Ecumenical Voice for Peace and Human Rights in the Philippines

QUEZON CITY, PHILIPPINES — At a press conference following a successful attendance to and participation in the 14th Session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, Switzerland from June 1-10, the Ecumenical Voice for Peace and Human Rights in the Philippines (Ecumenical Voice for brevity) vows to monitor the human rights situation in the Philippines under the new government. They also issued a challenge to President-elect Noynoy Aquino to fulfill his promise to prosecute President Macapagal-Arroyo and other human rights violators, accord justice to the victims of human rights violations, discontinue Oplan Bantay Laya and never embark on any similar policy.

The Ecumenical Voice delegation to the 14th Session of the UNHRC was composed of: Fr. Rex Reyes, Jr. (General Secretary, National Council of Churches in the Philippines), Ms. Marie Hilao-Enriquez (Chairperson, Karapatan), Atty. Edre Olalia (acting Secretary General, National Union of People’s Lawyers and President, International Association of People’s Lawyers), Mr. Jigs Clamor (Deputy Secretary General, Karapatan and husband of Dr. Merry Clamor of the Morong 43), Atty. Carlos Zarate (Secretary General, Union of Peoples’ Lawyers in Mindanao); and Dr. Angie Gonzalez (International Coordinating Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines).

At the UNHRC, the Ecumenical Voice was able to deliver two oral interventions. One intervention delivered by Mr. Jigs Clamor highlighted the plight of the 43 health workers, also known as the Morong 43, and he urged the Council to look into the incident. Rev. Rex Reyes, Jr. who delivered the other intervention, referred to the repressive effects of Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL) as an anti-insurgency policy of the Arroyo government. He expressed the hope that the Human Rights Council will urge the government of President-elect Benigno Aquino, III to fulfil his campaign promise of prosecuting the perpetuators of human rights violations in the Philippines and abide by the government’s commitments and pledges to international human rights instruments. These oral interventions are available on the UNHRC’s webcast.

The Ecumenical Voice also held two side events and participated actively in one.

The first side event on June 2, had Professor Philip Alston, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, among the panel of speakers. Even as his term as Special Rapporteur ends in July this year, he expressed continuing interest on human rights developments in the Philippines. He also praised human rights advocates and defenders in the Philippines, for comprehensive and well-documented presentations both to the international community and during those times he was preparing his reports. Alston shared his thoughts on what a new administration might encounter in the midst of the impunity reigning in the country. Prof. Alston warned that the newly elected president is most likely to be advised by some other state actors to go slow on his campaign promise to prosecute the perpetrators of the killings and other human rights violations in the Philippines. “The President-elect will likely be reminded that he is heavily dependent on the Armed Forces of the Philippines, not to cause problems and that any prosecution will alienate the military,” Alston said. This activity was co-sponsored by the Commission of Churches on International Affairs of the World Council of Churches (CCIA/ WCC), the United Methodist Church – General Board on Church and Society (UMC-GBCS), Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) and endorsed by the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL).

Lawyers Edre Olalia and Carlos Zarate participated in the June 3 side event organized by the Lawyers Rights Watch Canada, Dutch Lawyers for Lawyers Foundation, Judges for Judges and the International Commission of Jurists, which highlighted the plight of human rights lawyers and judges all over the world. During the side event, Brazilian Judge Gabriela C. Knaul de Albuquerque e Silva, the newly appointed UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, committed to look into the situation of attacks on Filipino lawyers and judges and expressed that she was open to a possible country visit.

The last side event held on June 4, organized by the delegation and co-sponsored by the Civicus (World Alliance for Citizen Participation) and the World Organization against Torture (OMCT), drew attention to the plight of the 43 health workers, popularly known as the Morong 43. Among the panelists were Mr. Jigs Clamor and Ms. Marie Enriquez of KARAPATAN, Atty Edre Olalia of NUPL and Ms. Coco Quisumbing, of the Philippine Commission on Human Rights (CHR). Clamor and Enriquez discussed the circumstances of the arrest and detention of the health workers in relation to the human rights situation in the Philippines while Olalia, as counsel to the health workers, discussed the ramifications on the legal as well as on other institutions in the country of this case described by the delegation as “emblematic of human rights violations in the Philippines.”
The World Council of Churches (WCC), thru Dr. Mathews George Chunakara, Director for International Affairs and Ms. Christina Papazoglou, CCIA-WCC Executive Director for Human Rights, also invited the delegation to share the status of human rights in the Philippines to an audience at the WCC headquarters. The WCC is a consistent partner of the Philippine churches and other non-government organizations in human rights advocacy. A highlight of the delegation’s visit to the WCC was a call to Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit, General Secretary of the WCC, who assured the delegation of WCC’s continuing support.

