerns on this
issue and I am grateful for his enthusiasm for meeting with members of the
Australian community. He has been gracious enough to agree to meet with me
tomorrow morning. I embrace this as an opportunity to further discuss my
concerns about breaches of human rights in this region.
Australia and the rest of the
international community have a moral obligation to make sure that
democracy in the Philippines does not die. President Arroyo has to act to
stop the political persecution and physical attacks upon people who
advocate for civil liberties and human rights. I encourage her to continue
with her statements and back this up with positive, reinforced action. I
encourage all Australians to show their opposition to the ongoing attacks
on democracy and human rights in the Philippines. I commend
this report to the Senate. Posted by Bulatlat
17 August 2006
BACK TO
TOP ■
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION ■
COMMENT
© 2006 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Media Center
Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided
its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.