CHRP Newsletter Autumn 2010 (New Format)

8/8/2019 CHRP Newsletter Autumn 2010 (New Format)

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Newsletter C AMPAIGNF ORH UMANR IGHTSP HILIPPINES

AUTUMN 2010

ExclusivEInterview with Prof Robert Alstonpp 8-9

MaguindanaoMassacrE by Dr Eva Lotta Hedmanpp 4-5

CHRP welcomes ConcepcionEmpeno, Raymond Manalo andRemigio Saladero to the UK thismonth in the rst leg o a Europe tourarranged in conjunction with Amnesty International and the support o UNI-SON and the Sigrid Rausing rust.

Te three, all victims o or relatives o victims o en orced disappearance and

wrong ul arrest, will tour the UK andmainland Europe, speaking at eventsand con erences and meeting politicians,unions, community groups and the media.

Among the trios appointments will be anevent hosted at the Amnesty InternationalHuman Rights Action Centre, a meeting

with the All-Party Parliamentary Groupon Human Rights and a meeting with

Amnesty Internationals Secretary General.Mr Manalo is a armer who escaped cap-

tivity a ter being kidnapped by men widely suspected to be in the employ o the ArmedForces o the Philippines (AFP). Raymond

was tortured by his kidnappers, and also witnessed the torture o two university stu-dents, Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeno.

Concepcion Empeno is the mothero Karen Empeno, one o the two stu-dents who have been missing now or

our years. Both were abducted whileconducting research in a rural village.

Remigio Saladero, chie counsel to theunion umbrella organisation Kilusang MayoUno (KMU), is a well-known labour lawyer

who was subjected to wrong ul arrest andimprisoned or three months on trumped-up charges o murder. Te warrants usedto arrest Mr Saladero Jr and those he wasat the time were all de ective, containing

misspelled names and incorrect addresses.Mr Manalo said o the tour: o visit

the UK is very important or me. I wantto tell the world the truth that state

orces in the Philippines have been andstill are responsible or perpetrating the

worst kinds o human rights violations.Mrs Empeno said: Tis trip is a step

towards a solution to the disappearance o

Karen and Sherlyn. We want to pressure thenew administration to prioritize the humanrights problems in the Philippines, becausedespite our pleas, our new president re-mains dea , blind and mute to our concerns.

CHRP Honorary President Canon Bar-ry Naylor said: I people in the UK andEurope can add their voices to the condem-nation o such atrocities, we hope the situa-tion may be able to change in the uture sothat Filipinos can go about their everyday lives without living in ear o their li e.

he seemingly ongoing cultureo impunity around en orced disap-

pearances and extra-judicial killingsin the Philippines must end now.New president Benigno Noynoy Aqui-

no, son o People Power president Corazon Aquino, committed his government to end-

EnforcEd disappEarancEs on

agEnda for cHrp EuropE tour

continued on page 3


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C AMPAIGNF ORH UMANR IGHTSP HILIPPINES

The Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippinesc/o PIPLinks, Finspace225-229 Seven Sisters RoadLondon N4 2DAPhone: +44 (0)207 263 1002Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.chrp.org.uk

2 Campaign or Human Rights Philippines | Autumn 2010 Autumn 2010 | Campaign or Human Rights Philippines 3

I HAS been a turbulent year or Philippinehuman rights. Since our newsletter was lastpublished in 2009, the Maguindanao kill-ings saw Philippine political violence dominatethe global news headlines or an all too brie moment. However, subsequent cases such as theFebruary arrest and imprisonment o the Mo-rong 43 the murder in June o labour leaderEdward Panganiban, and the ongoing plight o

Jonas Burgos, James Balao, Sherlyn Cadapanand Karen Empeno and many others like them

ailed to generate any international coverage.Ten came election season. Many re-

joiced at the chance to rid ourselves o Glo-ria Arroyo, yet while the election o Noynoy

Aquino brought the end to Arroyos regimeand our democratic institutions were cel-ebrated by Hillary Clinton, questions remain as to whetherNoynoy will, or can, demolish the culture o impunity.

In the rst 10 days since his election, ve people werekilled. By the end o July, leading bishops urged Aqui-no to give substance to his pronouncements, while only amonth later the world saw the torture meted out on a rou-tine basis by Philippine police that suggests demolishinghuman rights abuses is not as easy as winning an election.

With the 100 days o Noynoys presidency up, now is thetime or his progress to be scrutinised and the governmentpressed to deliver change. In this, CHRP will work as hardin the year ahead as it has in the year just gone to join Phil-ippine activists in holding politicians and the political sys-tem to account and in orming others o the wrongs we see.

