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Rural-based groups – led by the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, the fisherfolk alliance Pamalakaya and the Amihan peasant women’s federation – assembled a press conference in Quezon City asking the U.N. Human Rights Council to compel the Arroyo government to enforce the U.N. pact against torture, asserting that the Philippines is known across the globe as one of the nations with the most dismal human rights record.
They argued that Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who signed the U.N. agreement against torture last April, must be obliged to honor the pact and proceed with its implementation without delay, given the current state of human rights in the country.
The groups said Malacañang’s move to defer implementation of the U.N. convention for three to five years suggests that Arroyo is not really interested in keeping her promise to end torture and other forms of inhumane punishment.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the government is seeking a three-to-five-year deferment to ensure that the country can completely comply with the obligations stipulated in the pact.
However, during the press conference, Danilo Ramos of the KMP and Fernando Hicap of Pamalakaya asked, “How can you expect a government which champions the use of torture as an instrument to punish political activists who are highly critical of the state, and which has an extremely brutal military and police establishment, to honor the U.N. anti-torture pact?”
Both Ramos and Hicap, who suffered harassment from military and security agents, said the government will not honor the U.N. pact against torture because it would go against the policies of Malacañang, the military, the police and the National Security Council to employ torture to extract information from so-called enemies of the state and political opponents of the Arroyo administration.
As per data provided by human rights watchdog Karapatan or the Alliance for the Advance of People’s Rights, many of the 910 victims of extrajudicial killings and 195 forced disappearances since 2001 were first physically and mentally tortured by military agents before being liquidated or abducted by government security forces.
They urged the U.N. to ensure that the Philippine government will honor its obligations to stop the military and police from using torture to extract information or punish political opponents, rather than grant the government’s request for deferral.
Other Filipino human rights groups agreed that implementation of the anti-torture pact is necessary. Karapatan reminded the U.N. Human Rights Council that 36 years after the imposition of martial law by strongman Ferdinand Marcos, Filipino activists and the public still feel that martial law is in effect under the Arroyo government and used as a means to punish the opposition and carry the president to power beyond 2010.
At a gathering last week of veteran anti-martial law activists known as First Quarter Storm activists in the 1970's and now in their early sixties said, nothing has really changed in the country’s political landscape under the current leadership of Arroyo, suggesting that the present situation is comparable to, if not worse than the dark years of Marcos’ dictatorship.
Marie Hilao-Enriquez, secretary general of Karapatan and one of the anti-martial law activists, said the use of torture has been institutionalized by the military and police establishment in dealing with critics of the government. “Aside from those who were tortured and harassed by the government, millions of people were either displaced or forcibly evacuated as a result of the government’s all-out campaign in Mindanao,” she said.
Karapatan also said many of the 9,359 victims of human rights violations during the martial law era who filed a class action suit against the Marcoses are impoverished and, worse, sick and dying.
The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan said Arroyo not only revived cases against those incarcerated during the Marcos regime, she also fabricated trumped-up charges to ensure that anti-Marcos activists would be sent back to jail. Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. cited the case of 60-year-old peasant leader Randall Echanis, one of the deputy secretary generals of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, who is currently detained in the Manila City jail, allegedly for 15 counts of murder fabricated by the Arroyo government. Reyes noted that Echanis has been in detention since January. He was also jailed by Marcos in the early 1980s and now faces the same fate under the Arroyo government.
Echanis’ son, Ranmill Echanis, said Arroyo is politically, legally and morally obliged to release his father and 217 other political prisoners across the country. The young Echanis said 198 of the current 218 political prisoners were incarcerated for false charges under the Arroyo administration and that all these prisoners were tortured to various degrees.
The Arroyo government has been telling the world that democracy in the Philippines is healthy and vibrant, adding that the human rights situation in the country is improving and should not be compared with the brutal record of the Marcos dictatorship. What is not spoken about is the widespread and institutionalized use of torture to teach the government’s critics the lesson of a lifetime.
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(Gerry Albert Corpuz is a correspondent of Bulatlat.com, an alternative Philippine online news site. He is also 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.)
