February, 2019

“This trial is a revival of the martial law years. It’s sickening.” 

It has been nearly ten years since the late Senator Joker Arroyo uttered these words when he took the witness stand on February 27, 2009 at the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 32 in defense of Vicente Ladlad, one of the respondents in the government-manufactured case involving the purported discovery of a mass grave at Inopacan, Leyte of supposed victims of execution by the CPP-NPA. 

Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Jose Andanar revealed in a news release on February 18 that the agency’s officials were sent to Europe to be part of the government’s official delegation as part of the National Task Force (NTF) to End Communist Armed Conflict and to clarify the issue on involuntary disappearances.

In a recent news release of the Department of Foreign Affairs on February 15, the Philippine government, through government officials led by those in the Presidential Human Rights Committee has moved to delist at least 625 cases of enforced disappearances, mostly attributed to State forces from 1975 to 2012, reported to the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (UN WGEID). The news release cited the country’s “strong legal framework and institutional mechanisms to address enforced disappearances.”  

Dear friends and colleagues,

Karapatan’s website www.karapatan.org has been inaccessible since January 20, 2019. We were careful not to automatically attribute this problem to a possible cyberattack against our web page. However, after much troubleshooting, our website continued to receive an abnormal load of traffic which was more than what the provider can handle. After requesting assistance from Quirum, a Sweden-based non-profit secure hosting provider for independent media and human rights organiztions, to investigate, initial findings show that the signature of the attacks was identical to those of Philippine alternative media groups Bulatlat, Altermidya, and Pinoy Weekly. We, therefore, confirm that the inaccessibility of our website is due to a targeted Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack from a source intent on silencing Karapatan’s platform for online advocacy.

“Despite the recent court decision cutting down the names of those included in the Justice Department’s proscription petition from more than 600 names to 8, then finally down to 2 individuals, rights defenders and political dissenters initially included remain vulnerable to attacks. This is not a reprieve. So long as the proscription case remains, it will be further fuel and justify the government’s obsession to crackdown on progressive groups. In light of the proposed amendments to the Human Security Act of 2007, or Anti-Terror Law, we cannot stress enough how dangerous this petition is in the hands of a fascist maniac like Duterte,” said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay.

The arrest of journalist Maria Ressa and the absurd charges against her and online news site Rappler are all about freedom of expression in the Philippines.

It is indicative of a vindictive government which is intent on dominating all forms of media with its own twisted narratives, while simultaneously cutting off any platform for others to express alternative opinions. Evidence-based findings that prove critical to the anti-people campaigns of the regime are shut down while fake news and deliberate lies are massively peddled by state-backed keyboard warriors.

On Friday, February 8, 2019, the lawyer of Mukammar Pae, the alleged Jolo church blast suspect, asserted that his client was innocent and was tortured by the police to admit to the crime. Lawyer Meltoni Sibulan further refuted the police in the latter’s claim that Pae and three other men “surrendered” to them. According to Sibulan, Pae and his three other companions were tree cutters and lumberyard workers who wanted to clear their name. The victims presented themselves to the 35th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IBPA), after which they were turned over to the police. Immediately after, Pae was illegally arrested, tortured and detained. Sibulan added that his client was subjected to waterboarding.

“Amending the Human Security Act of 2007, or the anti-terror law, in accordance to the Duterte government’s agenda will place the entire Philippines under martial law. This as much was admitted by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, when he said that they can do away with martial law in Mindanao if Congress will enact the proposed measures,” said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay, as the Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs endorsed its committee report to the Senate plenary yesterday.

“Nobody is safe in this country, not even those in the church sector and communities. We now live at a time when men in motorcycles immediately spark fear and suspicion, as they have been used in numerous killings. In the first few months this 2019, we have received frequent reports of threats and harassment, many involving priests. This comes after several extrajudicial killings of Catholic priests in 2018, the incessant vandalisms around the vicinity of churches, and the recent “challenge” given by the President to inflict harm on bishops, among other church workers. Thus, harassment and intimidation in all its forms, given this particular context, is a cause for alarm,” said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay, emphasizing that harassment and threats are often a prelude to killings. 

“For the nth time, the Philippine National Police is once again deflecting accountability on the killing of peace consultant Randy Malayao. Instead of working swiftly to resolve this case given the sketch and the CCTV footage, the police slanders Malayao and files absurd charges against his sister, lawyer Atty. Edu Balgos and his wife, Rina Balgos. The Balgoses assisted Malayao’s family in claiming his belongings. The police officers yielded precisely because it is within the right of Malayao’s family to obtain possession of his personal effects. The police knew they were not in any position to withhold these items,”  said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay on recent statements of the PNP on Malayao’s case.

“Trade unionists are under attack. With the onslaught of neoliberal policies that unilaterally favor companies and business tycoons, their profits come at the expense of workers’ rights. Legitimate initiatives of workers to assert their rights and welfare have been hampered by a string of anti-worker schemes such as contractualization and union busting. Meanwhile, trade unionists and organizers among workers have been subjected to illegal arrests, trumped-up charges, among other forms of human rights violations,” said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay, particularly citing the cases of Marklen Maojo Maga and Juan Alexander Reyes. On February 6, 2019, hearings will be held on Maga and Reyes’ case in San Mateo, Rizal and Quezon City, respectively. 

“There is now a barrage of malicious and false allegations hurled against peace consultant Randy Malayao. Attacking a dead person to justify his killing is the odious handiwork of Malayao’s murderers and their protectors. Instead of focusing on an impartial investigation, the Philippine National Police (PNP) has been busying itself with circulating baseless, unsubstantiated, and malicious rumors about Malayao and creating intrigue on his death. The police have become akin to a deranged paparazzis in uniform, resulting from the State actors’ paranoia of being discovered as the perpetrators. Perhaps no one can play as dirty and as downright callous as the Duterte regime and its gamut of paid mercenaries and propaganda machine,” said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay, in response to the accusations of the Philippine National Police Region II against Malayao.

“There is now an ongoing trend of activists going missing, only to be later located in military camps or police stations or worse, dead. After abducting these individuals, the military and the police then spin ludicrous stories that they are either surrenderees or members of the New People’s Army (NPA), or their abduction already ‘cured’ by trumped-up criminal charges. Those who have been killed by suspected State forces are claimed to have been fatalities during armed encounters – another fantastic permutation of the worn-out ‘nanlaban’ narrative. It’s one outrageous lie after the other,” said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay, citing recent cases of human rights violations in Mindanao.