PHILIPPINE WORKING GROUP USA

NEWS RELEASE

2007 March 15

US Congress asked to make sure military, development aid
to RP gov’t not used to perpetrate human rights abuses

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Filipino members of an ecumenical human rights delegation urged US senators and congressmen to review US military aid and development assistance to the Arroyo administration to make sure that these are not helping and aiding the Philippine government to violate human rights and further the extrajudicial killings in the country.

Two of the nine-member delegation testified during a hearing on extra-judicial killings by the US Senate Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs chaired by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-California) in the afternoon of March 14. The hearing on the political killings in the Philippines was the first conducted by the subcommittee under Senator Boxer.

Earlier in the day, the delegation met with the staff of the House Committee on Foreign Relations chaired by Re. Tom Lantos (D-California) in a closed-door briefing.

The delegation, which calls itself the Ecumenical Voice on Peace and Human Rights in the Philippines, likewise called on the US Congress and Church leaders to urge President Arroyo to put an end to the extra-judicial killings that has claimed the lives of 836 people.

The two members of the delegation invited to speak were Marie Hilao-Enriquez of Karapatan and Rev. Eliezer Pascua, general secretary of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines.

The ecumenical delegation came to the United States to help their partners abroad, mostly Churches and ecumenical agencies in the US to bring to the attention of their government the many human rights issues in the Philippines. These partners have been educating the US public and advocating before US legislators changes in US foreign policy on the Philippines.

The delegation also presented a new human rights report on the Philippines to the Senate subcommittee and the House committee. The report was earlier presented to Church leaders at the International Ecumenical Conference on Human Rights in the Philippines in Washington, D.C., from March 12 to 14.

Both the Senate hearing and the House briefing were secured by the concerted efforts of church and ecumenical bodies led by the Rev. Bob Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA and a former member of Congress, and grassroots organizations in the US that lobbied their respective members of Congress to have the committees of Sen. Boxer and Rep. Lantos hold these meetings at the time that the high-level church delegation from the Philippines is in Washington, DC.

The Philippine report, “Let the Stones Cry Out: An Ecumenical Report on Human Rights in the Philippines and a Call to Action” was prepared by the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP). The 86-page report details cases of political killings and studies the chilling pattern and alarming proportions with which these assaults on life were perpetrated.

The report links the unbridled political killings to the Arroyo government’s counter-insurgency program. “The manner with which the victims were executed or abducted was done professionally and systematically, establishing a connection between the national security strategy and the incidents of violations,” the NCCP says in the report.

The document likewise mentions the poor record of the Philippine government in complying not only with the procedures required of a member of the United Nations but also of its failure to adhere to its declared commitments to the UN Human Rights Council. The report to be released by the NCCP is the latest one to pin the responsibility for the killings to Philippine military and security forces.

The ecumenical delegation also called on the US Senate and House panels to:

• Ask the Philippine government to bring to justice members of the military, the police and its agents “against whom there is credible evidence of human rights violations”.
• Call upon the Philippine government to comply with its obligations under international law and rescind its national security policy under its current counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism campaign.
• Call on the Philippine government to respect and protect the internationally recognized rights of farmers, workers, indigenous peoples, national minorities, women, youth, children, migrants, human rights defenders, and lawyers enshrined in general and specific international instruments and standards.
• Conduct an investigation, review and reexamination of the US security cooperation and military assistance and aid to the Philippine government and ensure that this does not support the national security policy that exacerbates the violations of human rights including the killing of churchpeople and human rights activists.
• Review US development assistance to the Philippine government as well as trade and economic arrangements to make sure that these do not exacerbate social and economic inequities that aggravate the prevalent violations of human rights.
• Ensure that any future US military appropriations and economic and official development assistance to the Philippine government be conditioned to a strict adherence to international laws and standards of human rights and good governance and on the demonstrated promotion of human rights.
• Urge the Philippine government to give primacy to the pursuit of comprehensive social, economic and political reforms that will address the roots of the ongoing armed conflict in the Philippines and consequently for it to review its counterinsurgency framework.
• Enjoin the Philippine government to demonstrate a commitment to democratic elections by ensuring that the members and officers of its national security forces as well as their agents do not in any way influence, impede or interfere the process and outcome of the coming elections.

The Ecumenical Delegation is organized and supported by international ecumenical bodies and churches including member communions of Church World Service and the National Council of Churches in the United States.

Philippine Working Group (PWG)

c/o Church World Service

110 Maryland Ave, NE, Washington, DC 20002

www.philippinesadvocacy.org

iechurppgmail.com