Te year has also been active or CHRP, which coordinatedthe visit o Edith Burgos and her son JL to the UK and Europe,

meeting with politicians and journalists, and speaking at events atSOAS and the Amnesty International Human Rights Action Cen-tre, while in March CHRP joined the International Federation o Journalists, the National Union o Journalists and Amnesty Inter-national in an event at the Amnesty International Human Rights

Action Centre condemning the Maguindanao killings. In June,CHRP joined Amnesty to host a ringe event at the UNISONnational con erence or the rst time, while more recently - asthis newsletter explains -we have arranged the visit to the UK andEurope o Concepcion Empeno, Raymond Manalo and RemigioSaladero Jr. For this we must thank partners and bene actors in-cluding Amnesty International, UNISON (both head o ce andmany branches), the Sigrid Rausing rust and the InternationalCoordinating Committee or Human Rights in the Philippines.

lEttEr rom the Chairman Maguindanao uK rallY

suprEME court non-dEcision on Burgos casE prolongs agonY

In March this year, CHRP joined orces with the International Federation o Journalists (IFJ), the National Uniono Journalists (NUJ) and Amnesty Intrna-tional to condemn the Maguindanao kill-ings. At a rally hosted by Amnesty Interna-tional at the Human Rights Action Centreto mark 100 days since the November 23,

2009, massacre o 58 peo-ple, including 32 journal-ists, the organisations high-lighted Executive Order 546as critical to the killings. A joint statement rom CHRP,the IFJ and NUJ demandedthe order, which allows theuse o neighbourhood-

watch type armed orcemultipliers, or CivilianVolunteer Organisations, tobe revoked. Te statementalso called or a ull in- ves-

tigation into military inaction and collu-sion prior to the killings, and su cientresources and independence to be grantedto prosecutors and the judiciary to guar-antee speedy and e ective investigations.

IFJ president Jim Boumelha said: Te Arroyo government is responsible orallowing a culture o impunity to grow

over the past decade that created the con-ditions in which the Ampatuan ownmassacre could take place.Te IFJ criti-cised the decision to promote Gen- eral

Al red Cayton to deputy commander o the Philip- pine army within weeks o him re using a military es- cort or theconvoy that was subsequently massacred.Victims amilies have since launcheda civil action against General Cayton.

Tis promotion not only rewards a atalact o gross negligence, but also makesclear the governments determination notto investigate the role and responsibility o the military in this massacre, added Bou-melha. Prior to the Maguindanao killings,some 104 journalists met violent deathssince 1984. Te murder o the 32 jour-nalists, along with other civilians, made itthe single worst atrocity against the me-dia in living memory and the Philippinesthe most dangerous place or journalists.

he plight o Jonas Burgos, son o chair o Desaparecidos (Familieso the Disappeared),Edith Bur-

gos, who visited the UK with CHRP lastyear, remains unresolved. Te PhilippineSupreme Court ailed to produce a deci-sion on a petition o the Writ o Amparo(protection) led more than a year ago, in-stead ordering the Commission on HumanRights to investigate the case, e ectively taking proceedings back to square one. Te Writ o Amparo was established as a meansto protect constitutional rights and supple-ment habeas corpus, o ten ine ectual in

Philippine courts. Te writ was taken to theSupreme Court a ter the Court o Appealsdismissed an application by the Burgoses.

Lorena Santos, Deputy Secretary General o Desaparecidos said: TeSupreme Court did not bestow justice;it only prolonged the Burgoses agony.

Decisions or petitions or the Writo Amparo or the disappearance o National Democratic Front o the Phil-ippines consultant or the peace pro-cess Leo Velasco, and, the UP StudentsKaren Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan arestill pending with the Supreme Court.

With 100 days of Aquinos presidency, now is the time to scrutinise the government and pressure them to deliver change.

CHRP Newsletter is published in London

Editor : Mark DearnDesigner : RJ Fernandez

ing the countrys record o human rightsabuses, but little progress has been madethus ar, with the new presidents rst 10days in o ce being marked by 5 extra-ju-dicial killings with no arrests being made.

Leading bishops rom the Philippineshave condemned the continuing extrajudicial killings, saying: We are outragedthat the spate o extrajudicial killings thatstarted during the Arroyo regime, as wellas the culture o impunity, continues. Tis

act does not speak well o the new Presi-dent who promised to be the oppositeo his despised predecessor.New presi-dent Benigno Noynoy Aquino, son o People Power president Corazon Aquino,

committed his government to ending thecountrys record o human rights abuses,but little progress has been made thus

ar, with the new presidents rst 10 daysin o ce being marked by 5 extra-judi-cial killings with no arrests being made.

