Dear friends,
Please join us in our call for the immediate release of Roy Erecre, peace consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), and the resumption of the peace talks between the NDFP and the Philippine government.
Dear friends,
Please join us in our call for the immediate release of Roy Erecre, peace consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), and the resumption of the peace talks between the NDFP and the Philippine government.
Erecre, 50, is detained in a cramped and congested cell that is poorly ventilated in Bohol District Jail. The cell he shares with common criminals is isolated from the jail’s main community. Medical attention is not readily available for Erecre who was diagnosed with venous insufficiency, peripherial arterial disease and diabetes.
As a peace consultant of the NDFP, Erecre is protected under the GPH-NDFP Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG). The NDFP Negotiating Panel acknowledged Erecre’s Document of Identification No. ND978243 under the assumed name Vide Alguna. On April 20, 2001, then GRP Negotiating Panel Chairman Silvestre H. Bello III issued a Letter of Acknowledgment to Erecre as peace consultant for Visayas.
Arbitrary arrest on fabricated charges
Erecre was on his way for a follow-up medical examination for diabetes when joint forces of the Philippine Army Eastern Mindanao Command and Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group abducted him on May 7, at his hometown in Davao City.
He was interrogated and kept incommunicado; as he was transferred from a number of detention facilities in Davao City, Cebu City until he was brought to Bohol District Jail. His personal belongings such as cellphones, journal and flash drives were taken from him, and have not yet been returned.
A lawyer contacted by Erecre’s family was only allowed to see him the day after he was brought to Bohol District Jail. His family was only permitted to see him a week after his arrest.
Erecre now face trumped-up charges of robbery-in-band, frustrated murder and rebellion. He is among those listed in the Joint Order on Reward No. 14-2012 of the Departments of National Defense and of Interior and Local Government, with PhP 5.6M bounty.
Karapatan said the Joint Order on reward system is akin to the Order of Battle of the Gloria Arroyo regime, a “hitlist” used against suspected “communist” leaders. The reward system is, at the same time, an organized racket of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police.
Jail management also refused to allow Erecre to keep books and other reading materials, to watch television or listen to the radio. His family also lambasted, and called degrading, the strip search that visiting relatives and friends are forced to undergo. Jail authorities demand that women visitors remove their underpants.
Karapatan supports the call of the Erecre family for the immediate release of Roy Erecre and 14 other NDFP peace consultants jailed for trumped-up charges and despite protection guaranteed by the GPH-NDFP Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG).
Karapatan also calls for the resumption of the peace talks between the GPH and the NDFP to discuss and come up with long-term solutions to the social, economic and political ills of the country. ###
UA Date: 2 June 2014
Recommended Action:
Send letters, emails or fax messages calling for:
- The immediate release of Roy Erecre, peace consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, not only because he is protected by the GPH-NDFP Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), but also on humanitarian ground.
- The immediate formation of an independent fact-finding and investigation team composed of representatives from human rights groups, the Church, local government, and the Commission on Human Rights that will look into the arrest and detention of, and filing of fabricated charges against Roy Erecre and other peace consultants.
- The end to the policy of labeling and targeting of human rights defenders as “members of front organizations of the communists” and “enemies of the state.”
- The withdrawal of Oplan Bayanihan, the Philippine government’s counterinsurgency program, that victimizes innnocent and unarmed civilians.
- The Philippine Government to observe the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and all the major Human Rights instruments that it is a party and signatory to.
You may send your communications to:
H.E. Benigno C. Aquino III
President of the Republic
Malacañang Palace,
JP Laurel St., San Miguel
Manila Philippines
Voice: (+632) 564 1451 to 80
Fax: (+632) 742-1641 / 929-3968
E-mail: op@president.gov.ph
Sec. Teresita Quintos-Deles
Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process
Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP)
7th Floor Agustin Building I
Emerald Avenue
Pasig City 1605
Voice:+63 (2) 636 0701 to 066
Fax:+63 (2) 638 2216
stqd.papp@opapp.gov.ph
Ret. Lt. Gen. Voltaire T. Gazmin
Secretary, Department of National Defense
Room 301 DND Building, Camp Emilio Aguinaldo,
E. de los Santos Avenue, Quezon City
Voice:+63(2) 911-6193 / 911-0488 / 982-5600
Fax:+63(2) 982-5600
Email: osnd@philonline.com, dnd.opla@gmail.com
Atty. Leila De Lima
Secretary, Department of Justice
Padre Faura St., Manila
Direct Line 521-1908
Trunkline 523-84-81 loc.211/214
Fax: (+632) 523-9548
Email: lmdelima@doj.gov.ph, lmdelima.doj@gmail.com, lmdelima.doj2@gmail.com
Hon. Loretta Ann P. Rosales
Chairperson, Commission on Human Rights
SAAC Bldg., UP Complex
Commonwealth Avenue
Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
Voice: (+632) 928-5655, 926-6188
Fax: (+632) 929 0102
Email: chair.rosales.chr@gmail.com, lorettann@gmail.com
Please send us a copy of your email/mail/fax to the above-named government officials, to our address below:
