Canadians join international scorn and probe of Arroyo's human rights record

August 11 , 2005

An International Solidarity Mission (ISM) of more than 30 international delegates (11 of whom are from Canada) will be touring areas in the Philippines next week "to investigate rising accounts of gross human rights violations under the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo regime." The massive human rights violations are one the bases of complaint in the current impeachment process filed in the Philippines House of Representatives. The Arroyo government is being rocked by protests calling for her ouster or resignation because of massive electoral fraud, corruption and betrayal of public trust.

The mission, entitled: "In Defense of a People Fighting Repression" will be held from August 14-19, 2005. The mission delegates include former U.S. Attorney General and world-renown human rights lawyer Ramsey Clarke, American labor leader Dolores Huerta and Canadian post-doctorate fellow Dr. Jill Hanley. Eight Filipino-Canadian youth, students and workers will also join the delegation in visiting areas with the highest record of human rights violations, including: Samar island in the Eastern Visayas region, Mindoro island and Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac province in the Luzon region, Surigao and Moro areas in Mindanao.

The conference objectives are: to bring the attention of the international community the gravity of the human rights violations and extent of state terrorism occurring in the Philippines under the US-supported government of Arroyo; to muster international pressure on the Arroyo government to stop violating human rights and peoples’ rights with impunity; to gather international support to the victims/survivors of state terrorism; and to contextualize the worsening HR situation in the Philippines within George Bush’s war of terror.

The mission will be followed by the International People’s Tribunal, "a political trial of the US-Arroyo regime for its crimes against the Filipino people." Clarke as well as Canadian human rights activist and Chairperson of the B.C. Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, Barbara Waldern will sit as judges on the tribunal. The Tribunal is being endorsed by over 100 international personalities and institutions including Noam Chomsky.

Since Arroyo assumed the presidency in January 21, 2001, the human rights organization KARAPATAN has recorded two hundred ninety-three (293) cases of killings of four hundred eleven (411) persons through assassinations, summary executions and indiscriminate firing. In the same period, one hundred thirty (130) persons became victims of involuntary disappearance, two hundred forty-five (245) persons were subjected to torture in the hands of government authorities and one thousand five hundred sixty three (1,563) persons fell victim to illegal arrest. The vast majority of these cases were allegedly perpetrated by members or agents of the AFP.

In a recent solidarity letter to the National ISM Secretariat in the Philippines, Vancouver City Councillor Tim Louis said the “violent situation in the Philippines today is reminiscent of the dark days of Martial Law under the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, conditions to which many Canadians responded out of humanitarian principle as part of an international movement to defeat Martial Law and oust Marcos. The human rights record of the present government headed by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) in the name of the “strong republic” again demands a similar international challenge.”

Louis is a very articulate, well-respected lawyer and defender of the most exploited and oppressed sectors of society.

The Canadian delegates to the ISM are: Barbara Waldern, Elizabeth Dollaga, Erie and Lara Maestro, Yvette Stephenson, Emmanuel Sayo, and Carl Cortes from Vancouver, Abraham de Jesus from Calgary, Dr. Jill Hanley from Montreal, and Jessie Benjamin and Hennessy Cruz from Toronto.

Since Canada is involved in the Philippines through its foreign aid program, arms sales, and immigration, the Canadian delegates plan to inform the Canadian government about their findings. They intend to ask the government to reconsider its relationship with the Philippines in view of its human rights record.

The Canadian delegation is hoping to meet with the Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines while in the Philippines. A series of report-backs is scheduled upon their return.

Canadian church people and a hospital workers union have also added their voices to the growing protest over the increasing number of state-directed killings and harassment in the Philippines.

Delegates from the United Church and coalition partners signed a petition campaign for justice: "Uphold CARHRIHL, Stop the Killings in the Philippines" at a meeting held in Comox Valley, BC last May. The Global and Societal Ministries of the BC Conference of the United Church of Canada, called on the Philippine government to immediately stop the killings and other forms of political repression. They characterized the acts of repression as "un-Christian" and immoral.

In a letter to President Arroyo last June, Fred Muzin, President of the Hospital Employees Union on behalf of its 42,000 members wrote "to protest and urge [Arroyo's] intervention to address the drastic human rights situation" in the Philippines.

The letter states, "under the guise of a war against terror...your military has labeled broad sectors of Philippine society as terrorists because they are involved in progressive organizations working peacefully for social justice. As a result, the military is conducting their own reign of terror and are responsible for an escalating campaign to kill, harass, falsely detain and torture political activists including journalists, lawyers, women and peasant group leaders, human rights advocates, church people, and union organizers.

As the Philippine President and Commander-in-Chief of the military, you have condoned this violence and assault on civil liberties through your silence. You and your government are culpable for these abuses. We add our names to the others around the world in condemning these atrocities and call upon you to take the necessary measures to institute democratic reform."

Biographical information on the delegates:

Canadians:

1.

Barbara Waldern has been active in the anti-imperialist struggle since the 1980s. She joined the NO! to APEC coalition in Vancouver in 1997 and attended the People’s Conference Against the WTO in 1999. She also went on a Fact Finding Mission and Conference on Mining Transnational Corporations in the Philippines on behalf of the BC Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (BCCHRP) in 1998. She has a Master’s degree in anthropology from Simon Fraser University. She is currently Acting Chair of BCCHRP and was elected to the International League of Peoples’ Struggles (ILPS) as an Alternate Representative for Canada in 2004.
2.

Dr. Jill Hanley is a Post-doctorate fellow at the Groupe d’etudes sur le racisme, la migration et l’exclusion de l’Universite libre de Bruxelles, and currently teaching in social work at McGill University in Montreal.
3.

Jessie Benjamin is a member of the Young Left, a youth and student organization in Toronto. He has been doing solidarity work for the Philippines and supporting human rights campaigns.

Filipino-Canadians:

1) Elizabeth Dollaga is a member of a national body of the United Church of Canada concerned with women's issues. She works for the Vancouver School Board.

2) Erie Maestro is a member of BCCHRP. She holds a Master’s in Library Science and is a City Librarian in Vancouver, B.C.

3) Lara Maestro recently graduated from Kitsilano Secondary School in Vancouver. She will be studying at the University of British Columbia in September.

4) Yvette Stephenson is a student at Capilano College in North Vancouver and a member of BCCHRP.

5) Emmanuel Sayo is a founding member of BCCHRP.

6) Carl Cortes is a member of the Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance-B.C.

7) Abraham de Jesus is an engineer living in Calgary, Alberta.

8) Hennessy Cruz is a member of the Young Left in Toronto, Ontario.

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For more information, please contact Ted Alcuitas of BCCHRP at: 604-215-1103. Please note that some of the delegates may be contacted for interview by phone or e-mail.