Posts

Rights defenders ask UN: ‘Probe alarming record of Marcos gov’t’

A group of Filipino human rights advocates are in Geneva, Switzerland to attend the ongoing 54th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and seek an evaluation of the United Nations Joint Program (UNJP) being implemented in the Philippines.

A delegation of the Philippine UPR (Universal Periodic Review) Watch said the UN must conduct a comprehensive, relevant and participatory evaluation of the program as it is failing to improve the human rights situation in the country.

The UNJP is also unable to significantly address continuing human rights violations in the Philippines with the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. presidency virtually indistinguishable from the Rodrigo Duterte regime in terms of red-tagging, weaponization of laws and the people’s worsening poverty.

“PH UPR Watch calls on the UNHRC to seriously look at the alarming human rights record of the Marcos Jr. administration and the harmful policies perpetuating it,” the PH UPR Watch in a statement said.

The delegation said the Marcos government is abusing the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 and the anti-terrorism financing law in persecuting critics even as the UNJP is being implemented by the UN, the Philippine government and private sector stakeholders.

Launched in 2021, the UNJP is an attempt to help the Philippine government in realizing its responsibilities in recognizing and upholding human rights.

The program conducts trainings and dialogues with the military, police and various government agencies on human rights and international humanitarian law in partnership with the Commission on Human Rights and civil society groups.

The Duterte government agreed to the program in place of a full investigation as recommended by the UNHRC following an Iceland-sponsored resolution in 2019 to probe into thousands of deaths resulting from the so-called drug war in the Philippines.

PH UPR Watch however said that there had been no significant improvement on the human rights situation in the Philippines even after three years of UNJP implementation, evidenced by the worsening weaponization of laws and incessant red-tagging by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict of critics and political dissenters.

The delegation also complains of an ongoing wholesale violation of the Filipino people’s economic rights as shown by uncontrolled rise in the prices of oil products and basic food items.

The PH UPR Watch delegation at the UNHRC’s 54th Session is composed of representatives from Karapatan, National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, National Council of Churches in the Philippines, United Church of Christ in the Philippines, Alliance of Concerned Teachers, Rise Up for Life and for Rights, and the KATRIBU – Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas.

The group will engage in dialogues with various UN special rapporteurs and country representatives as well as present their findings before the UNHRC to shed light on widespread human rights violations. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

CPP vows justice for Tiamzons and companions a year after deaths

The Communist Party of the Philippines vowed to attain justice for Benito Tiamzon, Wilma Austria and their companions it said were massacred in Catbalogan, Samar a year ago today, August 21.

In a statement, CPP chief information officer Marco Valbuena reiterated their belief that the couple and their eight comrades were arrested by troops belonging to the 8th Infantry Division of the Philippine army and subsequently tortured and executed.

“The revolutionary forces reiterate their vow to attain justice for the Tiamzons and all other victims of state terrorism,” Valbuena said.

The CPP officer added the murder of Tiamzon, Austria as well as their companions he identified as Ka (comrade) Divino, Ka Yen, Ka Jaja, Ka Matt, Ka Ash, Ka Delfin, Ka Lupe and Ka Butig “are dastardly fascist-terrorist crimes of the Marcos regime, perpetrated under the direction of their US military advisers.”

In a report eight months after the incident last April, the CPP’s Political Bureau said the Tiamzons were traveling on two separate vans along the national highway eastwards towards Catbalogan City.

READ: CPP reports capture, torture and murder of Tiamzons by the military

The group, later dubbed as the Catbalogan 10, was flagged down between 12:00 noon and 1:00 in the afternoon, after which all communications with the group were lost, the CPP said.

The group was unarmed, it added.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) meanwhile said the victims were killed in a legitimate encounter off the coast of Catbalogan when their motorized boat exploded following a firefight with their soldiers.

“We have long suspected the deaths of CPP chairman Benito Tiamzon and his wife Wilma during an armed encounter with government troops on Aug. 22, 2022 in the seas off Catbalogan City, Samar, but we did not have the evidence to confirm it,” then AFP spokesman Col. Medel Aguilar said.

The AFP added that only body parts were what remained of those killed, preventing their immediate identification.

The military had long suspected that Tiamzon was CPP chairman while Austria was secretary general

Valbuena said that the couple long served as among key CPP leaders who selflessly dedicated their lives to the Filipino people’s struggle for national and social liberation and the socialist aspirations of the working class.

