Statement of the BC Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines

BUILD INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY TO SPEAK OUT AGAINST HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AND FIGHT STATE REPRESSION!

December 10, 2005

2005 marks an escalation of human rights violations around the world, most notably against the rising national and social liberation movements in the poorest countries where the natural resources are the richest, the contradictions of imperialist globalization the sharpest, and militarization the fiercest.  The Philippines stands today as one painful example. On International Human Rights Day, December 10, the British Columbia Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (BCCHRP) reaffirms its commitment to expose, condemn and mobilize concern for the human rights violations carried out by and with the consent of the US-backed Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) regime.

BCCHRP is proud of its accomplishments this year: we have expanded our organization, solidarity for the people in the Philippines, solidarity actions regarding other situations in the world, and our fundraising and communications capacity. Most notably, we rose to the call for participation in the International Solidarity Mission (ISM) and People’s Tribunal (IPT) in the Philippines in August and surpassed our delegate’s goals. As a major part of our follow-up to the ISM and IPT, our Annual General Meeting in October strengthened BCCHRP further.

While we acknowledge these accomplishments and the persistent and conscientious commitment and work of our volunteers, members and supporters this year, the situation in the Philippines has worsened since August and demanded more from BCCHRP. The GMA government having completely lost any credibility, the people’s activism is broadening and GMA can only cling to her fragile power with police and military brutality, and with the full approval and support of the George W. Bush administration. Below we mention a few of their most recent atrocities. We point out that all of these attacks were on unarmed civilians with affiliations in legal mass organizations.

• The massacre of 9 farmers demonstrating their claim to awarded lands in Leyte, Palo, Visayas by soldiers of the 19th Infantry Battalion on November 21. The victims included two pregnant women.
• The killing of a coordinator and member of the Rural Missionary Program of the partylist group Bayan Muna in Ilocos Sur on November 28.  Bayan Muna reports 71 assassinations of its members since 2001, yet only three of these cases reached the Department of Justice and only one the regional trial court.
• The killing of two journalists: a radio announcer shot five times by a lone motorcyclist in Sorsogon City on November 18; a reporter for Katapat shot at a market in Barangay Loc, Cabuyao, Laguna on November 20. These deaths bring the number of murdered journalists to 72 since 1986 and 35 since 2001.
• The November 30th death by gunshot of a human rights activist working with the Department of Agrarian Reform office in Bangued, Abra.
• The assassination of an organizer for Kadamay, and urban poor group, by two gun-wielding motorcyclists in Barangay Lourdes Sur in the City of San Fernando, Pampanga on November 21, making the total victims of extra-judicial killings in Central Luzon 21 since September, 2005.
• The brutal rape of a 22-year-old woman by six US Marines in Zambales, Mindanao on November 1.
• The murder of the Central Azucarera de Tarlac Labour Union President (who was also a local Bayan Muna leader) on October 25.
• The injuries and arrests against numerous peaceful marchers at the Walk for Democracy to Mendiola, Manila on October 4.
• The gunshot death of local Anakpawis (urban poor) leader and former President of the Tarlac Electric Cooperative Employees Labour Union in the San Fernando village in Victoria, Tarlac on October 7.
• The murder of the Nestle workers’ union leader, who was also the regional chairperson May 1st Movement’s Solidarity of Workers group (PAMANIK-KMU), near the Sagara factory in Paciano, Calamba on September 22.

In all there have been close to 4700 human rights violations under the GMA regime since 2001, including around 400 resulting deaths, over 100 of which were political assassinations. There are about 260 political prisoners. Investigations into these gross violations reveal a pattern that adds up to an all out war on the people. GMA calls this strategy “CPR”, Calibrated Pre-emptive Response to wipe out insurgency by terrorizing all the population. Clearly, the most militant dissenters and progressive organizations are the special targets of this campaign of terror and the GMA-Bush regime, if merely implicated or suspected in many cases of violations, is not opening a mouth or lifting a finger to do anything about them regardless and would be therefore responsible for them. This military strategy combined with the Anti-Terrorism Bill and other so-called security measures amount to an undeclared Martial Law intended to perpetuate GMA’s seat in the palace of power. That GMA be attempting to rescue the Philippines this way is among the most tasteless and cruel of jokes.

BCHRP will continue to collect petition signatures, group resolutions, strike support and research data, write statements and letters, and organize public actions and forums in 2006.  We ask people in Canada to join us in voicing concern for the Filipino people and demanding the ouster of the GMA-Bush regime as well as the removal of US troops from the Philippines. We are currently developing a foreign policy platform for Canada. Canada’s interests in the Philippines are substantial: from the mass importation of cheap labour for domestic work to mineral exploration, from the export of arms and other products to foreign aid.

More than anything, however, an injury to one is an injury to all. In this era of global terror as US and its partner imperialist troops maraud the world from Iraq to the Philippines, the people everywhere have a common interest in speaking up for human rights and defending social and national liberation movements in opposition to foreign domination and plunder, militarization and state repression.

We are mindful that 2005 marks the 40th anniversary of the murderous campaign of 1.5 million dissenters in Indonesia. We steadfastly oppose the criminalization of political opposition, and we especially reject the classification of activists and revolutionary fighters for national and social liberation as “terrorists”. The intent of the defamation, rumours and misinformation about organized dissenters--such as the slander against Jose Maria Sison who is facing trumped up accusations of murder as he remains in his 20th year of exile abroad—is to dissuade mass support for liberation movements and encourage the war of terror against the people. But the movement to break the rule of the greedy and vicious landowning clans, bureaucrat-capitalists and imperialists has persisted for over 30 years and is only getting stronger today.

LONG LIVE INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY!
SUPPORT THE JUST CAUSE OF THE PEOPLE IN THE PHILIPPINES!
US TROOPS OUT OF THE PHILIPPINES!  FIGHT STATE REPRESSION!
STAND UP FOR HUMAN RIGHTS!

bcchrp@kalayaancentre.net/www.kalayaancentre.net, 604-215-1905/1103 (Barb, Erie or Beth) or
Kalayaan Centre/Philippine Women’s Centre 451 Powell Street, Vancouver, BC