oplan bantay laya | Ecumenical Voice

Philippine NGO delegation conducts side event during 14th UNHRC Session

“Impunity a serious issue that characterized extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in the Philippines” – Prof. Alston

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – “It is very important, in my experience, to try to think strategically and to have a vision of how one really wants to look forward and I wouldn’t for the moment, downplay the importance of prosecution, which I have emphasized consistently and I wouldn’t de-emphasize the extent of the problem of impunity which sends a continuing signal to the military that they can do what they want.” Thus did Professor Philip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, state emphatically during yesterday’s side event entitled, “THE POLITICAL KILLINGS AND OTHER HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES: IMPUNITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY AT A CROSSROADS BETWEEN TWO ADMINISTRATIONS?” at the ongoing 14th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

EcuVoice delegation with Prof. Alston discuss impunity in the Philippines at side event in Geneva

Professor Alston was reacting to the call echoed by the Ecumenical Voice for Peace and Human Rights in the Philippines for the prosecution of President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo for the extrajudicial killings that claimed the lives of 1,191 victims and all other violations of human rights during her nine years watch. Alston also said that impunity was the most serious issue that characterized the extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in the Philippines.

It will be recalled that Professor Alston visited the Philippines in 2007. A year later, he submitted his formal report to the UN Human Rights Council. The Alston Report as it is known in the Philippines is a detailed narrative on the extradjudicial killings that peaked in 2005-2006 in the country. The Alston report cited the counter-insurgency program of the government and the failure to prosecute perpetrators as the main reasons behind the killings. The report also proposed some recommendations for the government to undertake. The government, however, maligned Professor Alston and ignored the report.

Prof. Alston also 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 these 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. Turning to human rights defenders in the Philippines, Alston suggested that focus be given on the role of the judiciary and the human rights commission. He lauded the strong leadership of NGOs saying that among the countries he visited, the civil society in the Philippines was by far the most active in terms of providing him the data he needed.

During the side event, Ms. Marie Hilao-Enriquez, Chairperson of KARAPATAN, said that the Oplan Bantay Laya counter-insurgency program being implemented by the Arroyo administration is the most vicious and brutal program unleashed by any Philippine president against the Filipino people as this is targeting civilians and civil society organization leaders and members rather than the armed rebels. In the same vein, Rev. Rex Reyes, Jr. General Secretary of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) and President of the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) thanked Prof. Alston for the report which is constantly referred to in putting the government to task for its continuing violations of human rights. He also thanked the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation and the churches in North America for accompanying the Philippines in “bringing before the international community the brazen assault on human dignity in the Philippines”. Reyes reported that in view of the brazenness and impunity, some churches are seriously considering a class suit against the President when she steps down from office on June 30, 2010.

Prof. Alston, whose term as Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions ends in July 2010, presented his final report to the UN HRC. In his remarks at the side event, he said he had “always retained great interest in the Philippines and will continue to be interested”.

CHR Commissioner Cecilia “Coco” Quisumbing, who also attended the side event, bewailed the military’s and police’s non-cooperation with the Commission during hearings or inquiries called by the latter. She also shared with the audience the promises that the presumptive president Noynoy Aquino declared when the Commission interviewed him on his plans as incoming president.

The side event 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).###

References:
Rev.Fr. Rex Reyes, General Secretary, NCCP
Marie Hilao-Enriquez, Chairperson, Karapatan

2010: 06/03
CATEGORY: 14th Session UNHRC
TAGS: Alston
ejk
enforced disappearances
extrajudicial killing
oplan bantay laya
UN
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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).