PHILIPPINES

Filipino activists elevate international campaign
to stop extrajudicial killings

2007 March 19

Armed with a new comprehensive human rights report on the Philippines, a Filipino church-led mission in North America urged US lawmakers to hold the Philippine government accountable for the unabated extrajudicial killings of Filipino activists. Testifying before the Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 14, the delegation also called for the review of US’s security cooperation with the Philippine government and to link US military and development aid to the human rights record of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration.

Subcommittee chair Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-California) commended the call which was contained in the 90-page report presented to the Senate panel by the delegation. Titled “Let the Stones Cry Out: An Ecumenical Report on Human Rights in the Philippines and a Call to Action”, the document was prepared by the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) and officially released during the International Ecumenical Conference on Human Rights in the Philippines in Washington, DC on 12-14 March.

The ecumenical conference and the Philippine mission, known as the Ecumenical Voice for Peace and Human Rights in the Philippines, were jointly organised by the NCCP and the Philippine Working Group USA. The delegation also came to the US for the Asia Track Focus on the Philippines of Ecumenical Advocacy Days, an annual advocacy event in Washington DC mobilising faith-based groups and individuals to advocate on a variety of US domestic and international policy issues.

The mission is supported by international ecumenical bodies and member communions of the Church World Service and the National Council of Churches USA. After its tour of North America, which included meetings and speaking engagements in Canadian and other US cities, the delegation will proceed to Geneva, Switzerland to formally submit its report to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Part of the delegation will then join other Filipino activists in The Hague, The Netherlands for the Permanent People’s Tribunal’s Second Session on the Philippines scheduled to take place on 21-25 March.

Through subpoenaes sent to the Philippine embassies in Rome and The Hague on 6 March, the PPT already notified the Philippine government of the hearing with the invitation for its representatives to appear during the Tribunal sessions. The PPT also confirmed the members of its jury, composed of eight prominent personalities from around the world including renowned social scientist Prof. Francois Houtart of Belgium who will serve as the president of the jury, Richard Falk of the USA and Hans Kochler of Austria.

The project, according to the International Coordinating Secretariat, has received a steady flow of endorsements and statements of support from all over the world. A considerable number of these come from very prominent individuals and organisations, including former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda and Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa.

The Tribunal will try the Arroyo government and its named accomplices, the United States government and multinational companies, for violations of the Algiers Declaration or the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Peoples. A verdict on the indictment is expected to be made on 25 March, which will then be forwarded to all competent international agencies and organisations.

NEWS RELEASES ON THE ECUMENICAL DELEGATION’S MISSION TO THE U.S. CONGRESS:

• First-hand Account on the US Senate Hearing (Media Release, Ecumenical Voice for Peace and Human Rights in the Philippines, 15 March)
• Bishops, Other Church Leaders, Back Call to Review US Military Aid to RP (Press Release, National Council of Churches in the Philippines, 15 March)
• US Congress asked to make sure military, development aid to RP gov’t not used to perpetrate human rights abuses (News Release, Philippine Working Group in the USA, 15 March)
• Filipino religious leaders come to Advocacy Days to decry political murders in the Philippines (NCC News, 13 March)

FURTHER READING:

• Crossing the Bridge (CenPEG Issue Analysis #04, 16 March 2007) A Philippine-based policy study centre takes a closer look at the real challenges opened up by the church-led initiative to bring the issue of extrajudicial killings to the US Congress, particularly in light of the US government’s “inconsistent human rights policy” and the Philippine government’s role in the Bush administration’s ‘war on terror’.

IN THE NEWS:

• US Congress asked to halt aid to Philippines over extrajudicial killings (Associated Press, 13 March)
• US aid to Philippines questioned over killings (Reuters, 14 March)
• US raps Arroyo on political killings (Inquirer, 16 March)