Leading bishops rom the Philippineshave condemned the continuing extrajudicial killings, saying: We are outragedthat the spate o extrajudicial killingsthat started during the Arroyo regime,as well as the culture o impunity, con-tinues. Tis act does not speak well o the new President who promised to bethe opposite o his despised predecessor.

EnforcEd disappEarancEscontinued rom page 1

Raymond Manalo points to where aellow prisoner was executed

Ra ael Joseph Maramag


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o ce in Mindan-ao, including twogovernorships, atthe time o themassacre. Here,the-notoriously violent electionso 1971, whenthen president

Ferdinand Marcos had been in power orsix years and was expected to leave o ce in1973, suggests use ul insights and soberinglessons or the prospects and dynamics o the upcoming Philippine elections to beheld in May 2010. Te problematic pat-tern o integration o the Muslim minority population is another important but o tenmisunderstood backdrop to the confict inthe southern Philippines. Te early 1970s

witnessed armed separatist mobilizationor an independent Moro homeland under

the rubric o the Moro National LiberationFront (MNLF). By the mid-1970s, nearly 75% o the troops o the Armed Forces o thePhilippines had been deployed to Mindanaoand the Sulu Archipelago, with violent clash-es leading to an estimated 50,000 casualtiesand the orced displacement o hundreds o thousands o residents. With a peace accordsigned in 1976, live-and-let-live arrange-ments emerged in the sou thern Philippines,allowing armed Muslim groups to enjoy considerable local power. Te resumption o democratic elections in the mid-late 1980s,and the creation o the Autonomous Regiono Muslim Mindanao in the 1990s acilitatedthis pattern o accommodation. However,

rom 2000, and deepening with theonset o the Global War On errorismin late 2001, the southern Philippinessaw large-scale government military campaigns in the name o counter-ter-rorism causing casualties, destruction,and orced displacement on a scale notsee since the early-mid 1970s. A o-tal War begun in 2000 dramatically reduced the e ective control enjoyedby the Moro Islamic Liberation Front(MILF) over Muslim areas o centralMindanao. A later wave o military operations in the islands o the Sulu

Archipelago was waged against thesmall shadowy Islamist terrorist net- work known as the Abu Sayya Group.

From 2006 up through mid-2008,however, a new pattern o ac-commodation had emerged be-

tween the Philippine government andthe MILF, with in ormal understand-ings accompanied by ormal diplomatic

negotiations, leading to a Memorandum o Understanding in early-mid 2008. Tis lullin the ghting coincided, not accidentally,

with the 2007 mid-term elections. But theproposed accord was opposed by many Chris-tian interests in Mindanao and by elements within the MILF as well. ensions increased,and Diplomacy and Strategy@LSE bothsides began to rearm and remobilize their

orces. By mid-2008, armed skirmishes werereported in mixed Muslim/Christian areaso central Mindanao, with MILF attacks onvillages provoking a large-scale AFP military cam-paign that has continued,on and o , well into 2009.

Meanwhile, kidnap-pings by the Abu Sayya inBasilan and Sulu sparkedrenewed counter-terrorismoperations by Philippinegovernment orces in theSulu Archipelago. In bothcentral Mindanao and theSulu Archipelago, the re-surgence o armed confict has led to thedisplacement o hundreds o thousands o residents, only a minority o whom have

ound re uge in the governments evacu-ation centres. February and March 2009saw renewed ghting and large-scale fightin some areas, and new military operations

were launched in April, prompting urtherlarge- scale displacement, especially in Magu-indanao. Despite the July 2009 cease re andthe December resumption o peace talks be-tween the Philippine government and MILF,

confict, violence and displacement continueto loom large on the horizon o Muslim Min-danao in the absence o a political solution.

