That the world may know again
Press Statement – May 27, 2010
As the curtain falls on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s 9-year rule, it is most certain that among others, it shall be marked as the worst in terms of adherence to human rights instrumentalities. With the implementation of Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL), the most vicious counterinsurgency program in recent memory, her government tops the scale of human rights violators in the country’s history since the martial law years.
According to Karapatan, there were 1,191 victims of extrajudicial killings, 205 victims of enforced disappearances, 1,028 victims of torture and hundreds of thousands of people forcibly evacuated and displaced in rural areas as a result of military operations – all committed during President Arroyo’s watch. These represent the scale and magnitude of the brutal impact of the OBL under a so-called democratic rule. The culture of impunity that characterized this assault on human dignity is second to none in recent years. When there is strong local and international pressure the Arroyo government is forced to “de-escalate” the number of human rights violations. But even if the numbers decreased there was no let-up in the violations, with impunity becoming more brazen as in the cases of the Ampatuan massacre and the illegal arrest and torture of the Morong 43. Whenever there is a lull in the pressure the number of violations shoots up again.
The impunity is also characterized by the fact that not only is it continuing but also by the fact that to this day no one has been credibly convicted of these affront to humanity. The victims cry out for justice. The Arroyo government must be held accountable for these crimes against humanity.
Moved by faith and aware that in our refusal to speak “even the stones will cry out”, the Ecumenical Voice for Peace and Human Rights in the Philippines will once more travel to Geneva, Switzerland for the 14th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council. There, we will again bring to the attention of the international community the persistent and continuing violations to human rights under Oplan Bantay Laya. We will lay before the international community the story of the continuing detention of the Morong 43. We will appeal to the UNHRC to listen to the call of the Filipino people for justice and help stop further impunity and human rights violations through mechanisms like the OBL. We will lay our case for sustained international monitoring and pressure for the Philippine government to comply with its commitments and pledges to universally accepted human rights instrumentalities.
Having gone through a recent national election, it is also our hope that the UNHRC will help push the new Philippine government under presumptive President-apparent Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III to : fulfill his promise to prosecute President Macapagal-Arroyo, accord justice to the victims of human rights violations, end political repression, discontinue the OBL as a policy and never embark on any similar policy, and address the roots of the insurgency, namely poverty and injustice.
In the end, there can be no substitute to the vigilance of the people. From all walks of life in this Republic, we must be watchful by keeping to mind lessons of the past – of how our forebears resisted oppression thereby showing us that it is possible for just and peaceful times to dawn upon us.##
Members of the Delegation: Fr. Rex Reyes, Jr. (General Secretary, NCCP), Ms. Marie Hilao-Enriquez (Chairperson, Karapatan), Atty. Edre Olalia (Acting Secretary General, National Union 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).
Ecumenical Voice 