Victims’
families say:
`UN Rep Visit Won’t Stop
Killings’
A
student activist was killed last February 15 while the United Nations
special rapporteur on extra-judicial, arbitrary and summary executions
was meeting with executives of the National Security Council. This has
led human rights groups to conclude that there is no end in sight for
political killings in the country.
BY
DABET CASTAÑEDA
Bulatlat
UNCOVERING THE TRUTH: UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston (left
photo, without coat) and a colleague cross EDSA, as Hustisya
spokesperson Evangeline Hernandez brandishes a picture of her slain
daughter Benjaline while decrying the military's drowning out their
rally cries with loud music. PHOTOS
BY DABET CASTAÑEDA
Just
as Philip Alston, United Nations (UN) special rapporteur on
extra-judicial, arbitrary and summary executions, met with executives of
the National Security Council (NSC) in Quezon City on Feb 15, another
student activist was killed in Camarines Norte.
Farly
Alcantara, 22, a graduating student of the Camarines Norte State College
in Daet, Camarines Norte (350 kms. south of Manila), was shot to death
by still unidentified men in front of his school at around 9:45 p.m. He
was an active member of the progressive student organization League of
Filipino Students (LFS) which the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP)
accused as a front organization of the Communist Party of the
Philippines (CPP).
The
murder of Alcantara shows that political killings will not stop with the
visit of Alston, human rights worker Marie Hilao-Enriquez said. The UN
representative arrived in the country on Feb. 10 and is on a 10-day
visit here. Alston is one of 43
experts in the UN who is tasked to investigate political killings.
“Wala
kaming ilusyon na ang UN ang makakapagpahinto sa killings.
Gobyerno lang ang
makakapagpahinto ng mga pagpatay dahil ang gobyerno ang gumagawa nyan,”
(We have no illusion that the UN can stop the killings. Only the
government that perpetuates it can stop it.) Hilao-Enriquez, secretary
general of the human rights watchdog Karapatan (Alliance for the
Advancement of Peoples’ Rights) said.
From
Jan. 2001 to Feb. 15, 2006, Karapatan has recorded 833 individuals
killed – the latest being Alcantara – allegedly by state security forces
and its death squad.
After
the visit, Alston is expected to submit a country report to the UN. The
latter, however, does not have the power to sanction governments that
are proven to violate human rights.
International Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL) president Edre
Olalia said that the UN report cannot in any way be used as evidence in
court should any of the victims’ families decide to file a case against
the perpetrators.
Bright
hope
Despite this, Erlinda Manano, mother of murdered activist Isaias, said
the Alston visit is a “bright hope” for the families of the victims of
political killings in the country. “Nakakapagpalakas ng loob,”
(It strengthens one’s resolve) was how she described the UN
investigation.
She
said she has lost all hope that the Macapagal-Arroyo administration
could give justice to the death of Isaias who was killed April 23, 2004
in Calapan, the city capital of the island-province of
Mindoro
Oriental. “Pinapatay
nila (government) ang hustisya at binabaon ang katotohanan gaya ng
pagpatay at pagbaon nila sa anak ko.
Ang hangad namin ay managot
ang may kasalanan.”
(They kill justice and bury the truth just like the way they killed and
buried the body of my son. What we want is for the perpetrators to be
brought to justice.)
After
getting the flak from local and international community about the spate
of political killings in the country, the Macapagal-Arroyo
administration created the Philippine National Police (PNP)-led Task
Force Usig and the Melo Commission, a special investigating body headed
by former justice Jose Melo.
Families of the victims, however, considered the police and Melo
investigations tainted and biased, Hilao-Enriquez said. “What the
victims’ families and the human rights community wanted all along was an
independent body to investigate the killings.”
Hilao-Enriquez
told Alston in a meeting that the victims’ families want to testify
before him because they see the UN representative as an independent
expert. “The victims’ families want to tell Alston what they feel and
what they have gone through after their loved ones have been killed.”
