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STOP THE KILLINGS IN THE PHILIPPINES
For detailed updates on this
campaign, and other related sites, please visit the
following:
www.stopthekillings.org
2005 Karapatan Human Rights Report
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STOP
THE KILLINGS IN THE PHILIPPINES
Blood is
being spilt across the globe with US President George
Bush’s “war on terror”. Human rights
violations are viciously rampant and the effects have
left thousands of people displaced, incapacitated, killed
and their families rendered destitute. Citizens of
Afghanistan, Iraq, are only some of those victimized by
this US war of aggression. Other citizens of the world
are being subjected to the same or even more atrocious
human rights violations like in the Philippines.
The Philippines has been declared by the US government as
a “second-front” in its “war on
terror”. At the same time, in recognition of
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s unflinching
support to US wars of aggression, she was named as head
of the anti-terror task force in the ASEAN, and the
Philippines declared as a major “Non-NATO
ally”.
As a country already beset with severe political and
economic crises, human rights violations have become more
than ever a major concern of Filipinos under the Gloria
Macapagal–Arroyo (GMA) Regime. Entering into its
fifth year of governance, the GMA regime has repeatedly
used force and state terror against the people and those
whom her armed forces perceive to be enemies of the
state.
On February 24, the paranoid President claimed that she
quashed a coup plot by her soldiers who had only wanted
to join the march of the people at EDSA, a major
thoroughfare to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the
People Power 1 uprising. That claim was followed by the
illegal declaration of a State of National Emergency or
Presidential Proclamation 1017. By virtue of this
declaration she completely banned protest actions. Two
mobilizations were violently dispersed followed by the
illegal arrest of protesters, arbitrarily detaining them
and charging them with inciting to sedition that day.
During the declaration of a state of national emergency,
President Arroyo also targeted media establishments.
Immediately upon the declaration, a radio station
critical of the President, was shut down. A broadsheet,
The Daily Tribune was ransacked on Saturday, February 25
along with a tabloid publication, Abante. The government
agency National Telecommunications Center proposed
guidelines to be strictly followed by the members of the
press in an attempt to muzzle media.
But a broad opposition defied and resisted Proclamation
1017. After a week the President ordered its lifting.
But it does not end there. Anakpawis (Toiling Masses)
Representative Crispin Beltran, 73 years old and
suffering from various ailments, continue to be detained,
five other legislators, Bayan Muna (People First)
Partylist Representatives Satur Ocampo, Teddy Casiņo,
Joel Virador; Anakpawis Congressman Rafael Mariano and
Gabriela Women’s Party Representative Liza Maza are
still under protective custody of the Philippine
Congress. Malacaņang vowed to continue the crackdown
against the opposition; media and known anti-Arroyo
dissenters are under threat of warrantless arrests.
Protest marches are continually being dispersed as
policies like the Calibrated Pre-emptive Response (CPR)
and Batasan Pambansa 880 or the “no permit-no
rally” edict are still in place and being
implemented.
In fact on the day that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
lifted Proclamation 1017, Bayan Muna member Arthur
Caloza, a 28 year old peasant and Bayan Muna member from
Nueva Ecija, was killed by elements believed to be from
the Philippine Army. Five days later, Crisanto
“Santi” Teodoro, a BAYAN Secretary General and
Bayan Muna coordinator from Malolos, Bulacan was shot
several times while he was driving home on March 10.
Earlier that day, Bayan Muna Secretary General Elena
“Baby” Mendiola survived a slay try as
assassins missed in fatally shooting her while she was
sweeping her front yard in Echague, Isabela.
Even prior to PP 1017, the country has been gripped with
state terror, under the government’s campaign to
eliminate terrorists in support of US President George W.
Bush’s war of terror. The human rights organization,
KARAPATAN or Alliance for the Advancement of
People’s Rights, documented 874 cases of human
rights violations with 99,011 individual victims from
January to Novemeber 30, 2005. The violations affected
14,302 families in 288 communities.
This year there are already 53 members of progressive
people’s organizations and ordinary citizens killed
from January upto March 29.
In a statement released after GMA “lifted” PP
1017 on March 4, 2006, Amnesty International expressed
its concern over continued violations of human rights in
the country: “…Amnesty International
continues to be gravely concerned at reports of an
ongoing pattern of political killings of members of legal
leftist organisations in various provinces nationwide.
Over recent years, the number of reported attacks by
unidentified armed men on members of legal leftist
political organisations, including Bayan Muna (People
First), Anakpawis (Toiling Masses) and others, have
increased. There are now fears that repeated statements
by senior government officials linking such organizations
directly to communist armed groups, in addition to the
recent arrest or threatened arrest of many of the
congressional representatives of such organizations,
threatens to create a climate within which further
political killings may take place.
Amnesty International calls on the authorities to fulfil
their obligation to protect the right to life, not least
by conducting prompt, thorough, impartial and effective
investigations of all such killings. Such investigations
should then lead to the prosecution and punishment of
those responsible. In order to combat impunity, the
authorities must also send a clear, unequivocal message
to all members of the police, military and other security
forces that involvement in, or acquiescence to, such
unlawful killings will never be tolerated.
Amnesty International is also concerned about apparently
political motives behind recent selective arrests and
launch of criminal proceedings. Although the recent
alleged coup conspiracy reportedly involved persons from
across the political spectrum, there are reports that the
political Left in particular may have been targeted for a
repeated series of arrests on a variety of spurious
charges.”
Many venues have been exhausted by victims of human
rights violations and their families to achieve justice,
which has remained an elusive goal.
KARAPATAN believes that all possible venues must be
pursued. We are reaching out to our network and friends
across the seas and encourage them to embark on an
international campaign – International Solidarity to
Stop the Killings in the Philippines or STOP THE KILLINGS
for short.
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