RP human rights situation getting worse, says CHR chief
By Nikko Dizon
Philippine Daily Inquirer – www.inquirer.net
Friday, December 11, 2009
MANILA, Philippines — As the world marked International Human Rights Day on Thursday, Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Chair Leila de Lima said the Nov. 23 Maguindanao massacre had trained the spotlight on the worsening situation under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s administration that, she claimed, could nearly be comparable to the dark days of Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorship.
More brutal
“We cannot say it’s worse today than martial law, but the human rights situation is getting worse. We were supposed to have already restored democracy, but the way things are happening, it is said that we are nearing failed-state status or ... a failed democracy,” De Lima Thursday told reporters.
De Lima said the “unbelievable incidence of atrocities” like the massacre of 57 people including women and journalists not only made the human rights situation in the country “dismal” but also showed a much more brutal nature of the crimes that victimized even ordinary citizens.
“The Arroyo administration is catching up when compared with the record of the [Marcos] regime. In terms of nature, a massacre like this did not happen before,” she said.
In its yearend report, the human rights group Karapatan said that in the eight years and 10 months of the Arroyo administration, there were 1,118 documented extrajudicial killings, 204 victims of forced disappearances and 1,026 victims of torture.
An American historian had said there were more than 3,000 extrajudicial killings during the 20-year Marcos dictatorship.
‘Never again’
De Lima said it was “ironic” that the 61st anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights was commemorated while the nation was grappling with the massacre in Maguindanao and its consequences, like the declaration of martial law there.
On Thursday, the CHR led the planting of 57 trees to symbolize the call for justice for the 57 victims of the massacre.
“For the mass killing to take place so close to today, Dec. 10, the day on which the world celebrates Human Rights Day, is a travesty,” De Lima said in a message.
She said the perpetrators of the massacre should be held accountable: “We cannot allow these wrongdoers to evade justice, this time. The rule of law must be strengthened. The importance of forensic evidence must be recognized. We have borne witness to too many murders, where the persons responsible are never found. We have seen too many cases fail, for lack of proper evidence. We cannot allow this to take place once again, in Maguindanao. Not this time, and not ever again.”
Hong Kong
Filipino workers in Hong Kong marked International Human Rights Day with a protest action.
Members of the United Filipinos (Unifil) in Hong Kong and other militant groups picketed the Philippine Consulate and called for justice for the massacre victims as well as the lifting of martial law in Maguindanao.
“Martial law will not spell justice for the massacre victims but will result in more human rights abuses against the Maguindanao people,” Unifil secretary general Eman Villanueva said in a statement.
Gabriela-HK chair Cynthia Abdon-Tellez said the imposition of martial law in the province might end up in “a whitewash” and “lead to the Ampatuans escaping from real justice.”
Middle East
From Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona said the group’s Muslim members whose families were living in Maguindanao had aired concerns that martial law would lead to more rights abuse.
Monterona said Filipino workers in the Middle East—where public demonstrations are illegal—were worried that if the Arroyo administration could not give justice to the massacre victims, then it would not have the moral ascendancy to seek amnesty for some 3,000 Filipinos languishing in prisons in the region.
He said almost two-thirds of the Filipinos in Middle Eastern jails were charged only with minor offenses involving violations of the host countries’ social and customary laws.
“We can’t expect that OFWs will be given protection by the Arroyo regime that is just as liable for creating a culture of impunity in the homeland amid the continued extrajudicial killings and disappearances, and heightened political persecution of leaders and members of peoples’ organizations,” he said. With a report from Jerome Aning
Human rights situation in RP more dismal - CHR
By Katherine Adraneda
The Philippine Star – www.philstar.com
Friday, December 11, 2009
MANILA, Philippines - Commission on Human Rights (CHR) chairperson Leila de Lima said human rights in the country are “more dismal” than before in the wake of Maguindanao massacre.
“This incident only made the human rights situation in the country more dismal. Last year, in the wake of the extrajudicial killings, I said the human rights situation in the country was dismal; now it’s more dismal. Because today, they choose no one anymore, when before, mostly common victims are activists or members of progressive organizations, this time, mas malawak na ang extra judicial killings, even those who are not activists are killed, although this is really politically motivated.Even so, this is still considered extra-judicial killing,” De Lima pointed out.
She said the Maguindanao killings came as an irony amid the observance of the International Human Rights Day this year.
De Lima said that the Arroyo administration is catching up with the human rights violations of the Marcos dictatorship in terms of statistics and nature of violence.