Towards the end of their trip, the Ecumenical Voice accompanied KARAPATAN to formally bring the Morong 43 incident before the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The same communications were submitted to the offices of the Mr. Manfred Nowak, UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and Ms. Shaheen Sardar Ali, Vice-Chair Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the UN Human Rights Council.

As an act of solidarity, Atty. Olalia, as duly authorized by the IADL Bureau, together with representatives of IADL and the American Association of Jurists, submitted communications to the offices of the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers and the Special Rapporteur on Arbitary Detention. The communication was about the arrest in Rwanda of Peter Erlinder, the former US National Lawyers Guild president.

Finally, the Ecumenical Voice thanks the following partners for supporting the delegation at the Council session: The World Council of Churches, The Lutheran World Federation, the United Church of Christ in Canada, the General Board on Church and Society of the United Methodist Church in the USA, the Action Network Human Rights-Philippines based in Germany, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, Migrante Geneva and Migrante Bern, Franciscans International, CIVICUS, the World Organization against Torture (OMCT), Lawyers Rights Watch of Canada, the American Association of Jurists, the Pilipino community in Geneva and the Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations (CONGO).

After the UN Geneva activities, delegation members also met with the EU Parliament Human Rights Unit Administrator Mr. Dionyz Hochel. The delegation briefed and gave him documents of the Morong 43 situation and he told the group that he will convey the delegation’s concern to the members of the EU Parliament Human Rights Committee. Through the lobbying efforts of the ICCHRP, Intal and other solidarity groups in Belgium, the delegation was also met by Mr. Florimond Van de Velde, Principal Administrator for South-East Asia of the European Commission, as well as Dr. Malgorzata Gorska, Policy Desk Officer of the Human Rights Unit of the EC, both of whom assured the group that the EU remains committed to ensuring the observance of human rights promotion and protection in their dealings with the governments, including the new administration in the Philippines. They expressed hope that cases of human rights violations will be prosecuted under the new administration.###

Oral Intervention Delivered by Fr. Rex Reyes, Jr., on behalf of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL)
14th Session of the Human Rights Council
On Item No. 3: Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the rights to development

June 8, 2010

Thank you, Mr. President,

This is a joint statement of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, the American Association of Jurists, the World Council of Churches, Franciscans International, Lawyers Rights Watch of Canada, the American Indian Treaty Council and a Philippine NGO under the Ecumenical Voice for Peace and Human Rights.

We thank Professor Philip Alston for his trailblazing efforts into the issues of extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. His report and recommendations on the Philippines in 2008 as well as his report to this 14th Session are outstanding pieces of work that human rights advocates and defenders in the Philippines find very instructive and helpful.

Mr. President, today the human rights watchdog in the Philippines, KARAPATAN has documented 1,192 cases of extrajudicial killings since 2001. The latest victim is Mr. Mike Rivera, who was a former city government official and was a known anti-mining advocate. He was gunned down on May 16, 2010 while on his way to church in a region south of Manila.

KARAPATAN has also documented 205 cases of enforced disappearances and 1,028 cases of torture and hundreds more of other cases of various human rights violations in the different parts of the country, victimizing farmers, workers, indigenous peoples, social activists, religious, lawyers and journalists. The most recent highlighted cases of the Maguindanao Massacre in November last year and the illegal arrest and continued detention of 43 health workers in February of this year have pointed to the involvement of state security forces. Never since the Martial Law years have human rights violations in our country occurred with so much impunity as now.

Mr. President, the Philippines has just gone through a national election. The presumptive President-elect has campaigned on a platform of prosecuting the perpetrators of these human rights violations.

We urge this Council to help us make the presumptive President-elect stand by his campaign promise. We appeal to this Council to urge our government to stop Operation Bantay Laya, or Operation Freedom Watch or OBL as an anti-insurgency policy. OBL makes no distinction between armed combatants and civilians. Its continued implementation has caused massive human rights violations whose victims cut across all sectors in Philippine society. May this Council be steadfast in urging our government neither to engage in nor adopt any similar policy in the future.

