This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VII, No. 4, Feb. 25-March 3, 2007
'It was a
Harrowing Process' – UN Special Rapporteur
While families of victims of extrajudicial executions testified before him
during his recently concluded 10-day visit to the Philippines, United Nations
Special Rapporteur on extra judicial, arbitrary and summary executions Prof.
Philip Alston said he was almost moved to tears. “It was a harrowing process,”
he admitted. BY
DABET CASTAÑEDA The United Nations (UN)
Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions last week
admitted that probing the spate of political murders in the Philippines is a
“harrowing process.” The UN Special Rapporteur,
Philip Alston, an Australian professor at the New York University, was in near
tears on Feb. 21 when he recounted to the media his experience in investigating
the killings of civilians, political activists and journalists, most
particularly when he heard the stories straight from the victims’ families. He
spent 10 days in the Philippines interviewing families of victims of political
killings and other violations of human rights as well to President Gloria M.
Arroyo and other government officials. “I was incredibly upset by
the execution of a 21-year old son of this woman testifying before me,” he said,
referring to Erlinda Manano whose son, youth activist Isaias, was murdered
reportedly by soldiers on April 28, 2004 in Calapan, the city capital of the
island-province of Mindoro Oriental. “I was almost in tears but
I tried not to show anything,” the UN expert said. “Then she said ‘sir, here are
the photographs of my son,’ and I simply had to say, ‘take them away please.’”
“I know it was rather
offensive but I couldn’t bear to look at him. I would have collapsed,” Alston
said, his face turning red. Alston came to the
Philippines following complaints of human rights violations filed recently by
families of the victims in coordination with the human rights alliance Karapatan
and other groups with the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). The HRC
sent Professor Alston and a few other Special Rapporteurs with the consent of
the Macapagal-Arroyo government. Alston’s visit was allowed in the wake of
pressure from the international community on Macapagal-Arroyo to take steps in
stopping the political killings in the country. The UN investigator also
noted the magnitude of how the killings are perpetrated. He particularly
mentioned a case of a man who was killed while sleeping. “I met with a woman whose
husband was killed in an alleged encounter with the military. He was in bed next
to her with the children behind them. He had no weapon and he was shot 47
times,” he said. In denial Alston went short of saying
the murders of political dissenters in the country were perpetrated as part of a
state policy by the government particularly the Armed Forces of the
Philippines’s (AFP) counterinsurgency program. The military has repeatedly
denied this accusation, insisting the killings were part of an “internal purge”
of the underground Left. Alston, however, likened
the military’s denial to “alcoholism.” “As in alcoholism, the first step to
recovering is to acknowledge that there’s a problem. Without that, forget it.
There’s nothing that could be done,” he said. “That’s close to how I see
the military at this stage. They occasionally make public statements which are
yielding but if you look at the systematic legal response to the Melo
Commission, it is in denial. That’s the real position of the military,” he
explained. But Alston was quick to say
he was not “asking for a witch hunt or anything very dramatic.” What he wanted was, he
said, a statement from the very top - the president, the defense secretary, and
most of all the Chief of Staff saying extrajudicial executions will not be
tolerated. Alston said the AFP should
begin to “investigate seriously and methodically not in a way to simply protect
its own officers.” Some sectors of the civil
society, however, find Alston’s remarks inconsistent when he said he did not
believe that “there is a policy at the top designed which direct that these
killings take place.” Alston’s press statement
does not mention the government’s Oplan Bantay Laya (Operational Plan Guard
Freedom), the Macapagal-Arroyo’s counter insurgency program which aims to
“neutralize” the “communist front organizations,” among others. But he did
mention in his recommendation that the government’s counterinsurgency program
should be reviewed. The Alston report also
failed to note that President Macapagal-Arroyo has, in fact, given the military
an additional Php1 billion budget to end the communist insurgency in two years. No democratic space That progressive patylist
groups, particularly Bayan Muna (people first), Anakpawis (toiling masses) and
Gabriela Women’s Party (GWP), are targets of political repression was confirmed
by the Alston findings. Alston noted that although
the Philippine government created an opening for leftist groups to enter the
democratic political system by repealing the Anti-Subversion Act and enacting a
partylist system law, it has “worked resolutely to circumvent the spirit of
these legislative decision by trying to impede the work of the party-list groups
and to put in question their right to operate freely,” Alston said. “The idea is not to destroy
the NPA but to eliminate organizations that support many of its goals and do not
actively disown its means,” the UN Special Rapporteur concluded. He said there
are cases in which the government has “spilled over into decisions to
extra-judicially execute those who cannot be reached by the legal process.” In his testimony to Alston
on Feb. 20 at the House of Representatives, Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño said
that of the more than 360 activists killed, 169 are from party-lists: Bayan Muna,
127; Anakpawis, 40; and GWP, two. Casiño said 77 House
resolutions and 22 privilege speeches on human rights were filed during the 12th
and 13th Congress. Only 10 committee hearings were held to hear such
cases, Casiño said, but in almost all these hearings military officials refused
to appear while government officials have constantly invoked Executive Order No.