She lamented that the country might be nearing a “failed state of democracy” and might even finally reach that level if impunity persists and justice would remain evasive for the victims, survivors, and their families.
“The situation has gotten worse when we’re supposed to have already democracy in the Philippines,” De Lima said.– With Artemio Dumlao, Ramil Bajo, Evelyn Macairan, Perseus Echeminada and Jose Rodel Clapano
Gunmen abduct 75, including schoolchildren, in Agusan
By Joselle Badilla, Jocelyn Uy
Philippine Daily Inquirer – www.inquirer.net
Friday, December 11, 2009
DAVAO CITY — It isn’t just the gunmen of the Ampatuan clan that are sowing terror in Mindanao. This time, a crime gang struck and the victims included schoolchildren.
While lawmakers in Manila grilled administration officials on the imposition of martial law in Maguindanao province, an armed group involved in a clan war yesterday took at least 75 people hostage, including elementary school pupils and their teachers, in Agusan del Sur.
Seven hours later, all 16 children among the hostages were released by their captors, purportedly headed by Ondo Perez, a former member of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) and who is wanted in a case involving the killing of several members of a neighbor’s family, said Senior Supt. Nestor Fajura.
Chief Supt. Lino Calingasan, Caraga regional police director, described the Perez group as an organized crime gang.
The men were armed with M-16 and M-14 rifles and several shotguns, police said.
Two teachers who were among those taken hostage escaped, leaving at 57 the number of captives still in the hands of the Perez group, according to Fajura, head of operations of the Caraga police.
The gunmen appeared to be using the hostages as human shields, Vice Gov. Santiago Cane Jr. told The Associated Press by telephone.
The hostages were taken from Sitio Maitum, Barangay San Martin, in Prosperidad town, 200 kilometer northeast of Davao City and 300 km northeast of Maguindanao where the Arroyo administration is trying to resolve another crisis involving the massacre of 57 people allegedly by members of the Ampatuan clan and their followers.
None of the Prosperidad hostages have been harmed, police said. But the hostages were hungry as some had not had breakfast or lunch, according to the police.
Fajura said policemen had gone to Prosperidad to serve Perez and his men with a warrant of arrest when the group—numbering 15—seized the hostages at around 6 a.m.
‘This is clan war’
The gunmen rounded up villagers, teachers and students on their way to school and gathered them at the village hall before marching them up a hill 3 km away where they were being held, Fajura said.
“This is part of a clan war. There is a standing warrant of arrest for Ondo Perez and his group, who were tagged behind the killing of his neighbor’s family,” Fajura said.
He said Perez was a suspect in the killing of the family of Jun Tubay, with whom he has a long-standing dispute.
Maj. Michel Anayron Jr., spokesperson of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, said the provincial government had tried to patch up the feud.
“But both parties did not appear in all the attempts by the government for them to settle their differences,” Anayron said.
Crime gang
Instead of retaliating for the killings, Tubay filed a case against Perez.
“Perez and his group took hostage civilians in the area so that the warrant of arrest will not be served on them,” Fajura said.
During the negotiations yesterday, Fajura said Perez demanded the dismissal of the murder charges against him and his group.
Agusan del Sur Gov. Valentina Plaza has sent a civilian negotiator to convince Perez to release his other hostages.
The two teachers who escaped were identified by police as Marilou Gregorio and Nene Alemendares.
A police officer interviewed on ANC, identified by the news channel as PO3 Ana Rose Rivas-Lana, said that with the release of the students, there were no longer any children among the remaining hostages.
Gunmen’s demands
The hostages still in the hands of the gunmen included two foresters from Casilayan Softwood and Development Corp., as well as a backhoe operator, a school teacher and several other civilians, according to the police.
Fajura said that in exchange for releasing some hostages, the gunmen demanded flashlights, cigarettes, the presence of journalists on the site and the withdrawal of criminal cases against them.
They also asked for the arrest of Tubay, the leader of their rival group, and for the police and the military to stop their operations against the Perez group, Fajura said.
He said policemen had surrounded the area but were not taking any action against the gunmen to allow the negotiations to proceed.
“We are not yet closing in,” he said. “As long as the negotiation is continuing, no police operations will be done.”
Clan wars
The Maguindanao martial law administrator, Lt. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer, told Reuters the Army had sent troops "to help rescue the hostages.”
“We’re only playing a support role there,” Ferrer said.
Chief Supt. Jaime Milla said the gunmen involved in yesterday’s abductions were former militiamen who had been dismissed and turned to banditry and extortion, targeting mining and logging companies in Agusan del Sur and nearby provinces.