Finally, we urge this Council to continue helping us monitor our government, that it may abide by its pledges and commitments to international instrumentalities and to implement the recommendations that it has accepted and committed to. Thank you, Mr. President.

PRESS RELEASE – 08 JUNE 2010

GENEVA, JUNE 8 – Speaking at the general debate on matters that needed the attention of the UN Human Rights Council, a delegate of the Ecumenical Voice for Peace and Human Rights in the Philippines brought to the Council’s attention the arrest of forty three health workers in Morong, Rizal last February 6, 2010. Mr. Jigs Clamor, husband of one of the detained doctors and deputy secretary general of KARAPATAN, said the health workers were held incommunicado, deprived of sleep, denied counsel, coerced, threatened, intimidated and subjected to indignities and various forms of torture.

Facts indubitably demonstrated that evidence was planted to justify their arrest before they were then summarily and baselessly branded as armed rebels by the military. “False charges that are non-bailable under Philippine laws were leveled against them…and the military avoided or questioned any inquiry into their accountability to human rights violations before the Commission on Human Rights”, Clamor said. “Legal shortcuts were resorted to and the Philippine government used a draconian Marcos-era legal rule to deprive them of their liberty,” he continued.

Clamor enjoined the Council to look into the incident, “employ appropriate measures and to urge the Philippine government to respect its pledges and commitments made during the Universal Periodic Review and its obligations to human rights instruments.” Clamor also asked the Council to urge the Philippine government to stop the practice of filing trumped up charges “else brazen impunity shall continue.”

Clamor’s intervention was supported by the CIVICUS, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, Franciscans International, Lawyers Rights Watch of Canada and the Association of American Jurists.

Earlier in the day Rev. Rex Reyes, Jr., General Secretary of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines, delivered an oral intervention along similar lines. Speaking at the general debate on the reports of the special rapporteurs, Reyes underscored the impunity that Oplan Bantay Laya (Operation Plan “Freedom Watch”) has wrought on Filipinos.

He appealed to the Council “to urge our government to stop Oplan Bantay Laya …as an anti-insurgency policy (as it) makes no distinction between armed combatants and civilians”. He added that Oplan Bantay Laya’s “continued implementation has caused massive human rights violations whose victims cut across all sectors of Philippine society”.

Reyes also sought the Council’s help in seeing to it that presumptive President-elect Benigno Aquino III stands by his campaign promise to prosecute the perpetrators of human rights violations in the
Philippines. The presumptive president-elect should neither engage nor adopt any policy similar to Oplan Bantay Laya in the future, he said. Reyes expressed the hope that the Council will monitor how the government abides “by its pledges and commitments to international instruments and to implement the recommendations that it has accepted and committed to.”

The oral intervention of Rev. Reyes was supported by the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, the World Council of Churches, Franciscans International, Lawyers Rights Watch of Canada, the Indian Council of South America, and the American Association of Jurists.

Aside from Rev. Reyes and Mr. Clamor the other members of the delegation of the Ecumenical Voice for Peace and Human Rights in the Philippines are Atty. Edre Olalia, acting Secretary General of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, Ms. Marie Hilao-Enriquez, Chairperson of KARAPATAN and Dr. Angie Gonzales of the International Coordinating Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines.

The Ecumenical Voice is in Geneva for the 14th Session of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations. They are set to meet selected Special Rapporteurs or their human rights officers and some major international NGOs. ##

GENEVA, JUNE 4 – “The Morong 43 case is emblematic of the human rights violations occurring in the Philippines. The plethora of violations at every step of the way, the various legal shortcuts, the brazen abuse or total disregard of the law and the deliberate attempts to escape accountability  are conclusive evidences of so much impunity in the Philippines.” Atty. Edre Olalia, one of the counsels to the Morong 43 and acting Secretary General of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), made these remarks at the side event highlighting  the case of the 43 healthworkers, during the 14th session of the Human Rights Council held at the Palais des Nations at the United Nations.

