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ppt phils - 10/28/2006
Full Circle: The Philippines and the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal
After Afghanistan and the former Yugoslavia, the Philippines will only be the third country in history to be the subject of a session twice by the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT).
In 1980, the PPT convened a Session on the Philippines to hear the case filed by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) against then President Ferdinand Marcos, the U.S. government, and U.S.-controlled financial institutions, multi-national corporations and commercial banks. The Marcos dictatorship, which was supported by the U.S. government, was specifically charged with violation of human rights and peoples rights, and crimes under international law.
After a trial, the PPT delivered a “Guilty” verdict on Marcos and his government – in effect becoming the first international body to condemn the Marcos dictatorship. It also recognized the NDFP and the MNLF as the “legitimate representatives” of the Filipino and Moro peoples, respectively.
Convening in The Hague this Oct. 30 is the PPT’s Second Session on the Philippines. In March next year, the PPT will be hearing a case filed against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the U.S. government, and multi-national agencies “acting as their accomplices in violating the individual and collective rights of the Filipino people.”
Filing the indictment on behalf of the Filipino people are: Hustisya (Justice), an organization of human rights victims under the Arroyo administration and their relatives; Desaparecidos, a group of relatives of victims of enforced disappearances; Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainee Laban sa Detensyon at para sa Amnestiya (SELDA or Society of Ex-Detainees Against Detention and for Amnesty); and the multi-sectoral Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance).
FULL STORY HERE
Related:
Verdict of the First Session on the Philippines (1980), Permanent Peoples' Tribunal
An Urgent Appeal to the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal (PPT) of the Lelio Basso International Foundation for the Rights and Liberation of Peoples
lawyers under attack - 10/25/2006
So Young, So Committed, and So Much in Danger
Even as young lawyers, they have witnessed injustices being committed as they chose to defend the oppressed. And because they persist in handling “controversial” cases, Jobert Pahilga and Noel Neri have earned the ire of some of the country’s most powerful landlords and capitalists, as well as state security forces, and have become victims themselves of political retribution. BY DABET CASTAÑEDA
FULL STORY HERE
Communique of the 3rd IAPL Congress
ifi bishop slain - 10/02/2006
IFI Bishop Ramento Killed
iapl - 10/16/2006
Veteran Filipino human rights lawyer Edre U. Olalia is now the new president of the International Association of People’s Lawyers, a global organization of human rights and public interest lawyers. Olalia’s election is one of the highlights of the third congress of the IAPL held In Davao City from Oct. 12-14. The IAPL also condemned the Arroyo government’s inability or refusal to protect its citizens from extrajudicial killings. It likewise batted for an independent investigation into the political killings. The group likewise assailed the curtailment of civil liberties and human rights brought about by the US-led war on terror. In a statement, Olalia said his election is both a tribute to the commitment and good fighting record of people’s lawyers in the Philippines and a symbol of IAPL’s resolve to help Filipinos seek an end to extrajudicial killings and human rights violations under the Arroyo government. Olalia is a member of the Public Interest Law Center (PILC) and a convenor of the Counsels for the Defense of Liberties (CODAL). Also elected were Julio Moreira of Brazil as vice president, Raf Jespers of Belgium as secretary-general, Hakan Harakus of Turkey as auditor, and Samina Kabir of Afghanistan and Bhusal Surendra as board members. Sebastian Pallisery of India was elected honorary chairperson. Romeo T. Capulong, former ad litem judge in the United Nations Tribunal on the Former Yugoslavia, was elected IAPL Eminent Person. The IAPL congress also helped pave the way for a national consultation of Filipino human rights and public interest lawyers that came up with concrete responses to slays and assaults against activists and even lawyers and judges. A National Union of People’s Lawyers is set to hold its founding congress in February 2007.
rp slays and operation phoenix - 10/02/2006
Focus on the Extrajudicial Killings in RP: Operation Phoenix's Long Shadow
In the Phoenix terror, the US saw the shape of gore and mayhem to come. In the twisted mindset of the US military establishment, Phoenix did right and well. It thus became the foil for future US-directed so-called counter-insurgency schemes against national liberation movements elsewhere in Asia and Latin America. Military operation plans supervised by the US military in its neocolonies thereafter would systematically include as a key component Phoenix's "non-traditional" approach of recruiting, training and unleashing death squads to prey on impoverished unarmed civilians residing in militarized countrysides. Thus did the spectre of Phoenix stalk the Philippines, Argentina, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala and other US-oppressed countries.
This infamous US covert program may well have been the forerunner of all the so-called counter-insurgency programs launched by the Philippine reactionary state since the Marcos dictatorship. The various Orwellian-labeled "oplans"—from Marcos' "Katatagan" to Macapagal-Arroyo's "Bantay-Laya"—aimed to coordinate the state's US-directed counterrevolutionary efforts for every administration, just like Phoenix sought to do.
As in Phoenix, all these Philippine oplans seem to have been laid down in tight coordination with the US military establishment, from the US-RP Mutual Defense Board during Marcos' heyday to the US-RP Defense Policy Board and the current US-RP Security Engagement Board, though the newly-formed security engagement board stands on shaky legal grounds as the agreement that formed it has not gone through the constitutionally-mandated approval of both the US and Philippine Senates.
FULL ARTICLE HERE
climate of fear - 09/28/2006
Philippines: Climate of Fear Impedes Probe into Killings
(New York, September 28, 2006) – As a Philippine government task force nears its October 7 deadline to solve a number of high-profile killings, it has made little visible progress amid a climate of fear and a lack of cooperation by military authorities, Human Rights Watch said today.
Since February, dozens of killings, many widely thought to be politically motivated, have taken place. None of the recent cases have been brought to trial yet and only a handful of cases have been filed.
The special 10-week investigation, headed by Task Force Usig, began August 1 when President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo instructed the Department of Justice and the Philippine National Police to jail suspects in at least 10 killings before the October deadline. At the time, President Arroyo said, “I continue to condemn media and leftist killings in the strongest terms, and I have ordered law enforcement to dig deeper into the motives involved.” No updates on Task Force Usig’s or other authorities’ efforts have been made public, however.
“The government’s special investigation in the killings must be effective. Otherwise, justice is in jeopardy in the Philippines,” said Sophie Richardson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Prompt and thorough investigations, credible prosecutions and public access to justice should be the norm, not the exception.”
FULL TEXT HERE
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