PHILIPPINES: Privilege speech on political killings in the Philippines
Dear friends,
The Asian Human
Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to forward to you the following
statement: Privilege speech on political killings in the Philippines,
which was received from Hong Kong Campaign for the Advancement of Human
Rights and Peace in the Philippines.
Asian Human Rights
Commission
Hong Kong
-------------
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FS-019-2006
August
4, 2006
A Forwarded Statement
by the Asian Human Rights Commission
PHILIPPINES: Privilege speech on political killings in the
Philippines
The statement:
By Satur C. Ocampo
Deputy Minority Leader
House of Representatives, Philippines
Aug.
1, 2006
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a matter of personal and
collective privilege, over the continued extrajudicial killings
including members of my party, Bayan Muna.
In less than a week
after Mrs. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo heaped excessive praise on General
Jovito Palparan in her State of the Nation Address and condemned the
spate of extrajudicial killings, this administration ushered in a fresh
wave of murders.
On July 26, two days after Mrs. Arroyo's SONA,
Ernesto Ladica, Bayan Muna member in Salay, Misamis Oriental was killed
in front of his three sons.
On July 28, Alberto Gonzales, 40, a
farmworker of Barangay Veronica in Lopez, Quezon, was shot to death by
suspected elements of the 76th Infantry Batallion of the Philippine
Army. Three other were beaten up and mauled.
Last Sunday, July
30, Bayan Muna member Mario Florendo was shot dead by suspected elements
of the 71st Infantry Batallion of the Philippine Army in Lupao, Nueva
Ecija, within General Palparan's area of operations.
At 6:00 am
yesterday, Rei Mon Guran, chairperson of the League of Filipino Students
in Aquinas University, was shot to death in Bulan, Sorsogon as he
waited for a bus that would take him to school in Legazpi City. Rei Mon,
a second year political science student, celebrated his 21st birthday
the day before. Since yesterday, his family, friends and the progressive
youth movement are mourning his violent death.
At 7:00 am also
yesterday, Bayan Muna-Kalinga chapter chair Dr. Constancio "Chandu"
Claver and his wife Alice were ambushed in Bulanao, Kalinga. Inihatid sa
paaralan ng mag-asawang Claver ang pitong taong gulang na anak nila na
si Samantha nang sila ay tambangan. Ligtas na si Dr. Claver, ngunit
pumanaw ang kanyang asawang si Alice. Sindak na sindak ang bata sa
naganap na krimen. She has been traumatized by the violence inflicted on
her family.
As of today 717 Filipinos have fallen as victims of
extrajudicial killings since Mrs. Arroyo assumed the presidency in 2001.
115 were Bayan Muna members.
Since the fourth quarter of 2005, one
person has been killed every two days.
We six progressive
partylist representatives have filed a total of 57 resolutions calling
for investigation of killings and other human rights violations.
Mr.
Speaker, we in Bayan Muna condemn these unconscionable acts of
brutality. To a large extent, we hold the Arroyo government accountable
for these killings.
It must be noted that the Commission on
Human Rights have said the same, as it called attention to the climate
of impunity in the past five years. So has Amnesty International.
The
fresh wave of killings followed Mrs. Arroyo's public display of
approbation for General Palparan's method of carrying out
counterinsurgency or internal security operations. Such irrepresible but
insensitive statements encourage the likes of Palparan to continue
terrorizing and killing people, especially activists, in violation of
the Constitution and international humanitarian law.
In a cover
story in the Sunday Inquirer Magazine last month, Palparan said,
tongue-in-cheek, that he didn't do any of the killings; He simply
inspired the triggerman.
Mr. Speaker, the Constitution and
international humanitarian law are clear regarding the right to life.
No
person shall be deprived of the right to life. Consequently, the
Philippine government must ensure that this most basic right be
protected. Unfortunately, the Arroyo government consistently failed to
protect the citizens' right to life perhaps because only activists and
other perceived critics of the administration are being felled one by
one.
We are thankful that the international community has
repeatedly condemned these extrajudicial killings… Amnesty
International, New York Times and even the US State Department in 2006.