Localised in the context o southernPhilippines, the Global War On error-ism has thus lent added momentum to theemergence o zones o impunity in parts o Mindanao. As the heartland o the MoroIslamic Liberation Front (MILF) and a key theatre o armed confict, the province o Maguindanao presents a political terrain

where extrajudicial killings have contin-ued to eature prominently among civil-ian casualties. Indeed, the absence o any clearly demarcated zones between military and civilian areas has remained the norm inMaguindanao and other parts o Mindanaoa ected by protracted confict and cycleso militarised violence. What is at timesre erred to as clan- based violence, or rido,pitting rivaling amilies and their support-ers against each other in their competition

or local political power and resources, isperhaps the most notorious mani estationo such impunity, as noted in a recent study conducted by researchers at Mindanao StateUniversity in Marawi. As the stalled peacetalks between the Philippine governmentand the MILF have resumed in Kuala Lum-pur on 8-9 December, the shock waves romthe Maguindanao Massacre continue to re-verberate. Perhaps the calls or swi t justiceand the moves to prevent urther bloodshedin the a termath o the massacre will also addurgency and momentum to end the injus-tices and violence visited upon the thousands

o Filipinos caught in thecross re o armed confictand military campaigns insouthern Philippines. It canonly be hoped that the Ar-royo administrations dec-laration o martial law andongoing military operationsagainst the Ampatuans andtheir alleged 4,000 strongprivate army in Maguin-danao does not portendyet another chapter in Phil-

ippine history in which confict in Mind-anao and corruption in Manila convergeat great expense to Filipinos o all aiths.

Dr. Eva-Lotta Hedman is a Research Fellow at LSE IDEAS Southeast Asia International Afairs Programme and a Research Associate at Re ugee Studies Centre, University o Ox ord

he Maguindanao Massacre has sentshock waves through the Philippinesand beyond. A convoy o cars was

caught in an armed ambush on Monday 23November, leaving at least 57 persons dead,

with mutilated bodies and crushed vehiclesound buried in large pits. Te convoy was

destined or the Commission o Electionso ce in Shari Aguak town, MagindanaoProvince in the Autonomous Region o Mus-lim Mindanao (ARMM). Te purpose wasto le local vice mayor Esmael Manguda-datus certi cate o candidacy to run or thegovernorship o Maguindanao province inthe May 2010 Philippine elections. Amongthe victims o the massacre were at least 30 journalists, more than 20 women, includingthe wi e and two sister o Mangudadatu.

As news o the massacre spread quickly,UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-Moon andthe U.S. Embassy in Manila calle upon Presi-dent Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to ensure thatthose responsible or the attack be broughtto swi t justice. At this writing, a local mayorand scion o the power ul Ampatuan amily, Andal Ampatuan Jr., has been charged with25 counts o murder and remains in policecustody in a Manila prison. A number o other people have also been recommendedto ace murder charges, including at leastsix other Ampatuans (the provincial gover-nor, the ARMM governer, another mayor, avice mayor, and the head o so-c alled police

auxiliary orces. In the a termath o the mas-sacre, Maguindanao was rst placed undera state o emergency, and the entire locally appointed police orce o more than 1,000

men dismissed. Subsequently, Arroyohas moved to declare martial law inthe province, thu e ectively authoriz-ing thousands o government troopsto make arrests without court warrantsand otherwise crack down on the Am-patuan clan and its private army o so-called auxiliary police orces or civilianvolunteer organizations. Te targetingo women and media representatives insuch large numbers and brutal man-ners during broad daylight, possibly resulting in more journalists killed ina single attack than anywhere else inthe world, was not merely shocking. It was also the atal outcome o a deliber-ate strategy or launching an electoralchallenge against the grip on powerexercised by the Ampatuans throughelective and appointive government po-sitions, as well as through local policeand private armies, in Maguindanao,and beyond (the ARMM governor isalso an Ampatuan as o 2005). Tatis, Mangudadatus convoy itsel representedan attempt at expanding the repertoire o oppositional politics in the orbidding con-text that is contemporary Maguindanao.

While the placing o women and journal-ists in harms way ailed to deter the atalattack, the swi t public reaction to the mas-sacre is nonetheless testimony to the powero the individual courage and collective ac-

tion demonstrated by those who joined in this convoy.

he particular circum-stances and suspected culpritsbehind this massacre haveattracted considerable atten-tion, in the Philippines andelsewhere. While details andevidence have yet to be heardin a court o law, the deepercauses and consequences o this massacre can be gleaned

rom analyzing the wider po-litical context and dynamics ,in Maguindanao, in MuslimMindanao, and elsewhere inthe Philippines. Tere are atleast three important patternsto consider in this regard: i)the practice o election-relatedviolence; ii) the integration o the Muslim minority popula-tion; and iii) the emergenceo zones o impunity in the

southern provinces o the Philippines. Many observers have noted that election-relatedviolence remains a amiliar and widespreadpractice not merely in southern Philippines

but in many oth-er parts o thecountry as well.In recent mem-ory, or example,a reported 186candidates andsupporters werekilled in elec-tion-related violence across the country in2004, and another 126 in the 2007 elections.More generally, guns, goons, and gold havelong been a mainstay o Philippine electoralpolitics, as have national citizens movementsthat seek to sa eguard ree and air elec-tions against violence, vote-buying and elec-toral raud. Diplomacy and Strategy@LSE