READ: NDFP Peace Panel ‘immensely outraged’ at Tiamzons’ brutal deaths

Tiamzon and Wilma were last seen publicly as consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines in peace negotiations with the Rodrigo Duterte administration of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines in 2016 and 2017.

“[T]he martyrdom of the Tiamzons will forever be remembered and inspire the younger generation of workers, peasants and all democratic classes to carry forward the Filipino people’s national democratic struggle,” Valbuena said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Farmers demand justice for NDFP consultant 3 years after assassination

Agricultural workers commemorated the third death anniversary of murdered National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant Randall Echanis, saying government policies that led to his assassination are still in place.

The Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) led a protest rally at the Department of Justice in Manila on Thursday, August 10, demanding justice for the peasant leader who died of 40 multiple stab wounds.

Echanis was deputy secretary general of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), president of Anakpawis Party, and vice chairperson of the NDFP’s Reciprocal Committee on Social and Economic Reforms when he died.

READ: NDFP peace consultant Randall Echanis murdered

UMA said it condemns the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government for maintaining former President Rodrigo Duterte’s violent counter-insurgency programs that resulted in Echanis’ assassination.

“But this US-endorsed counter-insurgency measure, one that depoliticized national liberation as mere ‘terrorism,’ was not the sole policy to blame. By then, Executive Order 70 (EO70) or the ‘all-of-nation approach’ to end the civil war was already entrenched, and gaining more and more notoriety for targeting peasant leaders,” UMA said in a statement.

Farmers groups and supporters hold a protest rally at the DOJ in Manila on the 3rd anniversary of the killing of peasant leader Randall Echanis. Holding the microphone is Echanis’ son and the poster his widow. (Photo by Nuel M. Bacarra/Kodao)

More farmers fall victims to repression

The group added that three years after Echanis’ death, government’s Memorandum Order 32 (MO32) covering Negros, Samar, and Bicol had also already normalized the massacre of organized farmers and agri-workers such as the Negros 14.

“[A]nd the fake war on drugs had made extra-judicial killings, especially of the urban poor, an everyday occasion and a household term,” UMA said.

“Comrade Randy was not the first civilian to be victimized by these fascist policies, and he was definitely not the last,”UMA acting chairperson Ariel Casilao said.

“Duterte’s terrorist legacy is being perpetrated by Marcos by his implementation of the ‘Terror Law’, EO70, MO32, and even the fake war against illegal drugs,” Casilao added.

The former Anakpawis represented further said the same policies that killed Echanis remain at work in, among others, the ongoing militarization of Tuy, Batangas; the proscription of four Cordillera activists and three more in Southern Tagalog into the terror list; red-tagging as a form of union-busting in Sta. Maria, Isabela; as well as in the aerial bombings of civilian communities in Abra.  

“Worse, such human rights violations kept escalating into enforced disappearances and murders. Bazoo de Jesus and Dexter Capuyan, indigenous people’s rights advocates, had yet to surface 100 days since their abduction. Billy Fausto, an organized sugar worker, was massacred along with his wife Emelda and two children in Himamaylan, Negros Occidental last June,” UMA complained.

The group also pointed out that the number of political prisoners had ballooned to 778, 49 of them arrested in the past 12 months alone.

“The peasant death toll under the present regime now reached 58. Drug-related killings since Marcos, Jr. took power totaled to 336, even while he continued to refuse holding his predecessor accountable for 13,000 or so,” UMA revealed.

The agricultural workers also expressed fears that the proposed allotment of P10 billion for confidential and intelligence funds in the government’s 2024 national budget could only aggravate the implementation of EO70, MO32, and the Terror Law.

“[T]hese statistics could only grow. The impunity with which Ka Randy was killed certainly remained intact, and this was so to keep the peasantry landless and the working class precarious,” UMA said.

READ: Randall Echanis: Funny guy who was serious at the negotiating table

“Marcos and Duterte’s fascism are not without reason. They are protecting the big landlords and the compradors, and especially the interests of the imperialists,” Casilao added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Gov’t loses bid to stop probe of Duterte’s drug war

Groups welcome decision; urges Marcos to let investigations continue

Local groups welcomed the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to reject the Philippine government’s appeal to stop its investigations into thousands of cases of extrajudicial killings in Davao City and under the previous Rodrigo Duterte government.