Bandits, communist guerrillas and Moro rebels operate in Mindanao. In addition, powerful local families maintain large private armies and feuding among them is common.
Clan rivalry was also at the root of last month’s Maguindanao carnage.
Studies funded by the Asia Foundation and the US Agency for International Development found there had been more than 1,200 clan feuds in Mindanao since the 1930s, killing nearly 5,000 people and displacing tens of thousands. With reports from Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse
Cafgu-led group abducts 75
By Mario J. Mallari
The Daily Tribune – www.tribune.net
Friday, December 11, 2009
More than 70 students, teachers and other innocent civilians were snatched by more or less 15 armed members of a crime group in Agusan del Sur province yesterday.
The group leader has been identified as Undo Perez, a member of the Civilian Auxiliary Forces Geographical Unit (Cafgu), a group that government funds and arms.
The gunmen reportedly carried high-powered automatic rifles, including M-16s and M-14s.
Quoting reports from the field, military Eastern Mindanao Command (Eastmincom) chief Lt. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer said the incident occurred around 6 a.m. in Sitio Maitom, Barangay San Martin in Prosperidad town.
Reports said more or less 75 civilians, composed of students, teachers and employees of Casilayan Softwood Development Corp. which has a schoolhouse, were taken by the Undo Perez Group which is claimed by police and military to be involved in robbery and holdup cases.
The victims were reportedly brought to a remote area of Barangay San Martin where combined military and police tracker teams were subsequently dispatched to pursue the armed group.
The group initially demanded battery for flashlights, cigarettes, stoppage of police and military operations against its members, the dropping of criminal charges slapped on them, the presence of media and the arrest of a certain Jun Tubay, the alleged leader of their rival group.
It was gathered that members of the Perez group were charged for the killing of members of the Tubay family earlier this year.
Agusan del Sur Gov. Tina Plaza immediately activated the provincial crisis management committee to address the issue.
There were reports that 18 of the kidnap victims have already been released at press time yesterday.
Earlier, TV reports had said the armed group took as many as 125 persons as hostages, although some 50 individuals escaped, or were set free.
Chief Supt. Lino Calingasan, Caraga police director, said at least 15 gunmen led by a former Cagfu member attacked the Maitum Elementary School and took the victims hostage.
Police and military officials, however, insist that the Perez-led group has no links to any communist group and was at pain to portray this group as a “crime group.”
Police were reportedly on their way to serve a warrant of arrest on Perez and his group, as they have been charged with the murder of Tubay, even as police claimed that murder of Tubay bt Perez’s armed group stemmed from a clan war.
TV reports said Calingasan identified the members of the Perez Group as former Cafgus who had organized themselves under a crime group, which operates within Agusan and Surigao provinces.
The area is a well-known hotbed of communist New People’s Army guerrillas.
Calingasan also said 18 of the captives were freed unharmed, 17 of whom were schoolchildren and the other a teacher, after eight hours in captivity.
“Negotiations are still continuing for the safe release of the other hostages,” Calingasan told reporters.
The Cafgu group has demanded a raft of charges against them, including murder, be dropped, police said.
“They have many cases (against them), from murder to robbery,” Marco Archinue, the police chief in Prosperidad, where the kidnappings occurred, told Agence France Presse by telephone.
“They want the government to lift all arrest warrants against them. Police have been looking for them for a long time. We were supposed to serve warrants today, that’s why they kidnapped those people.”
Aside from communist fighters, Muslim rebels fighting for an independent homeland have waged an insurgency since the 1970s that has claimed more than 150,000 lives, according to the military.
Many other gangs with no affiliations to communists or Muslim rebels frequently engage in kidnappings for ransom and other crimes.
Martial law was imposed in another province on Mindanao last week after a political massacre there left 57 people dead.
Manwhile, security forces scoured the jungle in Mindanao Thursday for two factory workers held by al Qaeda-linked militants, after the severed head of one hostage was dumped in a park.
Police and soldiers stepped up their search on the southern island of Basilan, but the Abu Sayyaf militants had so far eluded the dragnet, provincial police chief Superintendent Abubakar Tulawie said.
“We have been on their trail, but whenever we arrive at the site where they are last reported, they are already gone,” Tulawie told reporters.
Heavily armed gunmen from the Abu Sayyaf, listed by the United States as a terrorist organization, kidnapped three workers from Hitech Wood Craft Corp. in Basilan’s Maluso town on Nov. 10.
The Abu Sayyaf, which specializes in kidnappings for ransom, had demanded P1.5 million for the release of the trio, Tulawei said.
