The families of missing University of the Philippines students as well as human rights groups celebrated when the Regional Trial Court in Malolos City, Bulacan found retired Army Major General Jovito Palparan guilty of kidnapping and serious illegal detention Monday, September 17. Cheers erupted when those gathered outside the courthouse were informed of the verdict […]
Rights group supports int’l tribunal on Duterte’s crimes vs Filipino people
On September 18-19, 2018, the International People’s Tribunal (IPT) will be convened in Brussels to try various cases of civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights violations perpetrated by the Duterte government. The IPT is organized by the the European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights (ELDH), Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL), IBON International, and the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP). The IPT’s verdict will be submitted to the International Criminal Court (ICC), European Parliament, and the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
Human rights victims want Duterte guilty in international court
“Disyembre 2016 noong sinabi ni Pangulong Duterte na huling Pasko na ‘yun para sa mga adik. Hindi ko inasahang kasama pala ang anak ko sa tinutukoy niya,” recalled Emily Soriano in a press conference in Quezon City on September 17. Emily is the mother of 16-year-old drug war victim Angelito Soriano.
(It was in December 2016 when President Duterte said that that Christmas would be the last for drug addicts. Never would I have thought that my son would be one of those he was referring to.)
Angelito was among seven people killed in a Tokhang police operation in Caloocan City on December 28, 2016. Emily recounted how she had been saving up for a toy gun to give Angelito for Christmas. He had wanted to be a soldier. He had no record of using drugs.
“Napakasakit para sa isang ina na mawalan ng anak, lalo na ‘yung anak ko na punong-puno ng pangarap,” Emily said.
Emily is one of many complainants who will be giving her testimony against President Rodrigo Duterte at the International People’s Tribunal to be convened on September 18 to 19 in Brussels, Belgium.
Before a panel of jurors coming from different countries and legal backgrounds, human rights victims and basic sectors represented by Filipino mass organizations will put Duterte, in collaboration with the US government represented by Donald Trump, under trial for ‘crimes against the Filipino people’.
These crimes are what the IPT has grouped as violations of: (1) civil and political rights; (2) economic, social, and cultural rights; and (3) national sovereignty, development, and international humanitarian law.
The IPT is a global court convened by the European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights, Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, International Association of Democratic Lawyers, IBON International, and the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines.
Countless crimes
What Duterte described in his third State of the Nation Address as more ‘relentless and chilling’ is seen as state-perpetrated ‘mass murder’ by IPT complainants. The crackdown against illegal narcotics, Oplan Tokhang, has claimed the lives of 23,000 people, mostly coming from underprivileged sectors. Another government oplan, so-called counterinsurgency program Oplan Kapayapaan, also has 160 cases of extrajudicial killing under its name.
Representatives of Moro and indigenous peoples will also file cases for violations committed under martial law in Mindanao. “Ang mga kasong inihapag sa mga korte dito sa Pilipinas ay hindi gumugulong. Imbes na nababawasan, nadadagdagan ang bilang ng mga pinapatay na Moro,” said Suara Bangsamoro chairperson Jerome Aba.
(Cases filed in Philippine courts are stagnating. Instead of a decrease, there is an increase in the number of Moro people being killed.)
Aba cited the massacre of seven Tausug youths on September 14 in Patikul, Sulu, who were mistakenly identified by troops of the Philippine Army Scout Rangers as members of the Abu Sayyaf Group.
Aba himself is also a victim of discrimination on grounds of religion when he was entering the US through the San Francisco International Airport in April.
Under martial rule in the Philippines’ southernmost island, rights group Karapatan has documented 49 cases of extrajudicial killing; 22 cases of torture; 89 cases of illegal arrest and detention; and cases of indiscriminate firing and aerial bombardment, victimizing 336,124 individuals.
The complainants will also file cases of political persecution and repression, as what fell on former justice secretary and current senator Leila de Lima; foreign missionary Sr. Patricia Fox; members of the press and media groups; and the more than 500 political prisoners around the country. Included in the list of political prisoners are Rafael Baylosis, Maoj Maga, and Bob Reyes, all labor activists and trade union leaders.
Representatives from the workers sector will also be present at the IPT to detail the Duterte government’s violations of economic rights, such as the right to just wages and the right to strike. The panel of jurors will hear testimonies from NutriAsia workers, Sumifru banana plantation workers, as well as members of transport group PISTON.
Other violations of economic, social, and cultural rights are the imposition of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law; labor-only contracting; landlessness and harassment of peasants; negligence over the plight of distressed overseas workers; lack of decent mass housing; and misogyny demonstrated by no less than the President himself.
Violations of international humanitarian law and the right to indigenous peoples’ self-determination include the massacre of seven National Democratic Front personnel in August; cases of attacks on schools leading to closure by state forces; and airstrikes in different indigenous communities.
“The continuing impunity of killings, state violence, and other crimes against the Filipino people compel us to file these cases against the regime. The judicial system itself is under attack in the Philippines. Hence, an impartial tribunal recognized internationally can serve as moral suasion to stop the attacks and make the regime accountable for its crimes,” Teddy Casiño of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) said in a statement.
What next?
Should the government represented by Duterte be found guilty or not guilty of the above-stated charges, the IPT will forward the verdict to courts of law, such as the International Criminal Court. While Duterte announced the Philippines’ withdrawal from the ICC under the Rome Statute, the Court’s rules do not recognize the pull-out of any state until after one year from receiving the notice of withdrawal.