In announcement Tuesday, July 18, the international tribunal said the Philippine government failed to show any error in the pre-trial chamber’s decision to authorize the investigation.

The Hague-based ICC also found that the Philippine government had not met its burden of proof to show its investigation would be “unnecessary or disproportionate.”

Human rights group Karapatan said it is high time the ICC investigation proceeds without a hitch to give justice to the victims of Duterte’s anti-drug war.

“There is urgent need for international mechanisms such as the ICC to come in because all domestic investigation mechanisms presented by the Duterte and the current Marcos regime in response to calls for justice and accountability are ineffective and only meant to window-dress the current dire human rights situation,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said.

Karapatan lauded the families of the families of victims and their lawyers for their “courage, perseverance and tenacity” in having the investigations continue.

“Let this welcome development further inspire the Filipinos’ struggle for justice and accountability. We remain steadfast in the call to hold Duterte and those responsible for the bloody drug war and other human rights violations held fully accountable,” Palabay said after learning of the ICC decision.

The Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA) said the ICC decision is a significant victory for Duterte’s drug war victims and for the ICC’s efforts to hold perpetrators of crimes against humanity accountable.  

“It also sends a strong message to governments around the world that they cannot violate international law with impunity,” it added.

The International Criminal Court announces its judgement on the continuation of the investigation into extrajudicial killings in the Philippines as July 18 in Brussels, Belgium. (ICC photo)

Escaping accountability

Upon submissions of complaints to the ICC on the Duterte government’s drug war killings starting 2017, the Philippine government in March 2018 withdrew its participation in the tribunal in an attempt to save the former president and cohorts from trial.

Previously, both Duterte and top police generals publicly bragged about the killing of thousands of suspected illegal drug personalities.

With a Duterte as vice president and their respective dynasties as allies, the current Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration upheld the move to reject ICC’s investigations.

The Marcos government also echoed the Duterte government’s line the ICC investigations violate Philippine sovereignty since the country is no longer a part of the tribunal.

Rights groups however pointed out that the complaints were received when the Philippines was still a signatory to the Rome Statute that created the tribunal.

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) president Renato Reyes Jr. yesterday urged the government to stop invoking sovereignty just to escape accountability for the killings, even for just the 6,000 victims it acknowledged from 2016 to 2018.

“It seems that when it comes to the question of human rights accountability, the current regime does not try to hide how very much the same it is to the previous regime. No rebranding and no pretensions there of any sort. Just a firm commitment to the same brand of impunity that became a hallmark the past regime,” Reyes said.

‘Killings continue’

Members of Rise Up for Life and for Rights, an organization of families of victims of the killings, gathered at the Boys Scourts Monument in Quezon City Tuesday to await ICC’s announcement of its decision.

Amy Jane Lee of Rise Up said: “We will continue to speak up, find justice and struggle. Duterte is no longer president but the killings continue.”

“The truth is, ICC’s decision does not even erase the pain. Only time, humility of the aggressors and their accountability would heal our wounds,” Lee added.

Their lawyers however cautioned the families that the ICC decision only ruled on the government’s petition to defer the investigations but refused to rule on the challenge of jurisdiction and admissibility.

“The victims intend to communicate with the Office of the Prosecutor, as well as the Office of the Public Counsel for Victims, and have sought to be represented by an independent legal representative as well,” members of the National Union of Peoples’ lawyers said.

‘Not worried’

In a radio interview, Senator Ronald de la Rosa said he is not worried about the ICC investigation saying he will just take extra precautions when travelling abroad.

Among those named as perpetrators of the drug war killings, de la Rosa said his current travel plans are between Manila and Davao anyway.

De La Rosa was director general of the Philippine National Police when the killings were launched in 2016.

Former president Duterte has yet to issue a statement about the ICC decision. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Groups accuse Marcos Jr. admin of having worse desaperacidos record than Duterte

An international group on human rights in the Philippines accused the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration of having a worse record on forcible disappearances than the previous Rodrigo Duterte government.

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) said the Marcos Jr. government continues the “brazen violation” of human rights carried by the previous regime as it called for the surfacing of two activists reportedly abducted in Gonzaga, Cagayan last May 16.

ICHRP said peasant and youth organizers Michael Cedrick Casaño and Patricia Nicole Cierva are alleged to have been abducted by the 501st Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army and demanded their surfacing this week as the world marks International Week of the Disappeared.

“[ICHRP] demands an end to the reign of terror on political dissent, and calls for the immediate surfacing of all activists who have been forcibly disappeared by state forces,” ICHRP Chairperson Peter Murphy said.

Who are the victims?

Patricia Cierva was a former University of the Philippines-Manila leader and Kabataan Party chairperson for the National Capital Region in 2018. She conducted her Development Studies practicum in Cagayan in 2019 and went back to the province to assist farming communities.

Cedrick Casaño meanwhile is a former philosophy student at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines and is an active campaigner for the “Green Platform” in Cagayan against magnetite sand mining operations. Said operations were damaging the environment that would result to food insecurity and biodiversity loss, the ICHRP said.

Casaño and Cierva are reportedly the 9th and 10 victims of enforced disappearance under the Marcos Jr. administration.

Ninth and 10th Desaperacidos under Bongbong Marcos Patricia Cierva (left) and Cedrick Casaño.
(Northern Dispatch composite image)

ICHRP said the reported incidents of enforced disappearance are alarming and seem to be the trend under the Marcos Jr. government, citing two other Northern Luzon activists Gene Roz “Bazoo” de Jesus and Dexter Capuyan who also went missing since April 28 and last seen in Taytay, Rizal.

Local human rights organization Karapatan also lists Gabriela activists Ma. Elena Pampoza and Elgene Mungcal, National Democratic Front of the Philippines consultant Ariel Badiang, Negros peasant organizer Leonardo Sermona, Renel Delos Santos, Denald Laloy Mialen and Lyn Grace Martullinas as “desaperacidos” or abductees by state forces.

Ignoring its own laws

Karapatan in a statement marking International Week of the Disappeared said state forces ignore human rights laws such as Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act that has been enacted in 2012.

“Despite such a law, enforced disappearances have, in fact, emerged as a troubling hallmark of the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. regime, with a growing number of cases reported within a short span of time,” the group said.

In a mere 10-month period, there have been nine victims of enforced disappearances under the current regime, already constituting 45% of the Duterte regime’s six-year record of 20 cases. Five of the nine victims went missing in the month of April 2023, Karapatan said in its May 26 statement.

Casaño and Cervia bring the number of cases to 11 reported enforced disappearances, or 55% if compared to the Duterte administration’s total of 20.

Karapatan has documented 206 missing under Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s nine-year rule, 29 under the Benigno Aquino III regime and 20 under Duterte.

The website desaperacidos.org lists 1,600 forcibly disappeared under the president’s father Ferdinand Sr.’s dictatorship in the 1960s to the 1980s, “none of (whom) has ever been found.”

“Still another statistic identifies the Philippines as one of the 26 countries worldwide with the highest number of cases of enforced disappearances from 1980 to 2009, with as many as 780 documented instances, surpassing countries like Iran (532), Lebanon (320) and Honduras (207),” Karapatan added.

“The spate of Enforced Disappearances during this first 11 months of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is a full proof that the lives of Filipino community activists are at stake,” Murphy said.

ICHRP added that the Philippine Government refuses to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED), one of the recommendations by several United Nations member states including Japan, France, Denmark, Italy and Brazil during the Universal Periodic Review in 2022 in Geneva Switzerland last November.

“The Philippine government must surface the disappeared, and ratify and comply with ICPPED”, Murphy said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Groups welcome conviction of policeman in teeners’ killing

‘ICC investigations on Duterte’s responsibility must continue’

Activist groups welcomed the conviction of the Caloocan City policemen for the killing of two teenagers in 2017, but said there is no reason to rejoice yet as thousands of other victims are still denied justice.

Bayan Muna said that while it is glad that the families of Carl Angelo Arnaiz and Reynaldo de Guzman received initial justice, the conviction of former Police Officer Jefrey Sumbo Perez for “intentionally killing” the victims is proof that genuine investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the drug war killings is necessary,

“This conviction does not in any way detract us from our assertion that the justice system in the Philippines is inhospitable to human rights prosecution. Thousands of families continue to wait for justice years after their loved ones were brutally executed in ex-president (Rodrigo) Duterte’s drug war,” former Bayan Muna Representative Neri Colmenares said.

Colmenares said that only a few low-ranking police officers like Perez are being prosecuted while high officials like Duterte remain unscathed.

Brutal death

In a 80-page decision, Judge Romana Lindayag del Rosario of the Navotas Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 287 ordered Perez to suffer 40 years in prison without eligibility for parole.