Coincidentally,
last July 24, on the very day Mrs. Arroyo encouraged Palparan in her
SONA, the Dutch Lawyers for Lawyers Foundation issued the final report
of the International Fact-Finding Mission on Attacks Againsty Filipino
Lawyers carried out in June 2006. The report condemned the killings of
lawyers and judges, especially human rights lawyers and people's
lawyers, and held the Arroyo government responsible.
Allow me to
quote from their report, Mr. Speaker, which in my view eloquently
demands that it be heard by everyone:
"The Arroyo administration
rejects national and international criticism on its human rights record,
by simply referring to its democratic institutions and human rights
treaties, laws and policies.
"On paper, the Philippines is indeed
a republic with democratic institutions including an elected President
and separate executive, legislative and judicial branches. It has an
independent Commission on Human Rights and respect for human rights
principles are enshrined in its 1987 Constitution, laws and policies.
The Philippines have also signed and ratified almost all relevant
international human rights treaties, such as the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights.
"Nevertheless, since 2001,
fifteen lawyers and ten judges have been killed in the Philippines as
well as almost 700 other individuals including members of leftist
groups, journalists, priests, church-workers, human rights defenders,
laborers and farmers. All were unarmed citizens. None of the killers has
been convicted.
"Many people believe that the state security
forces are involved in the killings and these allegations are supported –
amongst others – by the Philippine Commission on Human Rights, based
upon its own investigations.
"Although the primary duty of the
Government is to protect the life of the people, including lawyers and
judges, the Arroyo administration has hardly done anything to address
the extrajudicial killings effectively. In particular it has neither
responded seriously to strong allegations that its own security forces
are involved in the killings nor has it taken effective measures to
improve the poor record of prosecutions of the perpetrators."
Nakakahiya,
Mr. Speaker, na hindi maaksyunan ng gobyerno ang mga pagpaslang sa
ating mga kababayan, at mismong mga kaibigang dayuhan pa ang nagsasabi
at nagpapaalala sa atin sa malubhang problemang ito. Nakakahiya dahil
isinisiwalat ng mga pagpaslang na peke o ampaw ang demokrasyang
tinatamasa diumano ng mga mamamayan. (Unofficial translation: Mr.
Speaker, it is embarrassing that the government is not taking any action
on the killings of our countrymen, that our foreign friends need to
remind us (government) on this grave problem. It is embarrassing because
these killings expose the fake and hollow democracy that the people is
said to be enjoying.)
The lawyers and judges who wrote this
report have pledged that they will take the issue before the European
Union and the United Nations, if only to force the Philippines to act on
the killings.
It should be noted that the Philippines has been
elected for a one-year term as a member of the newly-formed Human Rights
Council of the UN. As such, the Philippines is expected to pass through
stringent standards and would be asked pointed questions as to the
murders of activists, church people, journalists, lawyers, judges and
other unarmed civilians and hors de combat.
Under international
humanitarian law and the laws of war, parties to an armed conflict may
not harm or kill civilians. They may also not harm or kill unarmed or
injured combatants.
If the AFP, the PNP and the Arroyo
government have strong evidence to show that Bayan Muna members are New
People's Army guerillas, I urge them to file charges in court. The
military and police cannot put the law in their own hands and kill all
unarmed civilian activists based on rabid anti-communist "hunch" that
they are "enemies of the state," as Palparan parlays with rabid zeal.
We
fear that the mindset of Palparan is widespread in the rank and file of
state security forces. Such a mindset, endorsed and encouraged by Mrs.
Arroyo's public display of affection for her favorite general, engenders
continued political killings.
Mr. Speaker, one murder should
have been more than enough to wake up this chamber. But the number of
those extrajudicially killed has reached 717. Surely, this is far beyond
what is enough. This madness should end.
Mrs. Arroyo ordered
"authorities" to produce results in investigations of ten cases in ten
weeks but gave no order to stop the killings which is far more important
and crucial.
Mr. Speaker, we ask this House to condemn these
killings. More than that, we urge this House to immediately pass the
proposed Joint Resolution creating an independent commission to look
into these extrajudicial killings even as we ask that action be taken on
the 57 resolutions now pending before the House committees on human
rights and of justice, and the rules committee.