More easily overlooked, however, is a pat-tern o violence during periods when a (long-term) incumbent president is - or should be-a lame duck and the anticipated realignmento national politics spells a concomitant shi tin (entrenched) local structures o power. Inview o the rm grip on local power by the Ampatuans in Maguindanao since 2001, andtheir close association with Arroyo duringa long presidency which is now drawingto a close, the May 2010 elections pres-ent precisely such a moment o (would be)change and turnover in the wider context o a deeply entrenched authoritarian enclave, orso-called warlord bailiwick. Having playeda critical role in delivering a he ty chunk o the Mindanao vote to Arroyos ruling party in the 2004 elections, the Ampatuans havesince consolidated their grip on local powerand held a total o 16 positions to political

tHE MaguindanaoMassacrE:

critical ElEctions andarMEd conflict

in tHE pHilippinEs

A body is recovered rom the pit

Prime suspect: Andal Ampatuan

The arsenal o recovered weapons


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pHilippinEs ElEctions2010:

frEE and fair?

O n May 10th 2010 automatednational elections were heldin the Philippines or the rsttime. I was lucky enough to meet Sen-ate President Juan Ponce Enrile shortly a ter the elections and he described theelection campaign to me as rowdy. Hisdescription is apt. In the Philippineselections are colour ul, noisy and long,

or this reason Te Philippine Daily Enquirer ran the headline Carnival

ime Again when the 2010 campaignseason kicked o on February 9th.

Te Philippines has a history o bloody elections. However atality rates are problematic to quanti y aspre-campaign, pre-election, pollingday and post election casualties areall relevant but sometimes di cult tocategorize as election related. Be oreand during the elections the ArmedForces o the Philippines (AFP) areplaced on the highest state o alert.

I was part o the Peoples Interna-tional Observers Mission (PIOM) thatnumbered 86 observers rom 11 coun-tries. Te observers were divided intoteams and dispersed across the country to monitor various locations includingnumerous hot spot zones. Filipinos were also involved in the mission, bothin the central coordination in Manilaand in the provinces we travelled to.My team was stationed in Iloilo a townon the Western Visayan island o Panay.

On the day o the election the mainissue that our team observed was thatthe whole process o voting backed up

due to too many people being allocatedto each Precinct Optical Optical Scan-ner (PICOS) machine. Voters waited

or up to eight hours to vote. Tetemperature was touching 38 degrees.

We also observed machines not beingdelivered as they had apparently beentaken and burned en route, machines

jamming, individuals without autho-risation inter ering with the machines,chaotic organisation o queues and elec-tion campaign materials in and aroundthe precincts. Campaigning in the pre-cincts is banned but this was circum-navigated by the distribution o itemssuch as ans, umbrellas and t-shirtsthat help ully illustrated the names o candidates and how to vote or them.

Children were also seen distribut-ing fyers, presumably as they were lesslikely to be questioned than adults.

All around the precincts the security services were armed and in evidence.

All the teams on the mission oundmass evidence o vote buying andcheating. We also observed votingthrough the window that is a voter went into the classroom, got his ballotsheet and passed it through the open

window or someone else to completeand return to him.O cials stood by and watched whilstthis went on. Tere

was also a completelack o privacy tovote as the privacy

olders suppliedby the Commis-sion on Elections(COMELEC) wereshorter than theballot papers. Bal-lot papers are longas each voter votes

or the president,the vice-president,senators, congress-men and a range

o other local positions.

Voting was meant to end at 6.00pmbut was extended until 7.00pm by COMELEC, a ter that precincts wereshut but anyone within the precinct was entitled to vote. Tere were reportso voting going on until midnight. Ourteam witnessed rst hand the distresso some voters who had been waiting

or hours with scant instruction rom

either the Board o Elections Inspec-tors (BEIs) or COMELEC. However,by and large people did wait to vote.Voter turnout was gauged to be 75%.

Te oreign observers and the Fili-pinos seemed to view the elections inradically di erent ways. Te PIOMstated to the national press that theelections were not air, not honest andnot peace ul. In some circles this was

disputed. A ter the election Maj. Gen Juancho Sabban o the PhilippinesMarines, who I kept in close contact

with throughout the election period,stated that as long as there are not200 dead on the street we considerit peace ul. Actual deaths on pollingday 2010 numbered less than 20. TePIOM team in Lanao del Sur werecaught in the middle o shoot out ata polling station. Te end result wasthree dead and one wounded but theteam all managed to escape sa ely.

Members o the PIOM that moni-tored the Payatas region o Manilareported chaos at the polls, not leastbecause o mass numbers o votersper precinct, and mass vote buying.However when I went to one o theschools they had visited a ew dayslater the principle o the school de-clared the whole process was a suc-cess. Te only issue she mentioned

was that the crowd were di cult tocontrol but once they ound a mega-phone order was restored. MeanwhileSmartmatic took out two page spreadsin the national press lauding itsel overthe success ul election. Success is ob-viously in the eye o the beholder.

he act that the elections hap-pened at all was considered asuccess in some quarters. Be ore

the elections rumours were ri e that thePICO machines would not work and/or brown outs would lead to a ailure o elections. Te deeply unpopular prede-cessor to the winning presidential can-didate Benigno (Noynoy) Aquino III,Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) wasconsidered capable o all sorts o dirty tricks in order to extend her presiden-tial tenure. In the event the electionspushed through but rumours persistthat the PICO machines were somehow pre-programmed to generate the resultsthat someone (the United States?) de-sired. Te issue o cheating centres onthe act that the memory cards or thePICOs machines were recalled threedays be ore the elections as they weredeemed not to be registering data prop-

erly. Te ault was apparently recti edand the cards were swi tly returned.Critics claim that this was when theresults were pre-loaded into the cards.

Losing vice presidential candidateSen. Mar Roxas lodged a legal appealagainst the declaration o ormer Mayoro Makati Jejomar Binay as vice presi-dent. Tere were less than a millionvotes separating the two and Roxas isarguing that the result would have beendi erent i the nearly three millionspoiled votes had been counted. Werethe Philippines elections a success?

Well they happened and the reign o GMA was brought to an end. Aquinois now president, he won over 40% o votes cast and his nearest rival trailedby ve million votes. How ar the re-sults were the result o a ree and airsystem, we will perhaps never know.

Voters waited up to 8 hours in38 degree heat. As long as there are

not 200 dead onthe street weconsider it peaceful.

Election campaigning is big business

Election campaigning is big business

Dr Pauline Eadie

Dr Pauline Eadie is Co-Director o the Institute o Asia-

Pacifc Studies,University o Nottingham


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P rofessor Philip Alston has been UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions since 2004. He reports regularly to the UN General Assembly and HumanRights Council, and has visited the Philippines sever-al times, most recently in 2007 when he condemned the militarys state of denial around extra-judicial killings and disappearances. He is John NortonPomeroy Professor of Law at New York University.

How did you rst become interested in human rights?

I grew up in Australia during a period o prosperity and con-sistent economic growth and, or the rst 22 years o my li e,

Australia had a conservative government. Social justice issues were not at all prominent. Tings changed, rst with the opposi-tion to the Vietnam War, in which Australias proclaimed policy

was all the way with LBJ a re erence to Lyndon Johnson, theUS President who was busily expanding the war. Te anti-warmovement also gave added impetus to e orts to elect a socialdemocratic government, which came to o ce at the end o 1972.By 1974 I was working as chie o sta to a cabinet minister inthat government, led by Prime Minister Whitlam. It was anexciting time and I worked on issues like the rights o Australiasindigenous peoples, prison re orm, and police accountability,although I barely knew the term human rights at the time.

Were you shocked by what you came to know about the Philippines? How aware were you o the situationthere be ore you rst visited?

I was very well brie ed be ore I arrived in Manila in Feb-ruary 2007. I had done extensive research o my own, andhad read a lot o materials provided to me by local civil rightsgroups, and had the advantage o in-depth conversations withsome o the key actors. But it is true that reading and talkingabout such issues is no substitute or learning about them onthe ground. I arrived with a certain set o assumptions aboutthe nature and extent o the killings that were taking place anda good sense o who was accused o carrying them out, butthere were also various elements that didnt quite add up inmy mind. My views certainly evolved very signi cantly a ter Ihad had the opportunity to meet not only with witnesses andvictims, but also with the armed orces and government leaders.

How important are success ul prosecutions in stem-ming the tide o extra-judicial killings?

It is the key element. I sometimes worry that impunity is a catchword thatmight have come to lose its ability toshock because it is used so o ten. Wereally need to ocus on what it meansin practice. It is that those who mightthink about resolving disputes simply by taking out the people with whom they disagree, ace no disincentive. In other words, it is most unlikely that there will be any legal consequencesi they kill someone; there is simply no deterrent. Tey see oth-

ers literally getting away with murderand decide that its a good option orthem as well. Te only thing that willstop this mentality is the message that i you do kill, you will be prosecuted, andyou will serve a very long jail sentence.

What do you think key blockag-es have been in accessing justiceon extra-judicial killings in the Philippines?

Tere has been a lack o political willingness to con rontmany o the killers. Where power ul political clans, or businessleaders are involved, its easier not to con ront them. Wherethe military are suspected, there is o ten a reluctance to callthem to account or ear that their loyalty might be thrown intoquestion. I you have a Justice Secretary who is determined not

to acknowledge the realities o what is going on, you start out with a huge presumption in a-vour o impunity. I you havea weak and under- unded wit-ness protection, people are notgoing to come orward and tes-ti y, and they dont testi y, there

will be very ew convictions.

Were you impressed by civil society groups/indigenous NGOs in the Philip- pines?

Filipino NGOs areclearly among the mostsophisticated and expe-rienced in the world. Ireceived very detaileddossiers in relation toa great many killings,and those dossiers were

not simply a recounting o the alleged acts. Tey includedphotographs, autopsy reports, witness statements, o cial docu-ments and accounts etc. My work in the Philippines would haveachieved very little i it had not been or the superb work doneby a broad coalition o NGOs, as well as the act that many o them worked closely together or the rst time or many years.

What potential do you see or hope or change in thePhilippines, especially given there is a new government in ofce?

Tere is generally reason or great hope when a re ormistgovernment comes to o ce and it resolves to tackle both thesymptoms and the underlying causes o major human rightsviolations. But we should not be under any illusions aboutthe di culty o the task. Te Noynoy Government will needall the help and all the pressure that it can get to make surethat it comes good on its extremely encouraging promises totackle impunity and to ensure accountability or past abuses.

Do you think structural/institutional problems in gov-ernance (e.g. links between the executive and military)inhibit progress on human rights in the Philippines?

It is in the nature o any sophisticated society that there will be structural problems that will impede e orts to holdpower ul individuals to account or human rights violations.

Te important thing is to make sure that investigations andprosecutions are carried out in a principled and e ective man-ner so that justice is seen to be done as well as actually beingdone. Te Philippines has a long and complex history o re-lations between the executive and the military and it will beessential or both sides to respect the constitutional limits o their powers and to work together to make sure that a civiliangovernment is able to pursue its responsibilities to the people.

You were reported to have said that a ter your termas UN rapporteur ends this year that you will retain aninterest in the Philippines. When do you plan to visit the Philippines again? And will you be able to lend your support and expertise to the Philippine people some-how?

I rst visited in 1986, within weeks o the EDSA revolu-tion and I have returned several times since then. Te Philip-pines is a magni cent country and I will always be very hap-py to return. But while I was Special Rapporteur I neededan invitation rom the government i I was to visit in a con-text that had anything to do with unlaw ul killings. My realhope now is that Filipino society will be able to take the nextsteps against impunity without needing outside prodding. I

will certainly be ollowing events with enormous interest.

Whats your avourite Filipino ood?/Was there a par-ticular aspect o Filipino culture you enjoyed?

Filipino ood strikes me as one o the original and greatexamples o usion in the sense that it combines the best o many di erent regional traditions. I pre er the Asian elementsand especially love the sea ood and noodle dishes. In terms o culture, I didnt get the opportunity to engage in much o it,but I was ortunate enough to buy some wonder ul local art

work when I was there, which is have on display in my home.

What is your message to de enders o Philippines hu-man rights?

Te human rights struggle is never won, but it is always essentialto have hope and to believe in the possibility o deep and enduringchange. Te Philippines has so much going or it and I have no doubtthat the struggle or social justice and against impunity can be won.

prof roBErt alstonspEaKs to cHrp

Interview by Mark Dearn

The HumanRights struggleis never won.

There has been alack of political will-ingness to confront many of the killers.


6/7


O n February 6 this year, 43 health workers were arrested with a de-ective arrest warrant in Morong,Rizal province, on the grounds that the group were a liated with the New Peoples Army.

Te 43, 26 o whom are women, twoo whom are pregnant, were staying at aresort owned by Dr Melecia Velmonte, aconsultant at Philippine General Hospitaland pro essor emeritus at the University o the Philippines College o Medicine.

Te group, now known as the Morong43 were charged with the non-bailableo ence o illegal possession o rearmsand explosives, and alleged to have beenundergoing bomb-making training. Vel-monte said they were community health

workers attending a training course orga-nized by the non-government organisa-tion, Council or Health Development.

