A month before the UN
review on PH rights compliance:
Karapatan submits
cases of political killings under Duterte to UN
By KARAPATAN
April 11, 2017
QUEZON CITY – In a
letter of allegation submitted to the United Nations Special
Rapporteur on Extrajudicial/Summary or Arbitrary Executions Ms. Agnes
Callamard yesterday, April 10, 2017, Karapatan submitted documentation
on forty-seven (47) victims of extrajudicial killings in the
Philippines under the Duterte administration, in line with the
continuing counter-insurgency program of the government.
The said cases were
submitted a month before May 8, 2017, the 3rd cycle of the Universal
Periodic Review on the Philippines at the UN Human Rights Council, a
process whereby the human rights record of a country will be examined
by other State. The period under review covers the last four years of
the Aquino administration and the first months of the Duterte
government. Karapatan also submitted similar complaints during the
Arroyo and Aquino administrations.
“The victims of killings are
peasants, indigenous peoples and workers; many faced harassment and
villification by the military because of their advocacy and actions to
defend people’s rights and are thus considered as human rights
defenders,” said Cristina Palabay, Karapatan Secretary General, in her
letter to Callamard. Karapatan urged Callamard to consider,
investigate, make recommendations and take any appropriate actions on
the cases.
“Despite the 2008 report to
the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Philippines by your
predecessor, Prof. Philip Alston, strong recommendations on
extrajudicial killings perpetrated as part of counter-insurgency
programs, was unheeded both by the Arroyo and Aquino governments.
Throughout both administrations, political killings of peasants,
indigenous peoples, Moro, workers, women and youth continued and
intensified. Under Arroyo, Karapatan documented at least 1,206
individual victims of extrajudicial killing. Under Aquino, there were
334 victims of extrajudicial killing,” Palabay explained.
Karapatan said that “under
Duterte, from July 2016 to March 31, 2017, a total of 47 cases of
political killings have been documented by Karapatan.”
“These killings are all in
the context of the counter-insurgency programs implemented from one
regime to another that supposedly seek to end the armed rebellion of
revolutionary movements in the Philippines. From Arroyo’s Oplan Bantay
Laya, Aquino’s Oplan Bayanihan and to the current Oplan Kapayapaan of
Duterte, these counter-insurgency programs have victimized thousands
of Filipinos, including struggling communities, tagged as “enemies of
the State,” she further stated.
Karapatan expressed hope
“that Callamard’s findings about the gravity of political killings in
the Philippines will convince the Duterte government to completely
junk counterinsurgency programs of which EJKs are a major aspect, to
issue strong warnings to and prosecute EJK perpetrators, and continue
to pursue his efforts at attaining just and lasting peace with the
NDFP and the Moro liberation movements.”
Palabay said they are
working with Rise Up, a campaign network of faith-based institutions
and people’s organizations, in preparing similar complaints that will
be filed at the UN on cases of extrajudicial killings in line with the
Duterte administration’s war on drugs.
Karapatan is also in the
process of preparing documentation on other cases of human rights
violations such as illegal arrest and detention of civilians and
activists, forcible evacuation and bombing of communities, which will
be forwarded to relevant mandate holders. The organization also
co-convenes the Philippine UPR Watch, a network of faith-based and
human rights organizations that engages in the UPR process which will
send a delegation of human rights defenders to the UPR this May.