Significance
Aside
from being a source of strength to the victims’ families, Olalia said
that the UN visit is a “clear
manifestation that the level and gravity of the extra-judicial, summary
and arbitrary executions in the country has reached a very high and
alarming state that compelled the UN special rapporteur to come over and
see for himself the situation. It is also a product of the painstaking
efforts of human rights organizations and victims to bring their plight
to the international fora and a reflection of the serious concern of the
international community about the sad state of human rights in the
country.”
In 2006, the
London-based Amnesty International (AI) and the European Union (EU),
among others, expressed concern over the murders and enforced
disappearances in the Philippines under the Macapagal-Arroyo
administration. The EU has, in fact, expressed its willingness to help
the Philippine government investigate the reports of violations of human
rights especially in 2005 and 2006.
Olalia said that
the EU helped in persuading the Macapagal-Arroyo administration to
finally allow the UN visit. “The government was compelled to invite the
UN.”
Olalia and Hilao-Enriquez
were part of the Philippine delegation that attended the UN
Human Rights Council Second
Session in Geneva in August 2006. They also met with the Finish and
French missions and the EU. “We asked these countries to always put the
issue of political repression in their agenda with the Philippine
government,” Hilao-Enriquez said.
Sabotage?
The
Alston visit has therefore become a most anticipated event in the
country especially by the victims’ families who have long waited for an
independent body to investigate the killings in the country, Hilao-Enriquez
said.
However, she said that the government had tried to sabotage the Alston
visit. Since the visit was upon the invitation of the government, Hilao-Enriquez
said Alston’s schedule was filled with meetings and sessions with
government offices. Meetings with the victims were scheduled only for
the whole day of Feb. 14 and short visits to Baguio City in the north
and Davao City in the south.
“Matagal
kaming naghintay. Bakit isang araw lang ang inilaan para sa amin?”
(We waited for so long. Why were we given only one day to meet with
him?) asked Glen Malabanan, 23, daughter of a slain Bayan Muna (People
First) coordinator in Bay, Laguna. His father was only 42 when he was
killed two days before Christmas in 2003.
Alston’s schedule include meetings with the National Security Council,
the host of the UN visit, which is headed by Secretary Norberto
Gonzales, the same security person who has alleged that those who have
been summarily executed were members of legal organizations and
party-list groups that he claims are fronts organizations of the CPP. He
had also told the media that the killings are part of a purge within the
communist movement.
The UN
expert also met with the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Armed
Forces of the Philippines (AFP) top brass, the Department of Justice and
the Commission on Human Rights, among others.
When
it was time for Alston to meet with the victims, Hilao-Enriquez said
government agents tried to terrify the victims by sending K-9 dogs early
morning of Feb. 14 to the venue where the interviews were going to be
held. The building administrator later declared there was bomb threat in
the venue.
As the
interviews with the victims’ families were ongoing, a man posing as a
journalist went to the venue and said he wanted to interview the
victims’ families. “It was part of an agreement with Alston not to
announce the venue of the interviews for security reasons. There was no
way the media would know where we were. We never told them,” Hilao-Enriquez
said.
One of
Karapatan’s security personnel later recognized that the man posing as a
journalist was accompanied by four others, one of whom was identified as
a personnel of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA).
“We
can only suspect that they were government intelligence agents because
only the government knows where we were. They know our schedule because
it was the government who finalized Alston’s itinerary,” she said.
Challenge
Although the Alston visit has its significance, Malabanan said that
justice can only be attained through persistence in the struggle that
his father has left behind.
“Nandun pa rin sa family
yung takot pero kung tatahimik lang kami, hindi magkakaron ng hustisya
ang pagkamatay ng aming mahal sa buhay,” she said. (The family
members left behind are afraid but if we just keep quiet, we will never
get justice for the death of our loved ones.)
As
proof to her determination, Malabanan said that she has in fact stepped
into her father’s shoes and is now secretary general of the victims’
families group Martyr ng Bayan-Southern Tagalog. She said that she is
also busy campaigning for her father’s party Bayan Muna in the coming
elections.
“Kung
hindi kami kikilos, mas madaming aapihin at papatayin na lang ng
walang laban,” she said. (If we will not act, thee will be more
people who will be oppressed and killed without wanton.) Bulatlat
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