Vancouver Steering Committee - Stop the Killings in the Philippines Campaign
Press Release

Survivor of frustrated killing attempt in the Philippines calls for review of Canadian aid

March 22, 2007

VANCOUVER, B.C. – The survivor of a frustrated political killing attempt in the Philippines is in Canada to call on the government to review its aid to the country.
 
Dr. Constancio Claver, 49 years old and a native of Bontoc, Mountain Province in the Philippines has been touring Canada with the support of various churches to expose the state of human rights violations in the Philippines and to call on the Canadian government to review its aid program to the Philippines.
 
According to the human rights group Karapatan, since 2001 there have been 834 documented extra-judicial killings and 184 cases of enforced disappearances.
 
He will speak in a forum “Building People to People Solidarity” co-sponsored by the Public Service Alliance of Canada – BC Region tonight, Thursday, March 22, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. at the Bonsor Recreational Centre in Burnaby. Dr. Claver will also speak with members of the media in a press conference tomorrow, Friday, March 23, 2007 at 10:30 a.m. at 451 Powell St. in Vancouver. Ted Alcuitas, a member of the local Filipino community and a returned delegate from a Canadian fact-finding mission in the Philippines held last November will also speak at the press conference. Dr. Claver will also be speaking at an Amnesty International-Richmond event on Sunday, March 25 at 6:00 pm at the Richmond Sea Island United Church.
 
Dr. Claver, a practicing physician is the chairperson of the progressive party-list group Bayan Muna (People First) in Kalinga province and a convenor of Hustisya! (Justice! Victims of Arroyo Regime United for Justice) – an organization of families of victims of extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances, survivors of frustrated killings, victims of political persecution and other human rights violations under the Arroyo administration.
 
On July 31, 2006, Dr. Claver, his wife Alyce and daughter Cassandra were dropping off their children at school when their vehicle was fired upon by armed men. Dr. Claver sustained multiple gunshot wounds in the left arm and chest while his wife sustained four gunshot wounds in the head, neck and shoulders. They were both rushed to hospital, but Mrs. Claver later died.
 
The political killings in the Philippines have raised the concern of the local Filipino community in Canada as well as other progressive Canadians. A fact-finding mission conducted in November 2006 by the Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights found a pattern of political killings met with impunity by the Arroyo administration. The mission met with the Canadian Embassy to call for some $30 million in Canadian development aid and business investments to be re-directed from the Arroyo government to progressive people’s organizations.
 
Philip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions recently conducted a 10-day fact-finding mission in the country. Amnesty International and the European Union have also condemned the killings.
 
The Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights also calls for the immediate release of Congressman Satur Ocampo of Bayan Muna (People First) party-list and Congressman Crispin Beltran or the Anakpawis (Toiling Masses) party-list who have been detained on trumped-up charges of murder. The group calls the current state of repression and terror in the country, “undeclared martial law.”
 
The Permanent People’s Tribunal Second Session on the Philippines also opened yesterday in the Netherlands where the Arroyo regime, the US government and other accomplices face charges of violating the Filipino people’s human rights, economic rights and transgression of the Filipino people’s sovereignty.
 
There are an estimated 500,000 Filipinos living in Canada, making them the fourth largest visible minority community, and the third largest in B.C.
 
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Photo opportunities and video footage will be available.
 
For more information, please contact: Hetty or May at 604-215-1103 or e-mail: bcchrp@kalayaancentre.net