Also testifying at the side event was Mr. Roneo ‘Jigs’ Clamor, husband of one of the detainees and Deputy Secretary General of the human rights alliance KARAPATAN.  He narrated the circumstances during and following the arrest of the 43 health workers  Clamor described how his wife was threatened and that her family would be harmed if she refuses to own up being a member of the New People’s Army. The other detainees experienced similar threats and other forms of torture, he said. He added that relatives who visited were subject to harassment by elements of the military. Ms. Marie Hilao-Enriquez, KARAPATAN Chairperson, went on to detail how the Morong 43 was deprived of their rights.

Speaking at the same event,  Commissioner Cecilia Quisumbing also rued the failure of the military to respect the mandate of the Commission on Human Rights Quisumbing said the military does not respect human rights and does not see the difference between the mandate of the CHR and the investigative powers of the police. This is one reason, she said the military defies the Commission.  Quisumbing also scored the “apparent impropriety of the warrant of arrest”.

In his response to the testimonies of the members of the Ecumenical Voice for Peace and Human Rights in the Philippines, Mr. Eric Sottas, Secretary General of the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT), noted that the Morong 43 is an example of the criminalization of social protest where the health workers are portrayed as criminals. Sottas said the social conditions in the Philippines, the vulnerabilities of the people and the great gap between the rich and poor and the fact that human rights defenders are advocating for these rights which are being denied, bear on human rights violations. Sottas said the Philippine government readily admits recommendations from the international community like the UN. But, it remains to be seen whether it has the political will to adopt and implement those recommendations.Ms. Renate Bloem, representative of the World Alliance for Citizen Participation (CIVICUS) in the UN, reiterated that the international community of NGOs has been doing its share of supporting the case of the Morong 43 and will continue to link up and work for their release.

The side event entitled, The Morong 43 Case in the Philippines, was sponsored by the Ecumenical Voice for Justice and Human Rights in the Philippines and co-sponsored by the Civicus (World Alliance for Citizen Participation) and the World Organization against Torture (OMCT).##

Ref:
Fr. Rex Reyes
Head of delegation, ECUVOICE

Mr. Roneo Clamo (Karapatan Deputy Secretary General and husband of Morong 43 detainee), Enriquez, Renate Bloem of CIVICUS (as moderator), Cecilia Quisumbing (CHR commissioner), Eric Sottas of the OMCT, and Atty. Edre Olalia (of the National Union of People’s Lawyers and legal counsel of the Morong 43).”]

The members of the Ecumenical Voice delegation shall be participating in the following side events sponsored by different international human rights organizations:

THURSDAY, JUNE 3, 2010
13:00 – 15:00 (7pm ManilaTime)

“ATTACKS ON LAWYERS, JUDGES AND HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS: THE URGENT NEED FOR PROTECTIVE MEASURES”

Room: Room XXVII Palais des Nations, Geneva
Sponsor: Lawyers Rights Watch Canada; Lawyers for Lawyers; the International  Commission of Jurists; and Judges for Judges
Speakers

• Gabriela C. Knaul de Albuquerque e Silva, Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers
• Gerald Staberock, Director Center for the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, International Commission of Jurists
• Gustavo Gallon, Director Colombian Commission of Jurists

Respondents

• Giyoun Kim – Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, Absence of state and regional protection measures in Asia and opportunities for NGOs to provide PM
• Judge Fred Ampuan and lawyers Edre Olalia and Carlos Zarate,
• The Philippines’ experience: Dangers facing jurists and the lack of protective measures
• Peace Brigade International, What NGOs do to protect human rights defenders in danger

Moderator: Phon van den Biesen, President of Lawyers for Lawyers

FRIDAY, JUNE 4, 2010
Time: 11.00-13.00H (5pm Manila time)

“THE MORONG 43 CASE IN THE PHILIPPINES”

Room: Room XXII, Palais des Nations
Sponsors: World Alliance for Citizen Participation (CIVICUS) and World Organization Against Torture (OMCT)

Speakers:

• Manfred Nowak (tbc) (Special Rapporteur on torture, and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment)
• Amaryllis Hilao-Enriquez (Chairperson Karapatan, Philippine national human rights organization)
• Roneo S. Clamor (Husband of one of the doctors among the Morong 43)
• Atty. Edre Olalia (One of the lawyers of the Morong 43), Acting Secretary General, National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), Philippines
• Eric Sottas (Secretary General, World Organization against Torture)

Moderator: Renate Bloem, (CIVICUS at the UN Geneva)

Members of the EcuVoice will also participate in the oral interventions in the