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According to the study commissioned by UNICEF and peformed by Ibon Philippines, an independent think tank, and non-governmental organizations Children Rehabilitation Center and the Center for Women Resources, the Philippine government and the armed forces of the Philippines counter-insurgency operations committed 800 human rights violations against children from 2001 to 2006.
The report, which is contained in the book "Uncounted Lives: Children, Women and Conflict in the Philippines," said that 215,233 children were victimized in the military counter-insuregncy operations against communist guerillas and Moro secessionists. Up to 215,060 children were forcibly evacuated from rural communities as a result of the government's all-out fight against armed political groups during the same period.
The UNICEF report said 10 children had disappeared, 40 were maimed, 17 were subjected to different types of torture, eight were raped and sexually molested or harassed, 51 children were victims of illegal search and seizure, 63 minors were illegally arrested and detained, 40 children were victims of physical assault and injury, and 196 were victims of threats and intimidation by the military. The study was conducted in eight communities in eight provinces.
Prior to the release of the UNICEF report on Nov. 27, U.N. Special Rapporteur Philip Alston said in a report that elements of the armed forces of the Philippines had killed leftist activists as part of the government campaign against communist insurgents.
The Australian academician commissioned by the U.N. Human Rights Council to look into the spate of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines said the accusations of the Philippine government and its military that the killings were a result of internal purges in the communist ranks is strikingly unconvincing.
In his final report, the U.N. rapporteur dismissed theories that the killings were carried out by communist groups to eliminate spies and discredit the government. While acknowledging that the Communist Party of the Philippines does commit killings, sometimes dressing them up as revolutionary justice, Alston asserted there was no evidence that the party's armed political wing, the New People's Army, was engaged in a large-scale purge.
Alston, a professor of law at New York Univesity, said in some parts of the country the Philippine military had followed a strategy of systematically hunting down the leaders of leftist organizations. He said the executions had eliminated civil society leaders including human rights defenders, trade union leaders and land reform advocates, intimidated a vast number of civil society actors, and narrowed the country's political discourse.
The Alston report confirmed the studies and views of human rights groups including the Manila-based Karapatan, or Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights, the National Union of Peoples' Lawyers, Amnesty International, the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch, and others.
The human rights group Karapatan said that as of October this year a total of 887 leftwing activists, journalists, church people, lawyers and opposition forces had been summarily executed by the Macapagal-Arroyo government since it took power in 2001. A total of 187 activists were reportedly abducted by agents of the state during the same period.
Also coinciding with the release of the Alston report, the fisherfolk alliance Pamalakaya presented a 10-page report on the Philippines to delegates from more than 20 nations at the Fourth General Assembly of the World Forum of Fisher Peoples, which took place in Negombo, Sri Lanka from Nov. 29-Dec. 3. The militant group said the Filipino people are suffering extreme poverty and are in danger of political annihilation.
"The terrorist president and her national security syndicate are behind the killings of 887 political activists and the disappearance of 187 activists over the last six years. She and her military are responsible for the brutal murder of 14 Pamalakaya leaders since this government assumed political power in 2001," the Pamalakaya country report said.
The United Nations and its Human Rights Council are morally obliged to distribute Alston's report to the international community and make sure that the 66-page report on the human rights situation in the Philippines is made available to leaders and members of the diplomatic community.
The fact that the international community is misinformed about the present human rights situation in the Philippines was evident at a recent event when Spanish King Juan Carlos I hailed Arroyo for championing human rights in the Philippines. In the same vein, the Alcala de Henares University in Spain bestowed upon the Philippine president the Medalla de Oro, or Gold Medal, for promoting human rights in the country. This is an insult to the collective intelligence of 87 million Filipinos and aware members of the international community.
The United Nations must put the Philippine government in the roster of top human rights violators in the world. It should take decisive action to compel the government and its military to refrain from committing crimes against humanity and uphold the basic human rights and civil liberties of the Filipino people, including those in areas of armed conflict.
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(Gerry Albert Corpuz is a correspondent of Bulatlat.com, an alternative Philippine online news site. He is also the head of the information department of Pamalakaya, a national federation of small fisherfolk organizations in the Philippines. His website is www.gerryalbertcorpuz.motime.com, and he can be contacted at themanager98@yahoo.com. ©Copyright Gerry Albert Corpuz.)