Meanwhile, rights groups in the Philippines are calling on Filipinos to participate in a Martial Law commemoration protest in Rizal (Luneta) Park on September 21.
“Hanggang kailan tayo magtitiis na puro patayan at gutom? Ayaw po naming manahimik, kaya handa na kaming magsalita at magsampa ng kaso,” Emily said.
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DAMnation
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Duterte, Trump to face trial before int’l tribunal for ‘crimes vs Filipino people’
PHILIPPINE President Rodrigo Duterte and US President Donald Trump are set to face trial for “crimes against the Filipino people” before the International People’s Tribunal (IPT 2018), which will convene in Brussels, Belgium from September 18 to 19.
IPT 2018 is a global court that will be convened by various international organizations such as the European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights, International Association of Democratic Lawyers, IBON International, among others.
“IPT 2018 seeks to indict the US-Duterte regime for crimes against the Filipino people. It is a regime that has killed thousands with impunity and unleashed an unjust war on the people. This tribunal is a vital part of the Filipino people’s growing resistance to tyranny, fascism, militarism, foreign intervention, and war of aggression,” said Jigs Clamor, deputy-secretary general of Karapatan, one of the complainants.
According to the IPT 2018 organizers, the global court sources its legitimacy from “the people as the primordial source of authority and power of all courts – international or local.” The tribunal, the organizers said, is composed of “leading public figures of recognized achievements and high moral stature who will come up with a verdict based on a thorough and fair assessment of evidences, and in line with the applicable legal standards.”
The jurors’ panel include legal luminaries and known international human rights advocates, including Monica Moorehead, co-coordinator of the International Working Women’s Day Coalition in New York City; Ties Prakken, professor of criminal law at Maastricht University in The Netherlands; Sarojeni Rengam of Malaysia; Azadeh Shahshahani of Iran, former president of the national Lawyers’ Guild of the US; Dr. Gianni Tognoni of Italy, secretary general of the Permanent People’s Tribunal; Roland Weyl of France, dean of the Paris Bar, among others.
The verdict from the IPT 2018 will be submitted to the International Criminal Court (ICC), the European Parliament, and the United Nations Human Rights Council as a “case against the US-backed Duterte regime”.
Crimes against the Filipino people
Karapatan, along with Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) and other local organizations will raise a total of 21 cases in the IPT 2018, which include the Duterte administration’s “violations on economic, social and cultural rights, violations on civil and political rights, and violations on the right to self-determination.”
The civil and political rights violations include the “mass murder of more than 23,000 poor Filipinos through the brutal war on drugs, and more than 160 extra-judicial killings mostly of peasant and indigenous leaders,” Karapatan said in a statement.
Trumped-up charges against leaders, activists and critics, including that of Senator and former justice secretary Leila de Lima, media repression, the deportation of Sr. Patricia Fox and other foreign missionaries, and the detention of more than 500 political prisoners are also included in the charges.
Meanwhile, economic, social, and cultural rights violations include the administration’s continued implementation of policies including “labor-only contractualization and union busting, landlessness and harassment of poor peasants, misogyny and abuse of women, negligence of overseas workers in distress, imposition of anti-poor economic policies like the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law, and the absence of decent housing for the urban poor.”
Violations of international humanitarian law and the peoples’ rights to national self-determination and development include the “attacks on 226 indigenous peoples’ schools in Mindanao by the AFP, PNP and the Department of Education; bombings and airstrikes of indigenous communities in Malibcong, Abra in March 2017; the massacre of seven personnel of the National Democratic Front (NDF) in August 2018; and the intervention of the US military and government in the Philippines.
Sultan Hamidullah Atar of Marawi City will also testify in the IPT 2018 to prosecute Pres. Duterte for “crimes committed against the Moro and the Filipino people.”
Sultan Atar will be testifying about the human rights violations committed by the Duterte regime to the Meranaws during the Marawi City siege, and the declaration of Martial Law in Mindanao.
Suara Bangasamoro Chairperson Jerome Succor Aba will also testify on the charges regarding religious discrimination, arbitrary detention and torture committed against him by agents of US Department of Homeland Security and US Customs and Border Patrol last April.
Aba said they will also bring up the massacre of seven Tausug youth on September 14, 2018 in Patikul, Sulu. State military forces were allegedly behind the massacre.
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Rights victims file raps vs Duterte at international tribunal
MANILA — Various people’s organizations led by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) and Karapatan announced at a press conference today that victims of rights violations will testify before the International Peoples’ Tribunal (IPT2018) on September 18-19 in Brussels, Belgium to indict Presidents Rodrigo Duterte and Donald Trump “for crimes against the Filipino people.”
Palparan’s conviction is a step forward for justice
“We welcome the court’s decision to convict Palparan for the charges of kidnapping and serious illegal detention of disappeared University of the Philippines (UP) students Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan. This is a step forward for justice, though partial for so long as Karen and Sherlyn remain missing and numerous other violations remain unresolved,” said Karapatan deputy secretary general Roneo Clamor.
GUILTY!: ‘Butcher’ Palparan, 2 others face life imprisonment
Retired Army Major General Jovito Palparan faces life imprisonment after being found guilty of kidnapping and serious illegal detention for the 2006 disappearance of University of the Philippines UP students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño. In today’s long-awaited promulgation, Branch 15 of the Malolos Regional Trial Court found the notorious Philippine Army officer guilty of […]