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The series of crises we are weathering now makes us more
apprehensive about the state of justice and human rights in our
country. Already, some 900 persons have been confirmed victims of
extrajudicial killings, and almost 200 have gone missing since
January 2001. These human rights violations remain unresolved and
human rights defenders (what the United Nations call human rights
workers), are busy with these cases.
Still, people cannot be confident when they are
restive over rising prices of food and other necessities without a
similar rise in wages and salaries. Politics remains an apple of
discord, and criminality is increasing on account of massive
unemployment. It’s high time we also rethink the ways with which
we deal with dissent, counter-consciousness and the long-present
insurgency.
Lately, the human rights community raised the
case of sisters Rose Ann and Fatima Gumanoy. They are the daughters
of slain peasant leader Eddie Gumanoy, brazenly killed in 2004
during a human rights fact-finding mission in Mindoro. He chaired
the Katipunan ng Samahang Magbubukid sa Timog Katagalugan (KASAMA-TK).
The 16th Infantry Batallion of the Philippine Army, headed by then
Col. Jovito Palaparan, was then deployed at the area. They are
accused of killing Gumanoy and human rights defender Eden Marcellana.
Maria, Rose Ann and Fatima’s mother, claimed
that the girls are in the custody of the Armed Forces of the
Philippines, an assertion first denied and then later admitted.
Apparently, Rose Ann, 21, was apprehended on April 15 after being
seriously wounded and caught allegedly in an armed encounter in
General Nakar, Quezon. She was discharged from the hospital with a
rebellion case and earned her freedom after posting bail. A petition
for a writ of amparo was filed on her behalf as she went though a
series of medical examinations and operations.
On July 3, the Gumanoy sisters were picked up.
Fatima, 17 and a minor, was with her sister on their way to Cavite
to see a relative. On July 4, the AFP came out with a statement that
the girls are with them as Rose Ann sought “voluntary custody.”
Now, Maria thinks she is facing another
painstaking and heartbreaking experience, after her husband’s
murder. This time, even Fatima, with no record of political
involvement, was taken. The human rights community thinks that this
is a propaganda stunt to discourage all who want to seek human
rights redress and assistance, whether it’s from the militant
Karapatan or any other human rights group.
The sisters are still being held at the Fort
Bonifacio General Hospital for unexplained medical concerns and
could not be discharged, even while Rose Ann’s wound is doing well
and Fatima was in good health herself even before the abduction.
Their mother Maria has petitioned to have them back in her care.
Lately, human rights, religious and other
development workers, have circulated a petition to the United
Nations to “compel the Philippines to implement UN Special
Rapporteur, Philip Alston’s, recommendations to end extra-judicial
killings and other human rights abuses in the Philippines.”
They are also asking the UN to re-consider the
decision to appoint the Philippine government to the
vice-president’s seat of the United Nations Human Rights Council (Unhrc),
the distinguished body appointed by the UN General Assembly to
review and address cases of human rights violations by state.
“It sends the wrong message to the
Arroyo administration whose miserable record in prosecuting military
perpetrators encourages the culture of impunity in which these
crimes persist. More importantly, it sends the wrong message to the
victims of human rights abuses and their families who may see this
development as the Unhrc turning a blind eye to their cries for
justice,” the activist-petitioners claimed.
In 2007, a high-profile report from Alston
implicated the Philippine military as responsible in large part for
the systemic pattern of politically-motivated killings and
abductions of over 1,000 advocates from legal people’s
organizations in the Philippines.
The World Council of Churches, Committee for the
Protection of Journalists, Amnesty International, Human Rights
Watch, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, the
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, as well as the
International Labor Rights Forum, have released statements and
reports denouncing the worsening human rights situation in the
Philippines under the Arroyo government.
The US Senate hearing on March 2007 saw US
lawmakers question the Arroyo government’s use of US military aid,
and why the Philippines is its 4th largest aid recipient.
Restrictive language was eventually included in the US
Appropriations Bill, withholding $2 million in US aid, unless the
Arroyo administration carries out Alston’s human rights
recommendations.
This is food for thought, as the country cannot
afford a policy of obliterating dissenters, and should now
acknowledge that this only fuels dissent and dissatisfaction, like
it had done to the Gumanoy family.
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Reader Alfonso Velasquez wrote to say that those
interested to read excerpts of historical accounts by US soldiers on
how they dealt with Filipino ‘insurrectos’, and others during
the Filipino-American War can do so in his blog on Philippine
history, fonsuco.blogspot.com.
ngamolo@manilatimes.net
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