HUMAN RIGHTS

Finding justice for Leonard Co

PROMETHEUS BOUND
By Giovanni Tapang, Ph.D.

I failed to beat the deadline for the column last week as I was attending the hearing of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) on the killing of Leonard Co, Sofronio Cortez and Julio Borromeo in Tacloban last week. The military, the Energy Development Corp., the Philippine National Police, the NBI, the families and lawyers of the victims and groups under the Justice for Leonard Co Movement were in attendance. The CHR hearings ran for two days and a third hearing is yet to be set to listen to the rest of the resource persons.

As of Tuesday last week, the family of Leonard Co filed a complaint-affidavit with the Department of Justice (DOJ) that accuses 38 members of the 19th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army of murder. This stemmed from the November 15 killing of renowned ethno-botanist Co, forest guide Sofronio Cortez and farmer Julio Borromeo in Kananga, Leyte.

The filing of this complaint followed the DOJ fact-finding team report that cleared the Armed Forces of the Philippines of wrongdoing in the killing of the three. The Justice for Leonard Co Movement raised a protest and called on Secretary Leila de Lima to junk and review the said report. The groups assailed the DOJ report saying that it is riddled with jumps in logic, omissions of fact, and twisted statements.

Reviewing the facts of the killing as reported by the DOJ and comparing it with the results of our own fact finding mission, we see that the DOJ report was being selective and employed double standards to deduce conclusions from the witnesses’ statements and the evidence made available by the military.

The DOJ report disregarded the fact that survivors Ronino Gibe and Policarpio Balute said that military was the only armed group in the area at the time of the killing. Instead, the report gave undue credence to the military’s claim that there was a crossfire and concluded that there were indeed New People’s Army (NPA) members in the area and there was a firefight without independently verifying these claims.

The trees bear witness that Co and his companions were shot from the military side, as there was no bullet marks from the alleged NPA side according to the AGHAM-led fact-finding mission results. The direction of the gunfire from the alleged NPA side as alleged by the DOJ panel is also not supported by the testimony of the survivors. The DOJ report said that there were bullet trajectories coming from the lower ground to the higher vantage point of the military. It also mentioned that the NBI located the enemy position of the military at 41 meters away.

Basing on the geography of the area, the tree where Leonard and his team were standing around when they were shot is 30 to 40 meters away from the military’s ridge position. We did not see any bullet trajectory marks on the trees from the lower ground to the higher vantage point of the military. Leonard’s position was actually the lower ground relative to the nearby surroundings. Beyond Leonard’s position is a steady upward slope. To one side is a rock wall and the other is part of the EDC geothermal complex.

The volume of fire from the ridge area was directed mainly towards the direction where Leonard Co and his group was standing. This can be interpreted that the main target was Leonard and his companions and none other. What was also clear from the CHR hearing, according to the testimony of Dr. Racquel Fortun and the PNP ballistics comparison tests, was that there were bullets fired from the guns assigned to the military on the lower ground with their shells found at locations approaching that of Leonard and company.

The DOJ report was also silent on the fact that the military had the opportunity to clear and control the site for a full 23 hours after the shooting. The PNP SOCO team was able to gain access to the site only at 11 a.m. of the following day. The burden is on the military to show that nothing happened to the evidence during this intervening time. Where are the slugs and shells of rest of the 245 bullets that the military had fired?

With the filing of the complaint-affidavit, the process of preliminary investigation towards a murder charge against the military has started.

This effectively sets aside the earlier NBI-DOJ report. Sec. De Lima assured the family of Leonard Co that a new panel will be constituted for the preliminary investigation and all the evidence that will be submitted and obtained by this panel will have to be taken with a fresh view.

The movement to seek justice for Leonard Co, Sofronio Cortez and Julius Borromeo goes beyond seeking redress for their deaths. It is a movement to stop the impunity that shaped the mindset of the military that resulted in the death of the Kananga 3. It should also look into the policies such as Oplan Bantay Laya and now Oplan Bayanihan that makes impunity a daily terror in our midst.

prom.bound@agham.org

Short URL: http://www.manilatimes.net/?p=91

U.S. House member expresses concern over political killings

Rep. Joseph Courtney of the U.S. House of Representatives has expressed concern over the spate of extra-judicial killings that continues under President Benigno S. Aquino III. A member of the powerful Armed Services Committee, Courtney said that although the Philippines is “a friend and …I strongly believe that we cannot tolerate the unacceptable human rights conditions.”