The former policemen was also ordered to pay each of the victims’ kin P100,000 for civil indemnities, P200,000 for moral and exemplary damages, and P45,000 for actual damages.

Perez’s co-accused in the double murder trial, former police officer Ricky Arquilita, died in detention in April 2019.

Testimonies presented in court said Perez shot Arnaiz five times while the 19-year old was on his knees begging for his life while 14-year old de Guzman was stabbed 28 times.

Arnaiz was later found by relatives in a Caloocan City funeral home while de Guzman was found in a creek in faraway Gapan, Nueve Ecija.

ICC investigations must continue

In a statement, Bagong Alyansan Makabayan (BAYAN) said there is not much rejoicing in Perez’s conviction.

“The very long period it took to convict the dismissed police officer—which is just among a handful convictions in the last six years—shows what is wrong in the Philippine justice system and why the ICC probe should continue,” BAYAN secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said.

Human rights group Karapatan also welcomed the conviction but said it is lamentable and infuriating that it took a long time and that no higher-ups are made accountable.

“The drug war and its consequences are not mere acts of one or two police personnel – there are government policies behind it and there are those who ordered, incited and encouraged these killings and human rights violations. For the thousands of victims in Duterte’s drug war, this recent conviction remains a drop in the bucket,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said.

Colmenares, co-counsel for the victims in the ICC complaint against Duterte and other high-ranking government officials, said there should be vigilance in the Arnaiz and de Guzman cases as Perez is sure to appeal the case.

“We will continue to pursue the crimes against humanity case against Duterte and his subordinates in the ICC,” added the former Bayan Muna solon.

Colmenares said they will continue to oppose the demand of the Marcos-Duterte government for the ICC to stop its investigation.

“Kung matigil ang imbestigasyon sa ICC lalong mahihirapan makakuha ng hustisya ang EJK (extrajudicial killings) victims. Dapat mag partisipa ang pamilya ng mga EJK victims sa ICC para marinig din ang panig nila lalo nat kaanak nila ang pinatay sa drug war ng ex-president,” Colmenares said.

(If the investigations are stopped at the ICC, it will be more difficult to achieve justice for the EJK victims. The families of the EJK victims must participate to be heard as their loved ones were killed during the former president’s drug war.) # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Rights network to gov’t: Sovereignty does not mean running away from ICC

A network of human rights and church groups said the Philippine government must stop playing the sovereignty card in trying to shield government officials involved in the mass murder of suspected drug personalities from ongoing investigations by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Reacting to justice secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla’s latest address at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland last Thursday, March 2, the Philippine UPR (Universal Periodic Review) Watch said government is obviously engaged in an orchestrated effort to shield former President Rodrigo Duterte and other government officials from accountability.

The network added that Remulla and other government officials, including legislators such as Senator Robinhood Padilla and Surigao del Sur Representative Johnny Pimentel who separately filed resolutions against the ICC investigations, should be honorable and honest enough to admit that the Philippines “willingly, voluntarily, and solemnly endorsed and signed the Rome Statute” creating the ICC.

Philippine UPR Watch said the complaints filed against Duterte and others were made when it was still covered by the international treaty, mandating the ICC to continue its investigations despite the Philippine government’s withdrawal in March 2019.

In his March 2 address, Remulla said it was an overreach and a violation of the founding principles of the ICC to conduct the investigation when the Philippines is no longer part of the ICC.

“We draw the line, as any sovereign state must, when an international institution overreaches and departs from the boundaries of its creation. Upon this context, the Philippine Government rejects the ICC’s decision to resume investigations over alleged crimes committed during the anti-illegal drug campaign,” Remulla said.

But the Philippine UPR Watch said protecting the country’s sovereignty does not mean running away from international commitments, more so if the investigations are being done in accordance with the ICC’s mandate and procedures.
 
“On the other hand, how is it not a departure from justice when a government flees from its commitment just to provide escape investigation and prosecution of political allies from wrongdoing by a body it was part of?” the network countered.

The network also disagreed with Remulla’s claim that the criminal justice system in the Philippines is working perfectly when only 20 officers were prosecuted against a backdrop of at least 6,000 deaths.

Remulla’s address was part of the ongoing 52nd Regular Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva where he is also expected to appear later this month to announce which of the nearly 300 recommendations by other States in the last UPR review on the Philippines last November the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government would accept.