464 which requires government officials to seek presidential approval before
appearing in congressional hearings. The Bayan Muna
representative said only two committee reports were approved by the Committee on
Civil, Political, and Human Rights of the House. He said they used as basis the
committee’s report to oppose the promotion of Jovito Palparan to major general
before the Commission on Appointments but their protests went unheeded.
Discredit Meanwhile, the military top
brass and Secretary of Justice Raul Gonzales assailed the Alston report with the
latter saying that the UN independent expert has been “brainwashed” by the Left.
The military has been
trying to assert that the killings are part of a purge within the communist
movement. “This theory was relentlessly pushed by the AFP and many of my
government interlocutors,” Alston said in his statement. “But the evidence
offered by the military in support of this theory is especially unconvincing,”
he said adding that the figures presented by the military were related to the
purges of the late 1980s. The military also presented
an alleged document from the Communist Party of the Philippines/New People’s
Army (CPP/NPA) captured in May 2006 describing a supposed Operation Bushfire.
“In the absence of much stronger supporting evidence this particular document
bears all the hallmarks of a fabrication and cannot be taken as evidence of
anything other than disinformation,” Alston said. Following Alston’s
departure from the country on Feb. 21, the military had relentlessly tried to
discredit the figures of the human rights watchdog Karapatan (Alliance for the
Advancement of Peoples’ Rights) by presenting to the media two men who were
listed as “killed” in the Karapatan tally but who have been proven to be alive
and in the custody of the military. The two men are Renato
Bugtong and Edwin Mascariñas. In an interview with
Bulatlat, Karapatan secretary general Marie Hilao-Enriquez said it was human
error that Bugtong was listed as “killed” but should have been listed as
“illegally arrested” and “tortured.” Karapatan-Batangas Chapter
Fact Sheet No. 011-02 states Bugtong, a farmer, was illegally arrested by 2nd
Lt. Jaime M. Velasco II and T/Sgt. Celso Voluntad of the 7401st
Combat Squadron, 740th Combat Group, based in Brgy. Dulhatab, Balayan,
Batangas on June 27, 2002 in his home in Sitio Salipit, Barangay (village)
Talisay, Calatagan, same province. Bugtong, the fact sheet
revealed, showed signs of torture. He bore cigarette burns on different parts of
his body and contusions on his knees and also on other parts of his body. He was
charged with violation of Republic Act 1700 (illegal possession of firearms) for
owning the firearms allegedly found in the house of neighbors Val and Myra
Soriano. Bugtong was reportedly
released on bail and is now reporting to the military. Mascariñas, village
coordinator of the partylist group Anakpawis (toiling masses), on the other
hand, was reported to have been abducted by soldiers on April 13, 2004, in his
home in Barangay Masahuisi, Bongabong town also in Mondoro Oriental, according
to an incident report of the Karapatan-Southern Tagalog chapter. Human rights workers of
Karapatan went into a fact finding mission on April 15 the same year but were
prevented from proceeding to the place of incident, the report stated.
Doris Cuario,
Karapatan-Southern Tagalog secretary general who was part of the mission, said
they were held inside the Iglesia Filipina Independiete (IFI) church in Barangay
Bagong Bayan in the town of Roxas also in Mindoro Oriental for more than 24
hours. Isaias Manano, who was then
the provincial coordinator of Anakpawis, was part of the fact finding team and
was among those who negotiated for their safe release. He was shot dead two
weeks after, on April 28. Cuario said their team was
not able to proceed with the investigation on the Mascariñas case as military
operations intensified in the place of incident. But neighbors of Mascariñas
told their team that there was a wake for Mascariñas while the human rights
workers were being held at the IFI church, Cuario added. Karapatan has yet to verify
if the Edwin Mascariñas being presented by the military to media is the same
person as the one abducted and allegedly killed in Roxas town, Mindoro Oriental.
Meanwhile, in response to
the Alston report, AFP Chief of Staff Hermogenes Esperon said, in a press
conference, that it is Alston who is in denial. Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez,
on the other hand, downplayed the significance of Alston’s report calling him,
as newspapers reported, “sonofagun” and “just a muchacho.” Bulatlat © 2007 Bulatlat
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