On Wednesday, the severed head of one of the hostages, Mark Singson, 20, was found stuffed in a plastic bag after being dumped in a park on the island.
Residents had alerted police after fearing the package was a bomb.
Tulawei said the other two hostages — Michael Tan, 27 and Oscar Lu, 51 — were known to be alive as of Wednesday because they had been allowed to call their employer then.
By dusk Thursday, there were no new reports on the fate of the two remaining hostages.
Michael Tan is the son-in-law of the factory owner George Tan, who police said had ignored their warnings not to negotiate with the Abu Sayyaf.
Tulawie said the Abu Sayyaf made contact with the factory owner on Sunday to relay the ransom demand, giving him two days to raise the funds. The elder Tan failed to raise the money on time.
“They texted George Tan to pick up Singson’s severed head last night,” Tulawie said.
Founded in the early 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network, the Abu Sayyaf initially fought for an independent Islamic state in the southern Philippines.
It later morphed into a criminal organization specializing in bombings and kidnappings targeting businessmen and foreign missionaries.
The group is blamed for the deaths of two American hostages snatched from an island getaway in 2001, as well as the nation’s worst terror attack — the bombing of a ferry in Manila Bay in 2004 that claimed more than 100 lives.
US special forces have been rotating in small numbers in the south since 2001 to train Filipino soldiers in combating the Abu Sayyaf.
The group remains well entrenched in the jungles of Basilan and nearby Jolo island, thanks to support from local Muslim communities and its ability to attract fresh recruits from poor young men lured by promises of money.
The Abu Sayyaf was blamed for the beheading of a school principal on Jolo last month, just days before US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Manila to affirm security ties.
Abu Sayyaf attacks have left at least 48 Filipino soldiers and 70 insurgents dead since January, according to an AFP tally based on military reports. With AFP
Gunmen seize 75 hostages, mostly students, in Agusan
By Ben Serrano
The Philippine Star – www.philstar.com
Friday, December 11, 2009
PROSPERIDAD, Agusan del Sur , Philippines – A group of 15 Manobo tribal warriors abducted yesterday morning 75 people, including school children and teachers, at Sitio Maitum-Maasim in Barangay San Martin, according to provincial police.
Agusan del Sur provincial police said the group, armed with M-14 and M-16 rifles and indigenous weapons, seized four teachers, an undetermined number of students and civilians, and the school principal of the New Maasim Elementary School right after the flag ceremony as they were about to start their morning classes.
The group also kidnapped two foresters of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) visiting wood firm Casilayan Softwood and Development Corp.
Agusan police have filed kidnapping charges against the suspects.
They said, however, that the tribe did not express intent to harm or kill the hostages.
Police said the Manobo warriors claimed the government delayed justice for the alleged murder of tribal chief Datu Ondo Perez and three Manobo tribesmen by a certain Joel Cubay. The killings allegedly stemmed from a clan war over access to logging areas.
Sources from the tribe said they have repeatedly asked for assistance from the government, particularly from the National Commission on Indigenous People’s Commission, but did not receive any response. The abductors demanded Cubay’s surrender as well as interviews by television newsmen.
Agusan del Sur Gov. Maria Valentina Plaza dispatched Provincial Social Welfare officer Josefina Bajade to negotiate for the safe release of the victims.
As of press time, 17 students and an adult had been released to Bajade while two teachers who escaped from captivity are now under police protection.
The abductors also demanded food, clothing, medicine, blankets and potable water.
Last month, eight DENR workers in Sibagat, Agusan del Sur were abducted by an armed indigenous group at a checkpoint in Barangay Anticala, Butuan City but were released after three days in captivity. The abductors demanded access to logs in the area.
Agusan del Sur Vice Gov. Santiago Cane Jr. said the abductors were bandits.
He said a day before the group entered the isolated hamlet of San Martin, police had chased them away from a nearby village.
Eastern Mindanao (Eastmincom) commander and Maguindanao martial law administrator Lt. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer said the abductors are believed to be members of the Perez Group, an organized crime group operating in the area.
He said the group used the hostages as human shields to prevent police from arresting them for multiple murder and robbery charges.
Meanwhile, Department of Education Secretary Jesli Lapus has instructed the DepEd division in Agusan del Sur to assess the situation.