A Philippine UPR Watch delegation would also be attending at the latter half of March to urge the government to stop “cherry-picking” which recommendations to support and reject.

“A government that claims to be openly and actively engaging in international human rights mechanisms such as those being discussed in the ongoing 52nd UN Human Rights Council [should support recommendations] involving accountability to wrongdoings such as extrajudicial killings, red-tagging, ICC membership restoration and weaponization of laws against human rights defenders, activists and critics,” the network said.
 
“The Marcos Jr. government should begin earnestly committing to full justice and complete accountability that would make the country respected in the eyes of the world. A State that runs away from justice and accountability is a pariah, deserving of being called out by the rest of the civilized, decent world,” it added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Gov’t fumes, but rights groups applaud ICC probe continuation on drug war killings

The government fumed, but human rights advocates applauded the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) announcement to resume its investigations the bloody war on drugs in the Philippines.

Human rights group Karapatan said the ICC announcement is welcome news, adding it hopes it would result in the conviction of former President Rodrigo Duterte it says is accountable for the deaths of thousands.

“With the help of international mechanisms provided by bodies like the ICC, we can make a dent on the culture of impunity that has stymied the quest for justice for so long,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said.

“This should also serve as a warning to the current regime for essentially continuing Duterte’s policies on the drug war,” Palabay added.

Palabay also said the ICC decision should strongly spur an independent investigation by the United Nations Human Rights Council on the human rights situation in the Philippines.

In a separate statement, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said the ICC is correct in its observation that there has been no thorough investigation conducted on complaints of extrajudicial killings in the government’s anti-drug war.

“The ICC correctly observed that the various domestic initiatives and proceedings, assessed collectively, do not amount to tangible, concrete and progressive investigative steps in a way that would sufficiently mirror the Court’s investigation,” Reyes said.

“This observation is consistent with the views echoed during the United Nations Universal Periodic Review where UN member-states pressed the Philippines for accountability of police personnel involved in the drug war killings,” he added.

Done waiting

In an announcement in The Netherlands last Thursday, January 26, the ICC said its pre-trial chamber has decided to resume the investigation into killings under the Duterte administration.

The development ended its 14 months suspension of the probe that gave the Philippine government a chance to prove its prosecution of police personnel accused of killing suspected drug personalities.

Prosecutor Karim Khan said the ICC was not satisfied with the Philippine government’s efforts, thus the international chamber’s approval to finally move the process of investigations.

“Following a careful analysis of the materials provided by the Philippines, the Chamber is not satisfied that the Philippines is undertaking relevant investigations that would warrant a deferral of the Court’s investigations on the basis of the complementarity principle,” the ICC said in its report.

“Moreover, the number of cases reviewed by the DOJ Panel (302 as of last count) is very low when compared with the estimated number of killings that allegedly occurred in the context of ‘war on drugs’ operations,” the ICC added.

Insult?

Justice secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla maintained a combative posture in his reply to the announcement, saying the chamber’s decision is an “insult” to the Philippines, which is no longer a member of the ICC.

After repeatedly daring the international community to indict him on his bloody record on the government’s war on drugs, Duterte made an about face in March 2018 and ordered the Philippines’ withdrawal from the Rome Statute of 1998 creating the ICC.

“[W]hen they come in here trying to assert jurisdiction in a country that is not even a member of the ICC, it really begs the question, it behooves us to think what good they think they are in a country that is sovereign and free,” Remulla fumed in a press briefing last Friday.  

Remulla added that the Philippines is unlike other failed states that have no functioning judiciary and strong military where the ICC are expected to be.

In earlier public pronouncements, including repeated appearances at the UN in Geneva late last year, Remulla said the Marcos government sees no urgency in rejoining the ICC.

‘Stop stonewalling’

Bayan’s Reyes however urged the Marcos government to quit its resistance to the ICC probe.

“[It] should show full cooperation so that justice can be rendered to the thousands of victims of Duterte’s failed drug war,” Reyes said.

Reyes pointed out that there have been admissions that many top police officials are actually involved in the illegal drug trade makes the drug war a sham.

“Street-level pushers were executed while police officials recycled and re-sold the illegal drugs,” Reyes said. 

“It is time for the Philippines to cooperate with the ICC and stop its stonewalling tactics. Mr. Marcos cannot wash of this bloody stain on the Philippines rights record no matter how frequent his foreign trips may be. Only true justice can put a decisive close to this horrific chapter in our history,” he added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Bayan Muna vows to remain ‘party of the poor’ even outside Congress

Bayan Muna (BM) has conceded defeat in Monday’s national elections but said its fight for the poor is far from over.

