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Int’l mission to probe HRVs slated

BAGUIO CITY (Aug. 4) — An international solidarity mission (ISM) focusing on the extent and gravity of human rights violations (HRVs) and state terrorism in the Philippines has been slated this month in various regions where such occurrences were documented at its worst.

The ISM will take place from August 14 to 19 in Mindoro, Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac, Samar, Compostela Valley and Sulu in Mindanao. The ISM also aims to pressure the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration to stop violating human rights and people’s rights with impunity; to gather international support to the victims and survivors of state terrorism and to contextualize the worsening human rights situation in the Philippines within United States’ President George Bush’s war on terror, the US having declared the Philippines its second front in this campaign.

ISM convenors include the International League of People’s Struggles (ILPS) Philippine Chapter, Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights), Promotion of Church People’s Response (PCPR), Bayan (New Patriotic Alliance), International Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL), and Bayan Muna Partylist.

Teams will proceed to the regions identified, where a media-public forum will later follow to present each team’s findings. A People’s Tribunal will be scheduled later in Manila. The ISM will end with a march to historic Mendiola to denounce the “US-backed GMA regime” for state terrorism.

On the People’s Tribunal, representatives of the Lepanto Employees Union (LEU) who have been on strike for two months now will submit its complaints of HRVs against mining giant Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company (LCMCo) and the Philippine National Police (PNP).

Reign of terror

Karapatan reports that in less than four years, the Arroyo administration has committed 3,560 cases of HRVs victimizing 198,308 individuals, 18,977 families, 123 communities, and 1,016 households. Two hundred thirty six political detainees all over the country were documented as of December 5, 2004. These HRV cases include deaths of human rights leaders, peasant and labor leaders, lawyers and journalists advocating for people’s rights.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) reports that 69 journalists were slain since the restoration of democracy in 1986, while six were killed since January 2005. The government has now stipulated a law forbidding journalists to interview and publish stories on the underground Left, otherwise face sanctions.

Labor conflicts have intensified as well under the GMA administration, such as the November 16 Hacienda Luisita massacre, where seven workers were shot when government troopers opened fire.

The ISM convenors claim that under the Arroyo government, “a culture of open terror pervades due to her fascist attacks against the marginalized citizens and legitimate people’s organizations”.

Militant organizations are now pressuring GMA to step down from the presidency due to alleged electoral fraud, graft and corruption in her administration and her family. Militant groups claim that the nation’s ruling political and economic state has plunged since GMA took the presidency.

The ISM is themed “In Defense of a People Fighting Repression”. # AT Bengwayan for NORDIS

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