Stop the killings and enforced disappearances in the Philippines now

Stop the killings and enforced disappearances in the Philippines now

A Statement of Concern by the Community Alliance for Social Justice (CASJ)

Despite numerous calls and criticisms by human rights advocates and international bodies for an end to an orgy of political killings, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has remained silent and unmoved. Instead, she allocated an additional P1 billion pesos to the military to end the insurgency in two years. This has resulted in an intensified implementation of her policy of “total war” that has actually continued to victimize non-combatant unarmed civilians through human rights violations.
Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of Peoples’ Rights) as of July 11, 2006 has documented 704 victims of extra judicial killings and 181 cases of enforced disappearances since Macapagal-Arroyo took office in 2001. The victims are judges, lawyers, ministers, union leaders, peasant and indigenous community leaders, environmentalists, Bayan Muna (People First) political leaders, anti-mining and environmental activists and civilians suspected of having ties with the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army.

The British Columbia Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (BCCHRP) in a July 12, 2006 statement stated that “in the last few weeks, we have witnessed the GMA administration commit grave violations of people’s civil liberties and human rights. On June June 26, three University of the Philippines-Diliman students, Karen Empeneo, Sheryl Cadapan and Manuel Merino were abducted in Bulacan, Central Luzon by six suspected elements of the military. The three students are members of progressive youth and student organizations. On July 3, seven officers of PISTON, an organization of transport drivers, were abducted by elements of the 56th Infantry Battalion, 69th Infantry Battalion and the Philippine National Police. These incidents are only the latest in GMA’s intensifying campaign of state terror being wielded against legal and progressive national democratic activists and organ-izations.”
In addition, 42 journalists have been murdered since Arroyo assumed power five years ago thereby making the Philippines one of the most dangerous places for journalists in Asia and second only to war-worn Iraq. Amnesty International in a scathing report condemning these killings by assassins allegedly linked to the government’s armed forces and paramilitary units cited a “lack of confidence in the criminal-justice system.”

We are deeply concerned about the continuing spate of unsolved political killings under the Arroyo government. These killings and rampant human rights violations are trademarks of dictatorial and tyrannical regimes and must not be supported by democratic states like Canada. As Canadians, we question the Canadian government’s bilateral aid to the Philippines amounting to $600 billion. Most of this financial aid is supposedly to be used to support responsible governance and private sector development. The foreign aid given by the Canadian government to the Arroyo regime is tantamount to condoning the unsolved killings and brazen violations of human rights attributed to the Philippine military.

In solidarity with the BC Committee for Human Rights and other human rights advocates calling for an end to the killings and enforced disappear-ances in the Philippines, we urge the Canadian government and other democratic countries to send a strong message to “the Arroyo government by withholding any aid until the killings and disappearances are stopped.”

“We call on Canada to use its international reputation as a promoter of peace to encourage the Philippine government to resume the oft-postponed negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). Only when the root causes of the civil conflict in the country which has been raging for more than 37 years are addressed can a truly just and lasting peace reign in the country.”
Toronto, Canada, July 13,2006