In a statement Thursday, BM said that based on partial and unofficial counts, the once leading party list group is set to lose its current three seats at the House of Representatives.

The party however vowed to continue to be the party of the poor and the marginalized and to carry on its “fight against fascism and corruption in the next government.”

BM also rejoiced that the Rodrigo Duterte government has failed in its bid to totally eliminate the entire Makabayang Koalisyon ng Mamamayan from the next congress.

“The Makabayan Coalition will still have three representatives from Kabataan, Gabriela Women and ACT Teachers parties,” it said.

Corrupted party list system

BM said its first defeat since it joined and topped the 2001 elections is the result of the continuing corruption of the party list system.

“Since the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Supreme Court allowed the candidacy of bogus parties, money and the machinery of political parties and big business took over to increase their representation in Congress,” the group said.

The group’s claim mirrors the result of election watchdog Kontra Daya’s announcement that 70 percent of party list candidates in this years polls are linked to political clans, big businesses, and state groups such as the military.

Kontra Daya said that 44 of the May 2002 party list candidates are by political clans, 21 are by big businesses, 34 are by groups with unclear advocacy, 32 are connected to the military, 26 are by incumbent elected officials, while 19 have pending criminal charges.

BM said this has destroyed the essence of the party list system to give representation to the poor and the underserved.

Duterte’s dirty tricks

The group also blamed the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) for the worst attack it received, beginning in 2017 to as as late as election day last May 9.

 “With President Duterte leading through the NTF-ELCAC, the progressive parties suffered five years of unceasing red-tagging, vilification, bribery, threats, filing of trumped-up charges and assassination of our leaders and members,” BM said.

Among the dirty tricks employed against the Makabayan Coalition, BM said, was a fake Comelec resolution released on the eve of the elections lat May 8 alleging that the entire Makabayan bloc was disqualified.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines also ordered its personnel to blast SMS (short messaging system) and social media messages urging the people not to vote for the progressive parties and their senatorial candidates as they were allegedly supported by the Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People’s Army and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.

BM added that it is also looking into the effects of malfunctioning vote counting machines and the disenfranchisement of voters.

It added it would demand accountability from those who denied the Filipino people of progressive representation in Congress.

“The demand for change is louder than ever because the current system allows the unfettered rule of dynasties and oligarchs in our politics and economy,” the party said.  # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Rights lawyers join calls for de Lima’s release

NUPL says Espinosa, Ragos retractions must be given full and proper consideration

Public interest lawyers urged the release of Senator Leila de Lima in light of the retractions of two witnesses on her alleged drug links.

In a statement, the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers(NUPL) said the retraction of both self-confessed drug lord Rolan “Kerwin” Espinosa and former Bureau of Corrections officer-in-charge Rafael Lagos last month must compel the Department of Justice to give both developments their “full and proper consideration.”

“These validate what we knew all along. That the legal and judicial process is being deliberately weaponized by the State and its agents for nefarious political reasons by unscrupulously constructing false narratives and peddling manufactured evidence,” the NUPL said in a statement today.

In an April 30 affidavit submitted to a Pasig City Court, Ragos said he was only “coerced” by former Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre into testifying against de Lima.

In his own undated counter-affidavit, Espinosa said charges against de Lima are not true and were only the result of “pressure, coercion, intimidation, and serious threats to his (Espinosa) life and family from the police.”

Espinosa added the Philippine National Police instructed him to implicate the senator into the illegal drug trade.

Espinosa’s father, then Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa was killed by the police while in detention at the Baybay City Jail in November 2016 after President Rodrigo Duterte accused the local chief executive of being a drug personality.

De Lima’s lawyer and spokesperson Dino de Leon said that the “truth is starting to come out.”

Two of the three charges against Senator de Lima are still pending.

The NUPL said reports of wrongdoing at how the Duterte government went after its critic de Lima undermines the so-called rule of law and gnaws at the integrity of institutions.

“It is extremely lamentable and distressing that one can just be casually thrown in jail for years by using the whole State apparatus to silence critics and fiscalizers like Sen. Leila de Lima,” the NUPL said.

“Those who masterminded, goaded and enabled this brazen injustice must be held accountable in some way in time lest these outrages be repeated,” the human rights lawyers added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)