“We are very frustrated. Our school children, our school, our teachers should be spared from violence and criminal activities.” Lapus said. – With Jaime Laude, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Rainier Allan Ronda, AP
Tribal gunmen kidnap 75
Armed suspects raid school, air grievances
The Manila Times – www.manilatimes.net
Friday, December 11, 2009
PROSPERIDAD, Agusan del Sur: Tribal gunmen raided a school in the violence-wracked southern Philippines on Thursday and abducted 75 people in a bid to highlight a long list of grievances, police said.
The mass kidnapping continued a terrifying outburst of crimes in the Mindanao region in recent weeks, following the beheading of a logging company employee on Wednesday and a political massacre that left 57 people dead.
Fifteen armed members of the Manobo tribe descended on the New Maasim Elementary School in Agusan del Sur province as children were attending a morning flag ceremony, the provincial police said in a statement.
Residents of nearby homes were also abducted, including a backhoe operator working on a government project nearby and two logging company employees, according to the statement.
Two school teachers escaped as the hostages were marched off to a forest, it added.
Police forces, backed by Army soldiers, were sent to the town of Prosperidad to rescue 57 villagers, including two private foresters and a teacher, who were among 75 abducted early Thursday and held hostage since then, said Maj. Michelle Anayron, a spokesman for the Army’s Fourth Infantry Division.
“We still don’t know the motives [behind] the abduction, but police and military forces were sent to the area to track down the gunmen,” Anayron added.
17 students freed
Negotiators led by a female social worker followed the group and got the gunmen to free all 17 students and the school principal, the provincial police statement said.
Police added that this left 55 people, all adults, still in captivity.
The children arrived with the principal tired and hungry at the Prosperidad town hall by mid-afternoon and were immediately served meals after their eight-hour ordeal, an Agence France-Presse reporter on the scene said.
Authorities said negotiations for the others still in captivity were expected to resume today.
Kidnappers’ demands
Police said the kidnappers were led by Ondo Perez, a local tribal leader, who had issued a raft of demands including the arrest of a local rival who he accused of being behind the murders of another member of the Perez family.
The kidnappers also want food, clothing, medicine, blankets and drinking water, police said, adding that negotiations were continuing.
Local police said some of the kidnap suspects were facing criminal charges in local courts, including murder, and had demanded those charges be dropped.
“They have many cases [against them], from murder to robbery,” Prosperidad police chief Marco Archinue told Agence France-Presse.
“They want the government to lift all arrest warrants against them. Police have been looking for them for a long time. We were supposed to serve warrants today, that’s why they kidnapped those people.”
Police said the negotiations were complicated by the fact that many of the hostages belonged to the rival Tubay family, which had engaged in bloody clashes with the Perez clan for the past few years.
Volatile region
The Mindanao region is an extremely volatile part of the Southeast Asian archipelago that makes up the southern third of the country.
Besides communist rebels, Muslim separatists fighting for an independent homeland have waged an insurgency since the 1970s that has claimed more than 150,000 lives, according to the military.
Many other gangs with no affiliations to communists or Muslim rebels frequently engage in kidnappings for ransom and other crimes.
In October in neighboring Agusan del Norte province, tribesmen seized seven government forest rangers and demanded that the government return their ancestral lands and cancel all forest agreements with commercial loggers in areas where there are indigenous tribes.
The victims, all employees of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), were freed in the town of Sibagat, also in Agusan del Sur, after the government canceled several forestry agreements with commercial logging firms.
It was unknown whether the latest abduction was connected with illegal logging activities.
Agusan del Norte and Agusan del Sur are known lairs of illegal loggers and a stronghold of communist New People’s Army (NPA). Illegal logging activities there are said to be continuing unabatedly and are threatening watersheds.
Last year, some 500 leaders of indigenous tribes and representatives of nongovernment organizations and the Catholic Church appealed to Manila to end illegal logging and destructive mining in the two provinces and other areas in the Caraga region considered as ancestral domain.
Terrorists in Basilan
On Basilan island, which is about 450 kilometers to the southeast of Thursday’s kidnap site, members of the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf Group on Wednesday dumped in a park the severed head of one of three hostages they had taken on November 10.
The Abu Sayyaf, which specializes in kidnappings for ransom, had demanded P1.5 million ($32,500) for the release of the trio, police said, adding a search was continuing Thursday for the other two hostages.
Martial law was imposed in Maguindanao, another province on Mindanao, last week after a political massacre by the local ruling Muslim clan left 57 people dead.
Also on Thursday, the Abu Sayyaf was suspected of kidnapping Orlando Fajardo, the vice president of Basilan State College, in Isabela City, the capital of the island province.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but previous kidnappings had been blamed the Abu Sayyaf.AFP WITH REPORT FROM AL JACINTO
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