PNP memo brazen attack against rights defenders

Rights groups were informed of a memorandum released by the Philippine National Police Intelligence Group, directing the country’s police officers to provide a summary of information on alleged leaders of the New People’s Army. Though groups only knew of the memorandum this September, said memo was dated May 28, 2018.

There is not a hint of intelligence in that memo, only the perpetual red-baiting of known activists. This is the Duterte regime’s relentless political persecution, mobilizing all its forces to threaten and harass those who pose as hindrances to the government’s slaughter of the Filipino people.

The list is strikingly similar to the proscription petition filed by the Department of Justice on February 2018. DOJ Secretary Menardo Guevarra has since admitted that his department did not verify the names on the said list.

Included in the list are prominent indigenous rights activists from the Cordillera region: Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, current United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; Joan Carling, Co-convener of the Indigenous Peoples Major Group for Sustainable Development Goals; Atty. Jose Molintas, former Asia representative to the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP) and former Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA) Chair; Beverly Longid, current global coordinator of the International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL); Joanna Patricia Cariño, member of the CPA and Co-Chair of Sandugo; Windel Bolinget, CPA chairperson and National Co-convener of Sandugo; Jeannete Ribaya-Cawiding, former Chairperson of CPA-Tongtongan ti Umili and current Regional Coordinator of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers – Cordillera.

Included also is Sherwin De Vera, Regional Coordinator of DEFEND Ilocos, member of the Save The Abra River Movement (STARM) and former Secretary General of the Ilocos Human Rights Alliance-Karapatan.

Duterte’s attacks against rights defenders betray his fear of being exposed as a president who has killed thousands but has never solved any social problem. There is no doubt that those on these “lists” are targeted because of their work and advocacy as rights defenders and activists.

Many other activists were extrajudicially killed because of these baseless lists, even used by the opportunist police and military to satiate their greed and fatten themselves.” He cited the 2014 joint memorandum of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Department of National Defense (DND) that ordered the arrest of alleged communists, funded with P46 million. The said memo resulted to a series of arbitrary arrests and cases of mistaken identities.

If this government thinks it can go on a killing spree without a hint of resistance from individuals and communities, then it is seriously mistaken. The Duterte regime has underestimated the resolve of the Filipino people to fight and defend people’s rights. As Duterte and his cohorts wreak havoc in the country’s economy, while simultaneously attacking the poor and rights defenders who stand by the deliberately silenced, his government is all the more exposed as useless and ineffective. The Duterte regime has high marks in manipulation, repression and instilling terror, but inutile in everything else.

Karapatan also hits GMA, Malacañang officials on proposals to extend martial law in Mindanao, after Sultan Kudarat bombing.

Karapatan slammed the pronouncements of Malacañang officials and House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on the proposal to extend martial law in Mindanao, as the human rights group conveyed its condolences to the families of those who were killed in the bombing in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat on August 28, 2018.

While the bombing that resulted to the death of at least three civilians is a deplorable act, it is equally appalling that Duterte and his minions are now using the said situation to justify the intensification of military attacks on communities in Mindanao through the extension of the martial law declaration.

Karapatan reported that intensified military operations in peasant and Lumad communities in Mindanao continue, such as the ongoing harassment and other rights violations in Talaingod, Davao del Norte and Buenavista, Agusan del Norte.

At around 10 in the morning of August 25, 2018, while students of Salugpongan Ta ‘Tanu Igkanugon Community Learning Center Incorporated (STTICLC) in Sitio Tibucag, Barangay Dagohoy, Talaingod, Davao del Norte were playing outside their classrooms, they heard a series of gunfire, the source of which is just about 500 meters away from their location, which lasted for 30 minutes. This incident caused deep distress among the teachers and students of the said school.

At around 4 p.m. of August 27, a helicopter hovered above Sitio Malid, Barangay Dagohoy, Talaingod, Davao del Norte. Thereafter, bombs were dropped. As of this writing, community members are still trying to ascertain the number of bombs dropped and the extent of the damage.

On August 28, at least 156 individuals (38 families) from a Higaonon community in Sitio Bulac, Barangay Olave, Buenavista, Agusan del Norte fled from their homes, after around 30 soldiers arrived in their community. In a report by the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines - Northern Mindanao, the residents recounted that the soldiers forcible entered and illegally searched the Lumad’s homes, while guns and bullets were planted in at least two houses. The residents were prevented from using their mobile phones, which they had hoped to use to document the soldiers’ acts.

Mindanao has been a target of state terror because of the communities’ staunch opposition to landgrabbing and plunder of their land and resources. Duterte exacerbated the situation by declaring martial law in the whole of Mindanao.

Since the declaration of martial law on May 23, 2017 to May 23 this year, Karapatan documented at least 49 victims of extrajudicial killings in Mindanao, with an average of one victim killed every week. Most of the victims are indigenous peoples and members of local peasant organizations targeted for their local campaigns for genuine agrarian reform and against militarization. Karapatan also documented 22 cases of torture, 116 victims of frustrated extrajudicial killings, 89 victims of illegal arrest and detention, and 336,124 victims of indiscriminate gunfire and aerial bombings. At least 404, 654 individuals have been displaced, largely because of these bombings.

If the Duterte regime, through its military, is bombing schools and communities, who knows how far can they go in purporting their own stories of terror, to justify martial law and all their attacks against the people? This regime is endangering the lives of more people, yet it says the very policies that have killed and endangered so many are necessary to protect the lives of people. That’s complete madness, courtesy of this mad president.

Roneo Clamor and Cristina Palabay

Karapatan