PROJECTS • WITNESS FOR JUSTICE • PHILIPPINES • PPT: SECOND SESSION ON THE PHILIPPINES

Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal: Second Session on the Philippines

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2007 MARCH 21-25 | THE HAGUE, THE NETHERLANDS

 

PRESS RELEASE

2007 March 14

 

Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal Second Session
on the Human Rights Violations in the Philippines

The Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) Second Session deals with human rights violations in the Philippines, and it takes place in The Hague on March 21-25, 2007, following the preliminary hearing on October 30, 2006 also in The Hague.

The Organizations Hustisya!, Desaparecidos, Selda, Karapatan, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, Public Interest Law Center, Peace for Life, Philippine Peace Center, IBON Foundation, Ecumenical Bishops Forum, and the United Church of Christ in the Philippines in the name of the Filipino People and of the national minorities testify against the President of the Republic of the Philippines Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and its representatives; the President of the United States of America George Walker Bush; the International Monetary Fund (IMF); the World Bank (WB); World Trade Organization (WTO); Multinational Corporations (MNCs) and Foreigns Banks doing business in the Philippines.

The charges brought to the PPT judgement are:

• Gross and Systematic Violations of Civil and Political Rights (778 victims of the extrajudicial killings, 203 massacres, 186 disappearances, 502 torture victims);
• Gross and Systematic Violations of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (deregulation of the prices of petroleum products, privatization and liberalization of the mining resources and industries, dumping and flooding of cheap imported surplus agricultural products, destruction of the ancestral domain);
• Gross and Systematic Violations of the Right to National Self-Determination and Liberation of the Filipino People and national minorities repressed by the US “war on terror”. The US President Bush labeled the Filipino People’s struggle for national liberation and self-determination as “terrorism”, employing brutal attacks on the territory with the Philippine President Macapagal-Arroyo’s complicity, in return for economic support. Bush, Macapagal-Arroyo and their governments violated the Philippine constitutional ban on foreign troops and nuclear weapons in Philippine territory: tens of thousands of US forces in the Philippines deploy nuclear-armed warships, war planes, weapons of mass destruction, espionage and covert equipments.

Philippine society is still semi-feudal and semi-colonial with a foreign debt of about 120 billions of dollars. Besides the meager financial funds destined to the public services such as Health and Education, they were invested in military and police forces. In this context Macapagal-Arroyo’s puppet regime, Presidency assumption on 20 January 2001, characterizes a regime completely subservient to the United States administration, to the IMF, to the World Bank, to the WTO, to the MNCs, and to the neo-liberal policies of deregulation, liberalization, privatization and de-nationalization.

The eight-member Jury are international law experts, intellectuals and human rights activists:

1. Richard Falk (USA) Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University and Santa Barbara University;
2. Irene Fernandez (Malaysia) Tenaganita, social development expert Atty;
3. François Houtart (Belgium) President of the jury and Director of Centre Tricontinental (Cetri);
4. Hans Kochler (Austria), President of the International Progress Organization, Professor of Philosophy;
5. Oda Makoto (Japan) novelist and social activist;
6. Ties Prakken (Holland) lawyer, Professor in criminal law at Maastricht University;
7. Lilia Solano (Colombia) Director Project for Life and Peace, Member of the Coordination of The National Movement of Victims of State-Sponsored Crimes, Former senatorial candidate, migrants rights activist and 2005 Right Livelihood Awardee (alternative Nobel);
8. Oystein Tveter (Norway) lawyer, Director of the Karibu Foundation, Former Norwegian Foreign Ministry Official in Zambia and South Africa, Former Executive, Norwegian Church Aid.

General Secretary Gianni Tognoni will moderate the proceedings of the Tribunal.

The First Session on the Philippines took place from October 30 to November 3, 1980 in Antwerp, when the violations of the fundamental rights of the Filipino People and the Bangsa-Moro minority by Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorship were brought to the judgment of the PPT by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). The case of the Philippines was significant to illustrate the dramatic role of dictatorship in a region of the world, Southeast Asia, considered by many as a “natural” component of the US Empire, influenced by the conduct of the MNCs, foreign banks and by the International Financial Institutes. After twenty-six years, the PPT assumes the new urgent request for three main reasons: the Filipino case is a model case of the so called economic “low-intensity wars”, surrogates of the old dictatorships; the Filipino case appears as a dramatic model case of silent repression, it’s important to make visible; the Filipino case is a model case of forced migration, as a product of globalization.

Because of the gravity of these information, we would be grateful if you could send this press release through your preferential news channels, following the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal future program.

Kindest regards,

PERMANENT PEOPLES’ TRIBUNAL

President: Salvatore Senese

Secretary General: Gianni Tognoni

Manager Secretariat: Giuliana Pisani

Via della Dogana Vecchia,5

00186 Roma

Tel./ Fax: 0039 06 6877774

pptribunalinternazionaleleliobasso.it

filbiol.it

www.internazionaleleliobasso.it

 

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PERMANENT PEOPLES’ TRIBUNAL

2007 March 14

 

Invitation to the Second Session on the Philippines
in the Case of the Filipino People Against the Arroyo Regime and Others

The Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) second session on the Philippines comprehensively takes up the following issues:

• Violations of civil and political rights, especially extrajudicial killings, massacres, enforced disappearances, torture, illegal detention, attacks on worker actions, bombings, strafings and forced mass evacuations.
• Violations of the economic, social and cultural rights of the people under the auspices of “neoliberal globalization”, including the violation of economic sovereignty and the national patrimony through iniquitous agreements and legislation, economic plunder by foreign and local exploiters, odious loans, bureaucratic corruption, exploitation of women, violations of children’s rights, exploitation of indigenous peoples, and environmental destruction.
• Violations of the rights of the people to self-determination under the auspices of the US-directed “global war on terror” and the all-out war policy, including US violation of Philippine sovereignty and territory through iniquitous security agreements, actual crimes in US military intervention, all-out war policy, “terrorist” listing of revolutionary forces and progressive leaders and sabotage of peace negotiations.

We hereby invite you to attend the hearings from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday to Friday, 21-23 March 2007 to be held at the:

CHRISTUS TRIUMFATOR KERK

Juliana van Stolberglaan 154

2595 CL Den Haag

The Netherlands

And the announcement of the verdict and the solidarity program from 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, 25 March 2007 at the:

PAX CHRISTI KERK

Vlamenburg 2

2591 AS Den Haag

The Netherlands

We urge you to act in solidarity with the Filipino people and to attend the hearings of the cases and especially the issuance of the verdict. Your presence and support will help to strengthen the Filipino people’s resolve to struggle for justice, freedom and peace.

Thank you.

In solidarity,

Dr. Angelica Gonzales

Executive Director

International Coordinating Secretariat

secretariatphilippinetribunal.org

Please visit daily: www.tribunal-on-the-philippines.org

Mailing address: Postbus 1584, 3500 BN Utrecht, The Netherlands

Or Visit: Mariahoek 16-17, 3511 LG Utrecht, The Netherlands