This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VII, No. 2, Feb. 11-17, 2007
UN Rep Says Killings Hurting Arroyo’s Credibility
Abroad
The United Nations Special
Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples warns that the Arroyo government’s inability to
stop extra-judicial killings in the Philippines is undermining its international
standing.
By
Bulatlat The United Nations Special
Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples last week warned that the Arroyo government’s
inability to stop extra-judicial killings in the Philippines is undermining its
international standing. The UN representative,
Prof. Rodolfo Stavenhagen, the UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples, said
that the pattern of human rights violations victimizing human rights defenders,
social activists, community leaders and other innocent civilians alike, “is
seriously undermining the international standing of the Philippine government." Stavenhagen also said in a
statement that violations of human rights in the Philippines have worsened,
adding that the Philippine government lacks the political will to arrest of the
deteriorating human rights situation. "I am sorry to learn that
the pattern (of human rights violations) continues, and that there is an
increase of these incidents," he said. “In some respects, the human rights
situation of indigenous peoples has deteriorated." "Even more worrisome,” he
said, “is that the legal framework of current economic policies favors the
dispossession of indigenous lands and resources for the benefit of a handful of
international corporations or other private interests." Stavenhagen was in Manila
last week for a national consultation with the Indigenous Peoples. He was in the
Philippines in 2002.
Documented killings The Indigenous Peoples
Human Rights Watch, a network of IP and non-government organizations monitoring
human rights, has documented 123 killings of indigenous persons under the Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo administration, from February 2001 to Jan. 11, 2007. The report
said that 84 of these alone took place beginning January 2003, barely a month
after the Special Rapporteur's official visit to the Philippines in December
2002. The highest incidence of extra-judicial killings of indigenous peoples
was in 2006, with 42 victims. Recent reports by
Karapatan, the country’s leading human rights alliance, showed that the number
of victims of extra-judicial killings under the Arroyo administration has
reached 841. The figure does not include hundreds who have been reportedly
abducted, scores of victims of torture and other victims. The Melo Commission, tasked
to look into the killings, recently confirmed allegations that a number of
military generals were involved in most of the killings. "Even if they (rights
violations) have been denounced internationally, they continue to happen," the
UN Special Rapporteur said. “There is relatively little progress to stop this
violence, insufficient investigation of these… (and the perpetrators) have not
been prosecuted and brought to justice." Referring to the ancestral
domain issue, Stavenhagen said that the land issues have heightened and there is
no genuine free and prior informed consent (FPIC) from the indigenous peoples on
development projects and infrastructure where they are affected. Thus, he
confirmed, more protests from the communities are taking place. The incidents of violence as a response to these protests "continue to
reflect the process of criminalization of protest activities." Stavenhagen said he has
raised all these issues to the UN Human Rights Council and the Philippine
government in 2002. However, he said, stories and testimonies of indigenous
leaders in the consultation show that nothing has been done by the Philippine
government to abate the increasing violence, land-grabbing, deforestation,
displacement and other forms of human rights violations against the indigenous
peoples. "The continuing violations,
and continuing impunity of the perpetrators exhibit the lack of political will,
and political competence of those responsible for the protection of human
rights," said Stavenhagen. Itik, a 6-year old Aeta boy
from Central Luzon, held a photograph of his father, Nicanor de los Santos,
while his older brother was telling the story of how their father was shot dead
by armed men, five years ago in Rizal south of Manila. "Pinatay nila ang
tatay ko, NPA daw siya, pero siya ay lider na tumututol sa Laiban Dam, lider
katutubo sa Rizal, pinamatay ng mga militar sa ilalim ng task force panther."
(They killed my father, they said he was an NPA but he was a leader of those
opposing Laiban Dam. He was killed by the military under the Task Force
Panther.) Until now, no one has been
prosecuted for the killing. "At ngayon, pinagpapatuloy naming magkakapatid
ang laban ng nalabi naming ama, para sa aming lupa," Itik’s older brother
said. (Today, my brothers and I continue to fight for our land that our father
began.) Asian
Development Bank The Laiban Dam is a project
funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Other cases of killings of indigenous leaders who were protesting and leading
actions of opposition against development projects, mining and forestry projects
were reported in the consultation with the UN representative. Rafael "Markus" Bangit, 46,
a tribal leader of the Kalinga Malbong tribe in the Cordilleras, northern
Philippines was one of those killed in 2006. Agustina, Markus' widow, said that
in her state of the nation address last year, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
condemned the political killings. "However,” Agustina testified, “nothing has
yet been done in the killing of my husband." "I stand here on behalf of
the others who have lost their loved ones,” the widow said. “We hold the Arroyo
government accountable for these killings; for not being able to protect the
lives of good people like my husband." In a separate statement, a
representative of the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center (LRC-KSK) warned
that the recently-enacted anti-terrorism bill poses further threats to the human
rights of indigenous peoples. "The proposed
anti-terrorism bill,” the LRC-KSK said, “will add ammunition to the already
fully-armed military and paramilitary groups to threaten, harass and commit
human rights violations against those who continue to fight for their right to
give or not give their consent to projects in their lands, and those who defend
their lives. With the Arroyo government adopting the ASEAN Mining Framework, we
would see more approvals of large-scale mining companies, one of the largest
threats to IP rights." Bulatlat © 2007 Bulatlat
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