Typhoon Yolanda
survivor, rights groups call on UN to probe Aquino govt’s slow,
inefficient response
By KARAPATAN
June 20, 2014
GENEVA, Switzerland –
Through an oral intervention delivered before member states of the
United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva last Thursday, typhoon
Haiyan/Yolanda survivor Rev. Irma Balaba of the National Council of
Churches of the Philippines strongly urged the Council to conduct
investigations into the “slow, inefficient and inadequate response of
the Philippine government to the plight of the millions of typhoon
Haiyan/Yolanda victims.”
In the said statement
supported by the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs
of the World Council of Churches (CCIA-WCC), Balaba recounted that
“thousands of desperate and traumatized residents fled the regions
affected by the typhoon, as its impact on the affected communities
exacerbated the poverty incidence and intensified the number of
victims of displacement in the Philippines.”
“Up until now, the
government does not have an alternative plan for the displaced
communities that would ensure their long-term alternative livelihood,
safe relocation areas, free housing and access to social services,“
she added.
Balaba also urged the
Council to monitor and investigate how the assistance extended by the
international community for relief and rehabilitation in the
devastated areas, amid the massive pork barrel and corruption scandals
under the Aquino administration.
Balaba is among the members
of the delegation of the Ecumenical Voice for Peace and Human Rights
in the Philippines (EcuVoice).Balaba’s intervention during the General
Debates of the 26th UN HRC sessions was delivered by Sr. Stella
Matutina of the Sisters Association in Mindanao (SAMIN), who is also
part of the Phil. delegation of human rights advocates participating
in the UNHRC sessions.
The rights advocates also
lamented that “instead of focusing on providing the long-overdue
assistance for the typhoon victims, the Aquino administration trains
its guns on aid workers who provide crucial, timely and relevant
support for the victims.”
Five women relief workers of
the Panay Center for Disaster Response (PCDR), a partner NGO of the
international Catholic relief agency Caritas, were cuffed, gagged, and
bound with packaging tape by three unidentified men in their office in
Jaro, Iloilo at around 1 a.m. on June 19, 2014. The masked men seized
two laptops, memory sticks, flash drives, mobile phones, logbooks,
ledgers, cameras, and several pictures documenting the relief
operations of PCDR throughout Panay.
The PDCR provides relief aid
to typhoon Yolanda-struck communities in Northern Iloilo, Capiz,
Antique, and Aklan. PCDR has served about 50,000 families in the
region with relief and rehabilitation assistance – food, non-food,
shelter, among others. Members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines
have however previously tagged aid workers of the PDCR as members of
the New People’s Army (NPA) in communities in Estancia, Iloilo.
Karapatan secretary general
Cristina Palabay, who headed the EcuVoice delegation at the UNHRC
said, the pattern of the ransacking and robberies in offices of
progressive organizations in Metro Manila in the past two years, when
mostly data storage devices were seized by unidentified men, is very
similar to what happened in the PDRC office.
From March 2012 to February
2013, Karapatan and Bayan documented twelve (12) cases of break-ins of
houses of activists and peace advocates, and offices of progressive
organizations; robberies involving items such as laptops, USB/flash
drives, video cameras, and the like; and surveillance of known
personalities and members of such organizations and institutions.
“It appears that the
intelligence operatives of the State are gathering more data on their
perceived government critics and even aid organisations. These
incidents are clearly systematic attacks against organizations and
institutions, made to appear as cases of common crimes. It is only the
military which would have the motive and means to carry out these
attacks,” Palabay commented.
The other members of the
EcuVoice delegation at the 26th sessions of the UN HRC are Atty. Edre
Olalia, Secretary General of the National Union of Peoples' Lawyers (NUPL),
Dr. Angie Gonzales, Atty. Mary Kristerie Baleva and Julie Palaganas of
the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines.