December 07, 2006

We commemorate the 58th International Human Rights Day against a backdrop of severely disquieting violations of human rights in the region and the nation.

We speak of the trampling of our rights to life, liberty, security and self determination.

We speak of the aggressive moves for Charter Change that endanger our basic rights, civil liberties and national patrimony.

Just yesterday, the resolution to transform Congress into a Constitutional Assembly was railroaded in Congress. In the proposed Charter revision by the government, provisions emphasizing our rights and born from decades of the people’s struggle will be watered down.

We speak of torture and illegal arrests.

Nine of the 11 punks wrongfully accused by the Philippine National Police as members of the New Peoples Army continue to languish in jail since February this year. They were severely tortured during the first weeks of their illegal detention.

We speak of 797 extrajudicial killings and 191 enforced disappearances from January 2001 – November 30, 2006.

Under Operation Plan Bantay Laya (Freedom Watch), civilians and not combatants are surveilled, red-tagged, threatened, abducted or killed. This Oplan identified the Cordillera as among the priority regions. This counter-insurgency program by the Arroyo government is the latest local application of the United States sponsored and Central Intelligence Agency brainchild “low intensity conflict” (LIC).

We speak of people’s organizations under attack by a fascist state worse than the Marcos Dictatorship.

Death squads under the command of a select section of the Armed Forces of the Philippines or the Philippine National Police have executed orders to neutralize leaders and members of progressive people’s organizations critical against the government. Romy Sanchez, Jose ‘Pepe’ Manegdeg III, Albert Terredano, Jose Doton, Rafael Markus Bangit, Gloria Casuga, Alyce Omengan-Claver are among the more than seven hundred victims of this regime.

96 of the victims of extrajudicial killings are indigenous peoples and 33 come from the Cordillera region. Among the victims are elderly peasant Francisco Tangbaoan who was among the three civilians forced to serve as “human shields” by the 41st Infantry Battalion (IB) of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in Abra last August 2005 and 19-year old Mike ‘Sauyen’ Uyad of Mountain Province who was killed during the military operations of the 54th Infantry Battalion, and the Special Reaction Force of the AFP in Agawa, Besao last June 2006.

None of these cases has been solved to this day. No perpetrator has been punished.

The extrajudicial killings come in the wake of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s (PGMA) State of the Nation Address where she reiterated her aggressive campaign for Charter Change to allow the unhampered entry of global corporations into the country. The so-called Northern Luzon Mega Region is largely anchored on her obsession to open mining operations in the Cordillera provinces to vested foreign interests.

We speak of the militarization of our countrysides.

Communities in the Cordillera are under a cloak of terror because of unabated military operations that come with the so-called government development projects. In Gawaan, Kalinga, AFP troops have been conducting house to house searches and community meetings similar to the operations conducted by troops under General Jovito Palparan in Central Luzon when he was still in service. This military operations resulted to the killing of Gawaan resident Robert “Ambalnog” Sabado last October 6, 2006 by members of the Charlie Company of the 21st Infantry Battalion led by 1st Lt. Arvin Encinas. Death squads in the same province also continue to stalk leaders and members of progressive people’s orgnaizations. In Abra, continuous military operations by the 41st IB of the AFP were conducted since June especially in Central Abra. Cases of torture, hamletting and other forms of violations were reported in this area. In Mountain Province, where the 54th IB and 77th IB are deployed, the violations range from use of schools as military detachment to the aerial bombardment of barangays Dandanac, Tamboan, Agawa and Besao. Thus, peasants and indigenous peoples are being displaced from their source of livelihood. The militarization of the Cordillera has also affected the conduct of traditional rituals or even desecrated the areas that indigenous people consider as sacred.

Violations against women have also been reported. Three victims of rape by military and police elements since 2004 were documented.

The suppression of the people’s democratic rights is directly connected to the economic agenda which the government is pushing regardless of its irreparable damage to our lives, land and resources.

But, amidst the worsening repression, we speak of the people’s resilience.

We speak of a growing commitment to regain the human dignity being seized from us by this state. We speak of a growing struggle to prevail over this regime.

The outrage against the killings and other human rights violations locally and internationally has grown to a point that the state can not play deaf to the people’s cries.

The deaths of Romy, Pepe, Albert, Apo Jose, Makoy, Gloria Casuga, Alyce and hundreds of other martyrs will not be in vain.

We shall persist in our quest for justice for all victims of human rights violations. We shall continue to hold the US-Arroyo regime accountable for the blood in their hands.

We shall continue to fight for our rights to life, liberty, security and self determination.

We shall continue to the struggle for a just social order.

Justice to all victims of State Terrorism!
Uphold civil liberties! Defend the people’s rights!

Fight for our rights!

CORDILLERA HUMAN RIGHTS ALLIANCE
# 10 Rimando Road, Baguio City
Telfax: +63-74-4452586
Email: chra@cpaphils.org