In the ollowing weeks a petition or the writ o habeas corpus was led by relativeso the group, while then chair o the Com-mission on Human Rights (CHR) Leila DeLima said the 43 had been subjected to psy-chological torture and denied the right tocounsel. Te Supreme Court ordered the 43to be presented by the military and policeto the Court o Appeals. However, the 43never arrived with the military citing a lack o time to coordinate security measures.

In March, Adoracion Paulino, themother o a detainee, revealed she was

o ered P50,000 and a job by the mili-tary in exchange or her sons con es-sion, justi ed as nancial assistanceunder the governments social inte-gration program or rebel returnees.

Later that month, the petition or ha-beas corpus was dismissed by the Courto Appeals using a martial law doctrine

which argues detention can not be ques-tioned once criminal charges have been

led, regardless o irregularities in ar-rest and inquest. Te 43s lawyers ledan appeal be ore the Supreme Court,

which has so ar received no response. While Brigadier General Jose Mabanta

Jr. o the AFP stated that the arrest wasmade with proper warrants o arrestsand search warrants comments madein the last ew weeks by now JusticeSecretary De Lima indicate otherwise.

Te International Association o Demo-cratic Lawyers (IADL), the worlds big-gest organization o human rights law-yers, is ocusing on the Morong 43 as aninternational campaign. A ter a delegationmet with De Lima, she said: I know theviolations. I know how de ective the ar-rest was. I know that the warrant [o ar-rest] was patently de ective on its ace.

Te warrant was issued against MarioCondes, who was not among the 43 ar-rested and who has never been ound.During hearings conducted by the CHR,

police and military o cers admitted they did not pursue searching or Condes.

De Lima said: I have been receivingemails rom international organizationssaying that they are interested in this case.Te UN Human Rights Council is con-cerned about the Morong 43, while thereare many international human rights groups which expressed concern as to whether thearrest and detention have a legal basis.

tHE ongoing pligHtof tHE Morong 43


7/7

C AMPAIGNF ORH UMANR IGHTSP HILIPPINES

Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines225-229 Seven Sisters RoadLondon N4 2DA

cHrp EngagEs union confErEncE

CHRP helped placePhilippine tradeunion rights irmly

on the agenda in one o Brit-ains largest and most power-

ul trade unions this summer. Jointly hosting a ringe meet-

ing at the UNISON Con erence2010 with Amnesty Internation-al UK, CHRP member JamimaFagta and guest speaker Dan Bor-

jal o Nethelands-Filipino Soli-darity told a packed room o del-egates about Philippine humanrights within the context o the

countrys politics and economics.Tey were joined in the Bournemouth

panel discussion by Amnesty Interna-tional rade Union Campaign ManagerShane Enright, Kevin OGrady o theUNISON National Executive Council(NEC) International Committee, and

Amnesty International Secretariat South-east Asia Campaigner Hazel Galang.

At the main con erence, Filipino workersor the rst time addressed the con erence,

urging delegates to sign the later unani-

mously passed Motion 101. Te motion,the rst time UNISON has adopted a Phil-ippines- ocused policy, calls on the unionsNEC to seek greater linkages betweenUNISON and trade union movementsin the Philippines, work with the Filipinodiaspora to combat trade and human rights

violations in the country, pressure the UK government to take a stronger line with thePhilippine government and raising aware-ness o the situation in the Philippines.

he ringe meeting, Violation o rade Union Rights in the Philippines,

was ollowed by a lively question andanswer session, with delegates keen tolearn about the ragile state o humanrights or Philippine trade unionists.

Dan Borjal, who few in rom Holland

to address the Bournemouth meeting,urged delegates to condemn the cultureo impunity that surrounds extra-judicialkillings in the Philippines, highlightingthe job scarcity, privatization and unionbusting techniques -including assassina-tion - that pervade the country. Delegates

were also reminded o the massacreo more than 50 people in Magu-indanao in November last year.

In the main con erence hall, Fil-ipina Jose na Paez, rom Wolver-hampton, highlighted the case o Edward Panganiban, while DongDumilag, a Filipino living in Car-di , Wales, spoke to about the caseo the Morong 43 highlightingthat the case was taken by riendsand relatives to the United NationsHuman Rights Council, in Geneva.

We want to campaign orthe new government to stop

impunity in the Philippines,prosecute those responsible or the mur-der and disappearances o workers, andto implement a sustainable economicprogramme so that Filipino workersare not orced to leave their country to earn a decent living Dumilag said.

Documents

CHRP Newsletter Autumn 2010 (New Format)