Courtney’s statement was contained in a letter he wrote to Epifanio San Juan, Jr. San Juan, Jr. is a Filipino-American literary academic, writer, and poet and a director of the Philippines Cultural Studies in Connecticut. In 1999, San Juan, Jr. received the Centennial Award for Achievement in Literature from the Cultural Center of the Philippines because of his contributions to Filipino and Filipino American Studies. The U.S. Congress has taken note of the political killings in the Philippines reminding the former Arroyo government that military aid will be contingent on human rights record performance. Representative Courtney’s letter follows:

August 13, 2010

Dear Epifanio,

Thank you for contacting me regarding human rights concerns in the Philippines. I appreciate your comments and having the benefit of your views.

As you know, the level of political violence in the Philippines is very troubling. Human rights groups have documented more than 800 cases of extrajudicial killings since 2001, including religious workers, labor leaders, farmers, journalists and students. It is estimated that pre-election violence claimed at least 50 victims before the May 2010 national elections. Ongoing violence between the Philippine armed forces and Muslim separatist groups has continued to increase the death toll.

In response to the human rights crisis, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo created the "Melo Commission" to investigate the human rights atrocities. In January 2008, the Commission filed an initial report that has found the Filipino military and police force accountable for the extrajudicial killings. The United Nations has also stated the Filipino military is in "almost total denial" regarding the human rights situation. Newly elected President Benigno Aquino III has vowed to fight corruption and end the conflict with separatist groups peacefully. In June 2010, President Aquino announced the creation of a 'Truth Commission' to investigate allegations of corruption and human rights abuse which occurred during former President Arroyo's nine year presidency.

You may be interested to learn that Representative Edward Royce of California introduced H.Res.1435, which condemns the recent violence against members of the media in the Philippines, on July 21, 2010. This resolution recognizes the ongoing violence and murder of members of the media, particularly those known for investigating corruption and political issues. Over 65 members of the media have been murdered in the past 20 years, while only 5 of these murder cases obtained convictions. This lack of convictions and the ongoing media intimidation prevents the Philippines from establishing true freedom of speech. This legislation was referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, where it awaits further consideration.

The Philippines is a friend and ally of the United States, but I strongly believe that we cannot tolerate the unacceptable human rights conditions as experienced under the previous administration in the Philippines. In Fiscal Year 2009, the United States provided $138 million in grant funding to promote peace and encourage economic development. Please be assured that I share your concerns and will continue to monitor President Aquino's investigations into human rights abuses.

Again, thank you for sharing your views on this issue with me. Should you have any additional comments or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact me in the future. For more information on my work in Congress, please visit my website at courtney.house.gov and sign up for my e-newsletter at courtney.house.gov/forms/emailsignup. You can also connect with me at facebook.com/joecourtney or receive updates from twitter.com/connecticutjoe.

Sincerely,

JOSEPH COURTNEY 
Member of Congress

Karapatan urges Aquino gov’t: Release all political prisoners now 

By Kristine L. Alave
Philippine Daily Inquirer;  02/13/2011

As the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines resume the formal peace negotiations on Tuesday, the left-wing human rights group Karapatan is urging the Aquino government to release all political prisoners in the country.

Karapatan spokesperson Jigs Clamor said in a statement on Sunday that this would be a “gesture of goodwill” at the opening of the talks.

“If President Aquino could grant amnesty to mutinous soldiers, why couldn’t he grant the release of all political prisoners who fought injustices and oppression? In the interest of fairness and justice, they should be freed immediately and unconditionally,” Clamor said.

Formal negotiations between the government and the communist rebels will resume on February 15-21 in Oslo, Norway, six years since the Arroyo administration suspended negotiations with the NDFP.

There are 344 political prisoners scattered all over the country, according to Clamor. Most of them, 290, were detained during the administration of President Arroyo. Of the total number, 27 were arrested before Arroyo and another 27 since the start of President Aquino’s presidency.

According to Clamor, at least 14 political prisoners are in the initial list of the NDFP peace consultants covered by the Joint Agreement on Security and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), and at least two prisoners are being considered as members of the NDFP peace process: Ramon Patriarca of Central Visayas and Leopoldo Caloza of Nueva Ecija

Alexander Padilla, chairman of the government panel committed “to work for the expeditious release of detained NDFP consultants and other JASIG-protected persons” during the preliminary talks held last January 14-18 in Oslo, Norway.