British Columbia Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines
Statement

Progressive Filipino Leaders Continue to be Harassed by Arroyo’s Regime

April 22, 2008

As peace-loving and progressive Canadians and Filipino-Canadians, we strongly condemn the regime of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for her continued repression of all critical opposition to her anti-people and militarist government.  In particular, we raise our deep concern about the news that another series of trumped-up murder charges has been filed against prominent critics and parliamentarians.

On April 18, 2008, murder charges were filed against Philippine Bayan Muna (People First) Representatives SATUR OCAMPO and TED CASINO, Gabriela Women’s Party Representative LIZA MAZA and former AnakPawis (Toiling Masses) Representative RAFAEL MARIANO. All representatives are members of  progressive party-list political parties. Under the Philippine constitution, 20% of the seats in Congress can be filled by party-lists who must represent marginalized and underrepresented sectors such as women, workers and peasants.

With these underhanded charges, it is once again very clear that Arroyo will not stop until it eliminates all critical opposition, particularly from the elected militant political parties and people’s organizations.

In fact, several suspected military and police agents were allegedly monitoring Satur Ocampo, when Arroyo has not issued an arrest warrant against him. Ocampo’s security personnel reported three motorcycles with two armed agents on each motorcycle and two SUVs conducting surveillance in the vicinity of Ocampo's house.

These murder charges against Ocampo and his fellow militant lawmakers, AnakPawis Rep. Crispin Beltran and Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Luz Ilagan, come after their successful Philippine Parliamentarians’ Tour of Canada this April. The three Filipino parliamentarians spoke before the House of Common’s Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Development to raise awareness of the continuing political repression and the culture of impunity in the Philippines.  Casiño also attended the United Nations Human Rights Commission Universal Periodic Review of the Philippines this past month and helped expose the real sorry state of human rights in the country.

This latest filing of murder charges is clearly political persecution deliberately designed to stop Ocampo and the other lawmakers from doing their legislative duties. These charges are reminiscent of the murder charges used against Ocampo and rebellion charges against him and 50 others, including  fellow party-list members in 2007. The charge of murder is the same one filed before the 2007 elections when the government allegedly tried to disqualify his political party. The case, however, was dismissed by the Commission on Elections. The charges of rebellion were also dismissed by the Philippine Supreme court effectively ensuring that the supposed evidence used against Ocampo and the 50 others can never be used again.

It should also be noted that in 2006, the Inter-Parliamentary Union passed a resolution in support of Ocampo against the harassment he has been repeatedly experiencing by the Philippine government, citing that the Philippines is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and thus bound to respect freedom of expression, assembly and association, the right to liberty and the right to fair trial.

What the Arroyo government and its military cannot kill or render missing, it will arrest on trumped up charges and detain. Since Arroyo took power in 2001, she has spearheaded a bloody military counter-insurgency campaign known as Oplan Bantay Laya (Operation Freedom Watch). The military campaign has resulted in more than 900 documented cases of extra-judicial killings, 200 cases of enforced disappearances and the displacement of over one million people under the guise of ‘fighting terrorism’.  Arroyo seeks not only to marginalize progressive party lists and people’s organizations, she also seeks to annihilate them and all genuine, militant opposition who work for the interests of the people and for national sovereignty.

The B.C. Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines strongly condemns the continuing harassment and persecution of Rep. Satur Ocampo and the other militant legislators. We are concerned about the safety of Reps. Ocampo, Beltran and Ilagan who have returned from their Parliamentarians’ Tour of Canada.

We ask that the Canadian government demand that the Philippine government immediately demonstrate its commitment to democracy and the rule of law by ending this harassment against progressive Parliamentarians in the Philippines. We also continue to demand that Canada take concrete measures against the extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in the Philippines by ensuring that Canadian bilateral aid to the Philippines be directed to organizations that are legitimately working for genuine human rights instead of the Arroyo government.

As concerned Canadians and Filipino-Canadians, we likewise urge all progressive and peace-loving individuals and organizations to continue to strengthen our genuine people-to-people solidarity with the Filipino people in their struggle for national and social liberation.  We call on all Canadians to educate themselves about the root causes of the human rights violations in the Philippines and work concretely in solidarity campaigns to expose Canada’s complicity in these human rights violations.

April 22, 2008
B.C. Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines
Member of the Philippines-Canada Task Force for Human Rights (PCTFHR)
c/o Kalayaan Centre, 451 Powell Street, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, V6A 1G7
Phone/Fax: 604.215.1905 | http://www.kalayaancentre.net
To sign onto on-line URGENT ACTIONS please visit: http://www.psacbc.com/philippines/

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