“Accountability rather than blame…reconciliation rather than retribution…peace rather than war”--NCC-Philippines

The National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) together with all in our nation continues to mourn the deaths of those who lost their lives in the tragic conflict in Mamasapano, Maguindanao. We mourn with the grieving families of the PNPSAF (Philippine National Police Special Action Force) members, we weep with the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) families who have lost loved ones, with those elements that the PNP had engaged as force multipliers and with the civilians who were also killed and injured.

Fr. Rex RB. Reyes, Jr., General Secretary of the NCCP said “we join the nation in questioning why our police were so inadequately coordinated and equipped for the encounter they were engaged in, we question why the ceasefire protocols agreed to by the government with the MILF were not respected, we question what role president Aquino had in ordering this tragic operation, and the real reasons behind its prosecution.”

“We find it incomprehensible” said Fr. Reyes “why the Administration of President Aquino, that has so strongly stated it is all for peace, would engage in such an adventurist operation when its plans for a peace settlement were at such a critical stage.” Fr Reyes said that “we are outraged that what appears to be a poorly coordinated and ill-conceived operation, has not only resulted in the loss of precious lives on all sides, but has given reason for the voices of those who seek war rather than peace in Mindanao to unfortunately find strength and support.”

The NCCP fears that these events challenge the authenticity of President Aquino’s commitment to peace. Fr Reyes said “We fear that rather than bringing the nation closer to peace, the ineptitude of our President has brought us closer to war.” From the tragic experiences of the past it is clear that the loss of life, the displacement, the loss of livelihoods that would result from any renewed conflict in Mindanao would be even worse than the events that unfolded in the corn fields of Mamasapano, Maguindanao. Fr. Reyes said “We call on all parties to the conflict in Mindanao to do all within their power to pursue peace. We call on our political leaders of all persuasions to seek to calm our nation at this critical time rather than to inflame sentiments of revenge. We call on our president for transparency, honesty and contrition where needed. We pray that there may be accountability rather than blame, there may be reconciliation rather than retribution, and there may be peace rather than war.” “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” (Matt 5:9)



REV. FR. REX RB. REYES, Jr.

General Secretary – NCCP

US, Malacañang should answer for the Mamasapano Disaster—NDFP peace consultants--KARAPATAN

Press Statement

February 4, 2015



US, Malacañang should answer for the Mamasapano Disaster—NDFP peace consultants

http://www.karapatan.org/NDFP+peace+consultants+Mamapaso+incident



Benigno S. Aquino III has been, as usual, very glib (but obviously very evasive) in trying hard to explain the mystery of where the command and responsibility were for the operations of the Special Action Force (SAF) contingent that terribly failed and suffered a big number of its casualties (44 SAF forces killed) in its Mamasapano, Maguindanao operations last January 25. Twelve more SAF forces were wounded in action.


Aside from the SAF casualties, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) also suffered eight casualties and its breakaway group, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) also suffered six casualties. There were also civilian casualties in the Tukanalipao barrio of Mamasapano that was attacked by the SAF forces.

The unusually large, 392-man SAF operations contingent was sent, admittedly with clearance from Malacañang, to arrest the two elements in the U.S. list of "most wanted terrorist" operating in the Philippines, and supposedly reported to have been spotted in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.

That the operation was actually a directly U.S.-commanded one is seen from the fact that it was coursed by the U.S. through Malacañang and spuriously skipped all other lines from the top down to the local level—including the Department of Interior and Local Government that supposedly has supervision over the Philippine National Police (PNP) and its SAF, current PNP leadership and the local police/military commands (including the Western Mindanao Command and 6th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army), all of whom had no knowledge at all of what was going on.

Suspected Malaysian "terrorist" Zulkipli bin Hir (also known as "Marwan") with a $5-million bounty for his head, and a Filipino "terrorist" Basit Usman, with a $2-million bounty for his head, were supposed to be the targets of the 392-man, big-scale police-military operation of the SAF forces that were gathered from various units of the SAF, including from its national headquarters in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City, Metro Manila, for this simple operation.

There is no verification yet of the SAF's boast that their operation succeeded in neutralizing "Marwan", who was supposedly killed in the operation.

What actually happened was that the SAF forces not only utterly failed in their operations, but committed a very big mistake and major violation in entering an area where the MILF forces and their families reside, such that most of the fighting that took place—and that decimated large numbers from the SAF—was actually with the local MILF forces in the area, and also inflicted casualties not only among the MILF forces but also among their civilian families. This, as the area unilaterally intruded into by the SAF attacking forces is part of the territory covered by the MILF's 105th Base Command.

The MILF forces only rightfully acted in their self-defense and the defense of their loved ones and community.

As there were also, in the area, forces of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a breakaway group of the MILF, there was also some fighting between forces of the SAF and the BIFF.

There is now so much flak over who really have been in command at the top level of the SAF's Mamasapano attack—“admittedly" Malacañang, and according to Malacañang, suspended PNP Chief, Police General Alan Purisima. This, even if Purisima's "authority" is questionable because he had for some time already been suspended and replaced for charges of large-scale corruption against him. Purisima's replacement, Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina, has denied any knowledge of the plan and of the actual attack.

Worse, the SAF's Mamasapano attack grossly violated a standing peace talks and ceasefire agreement between the present Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GPH) and the MILF. The GPH, including the PNP and the SAF, should first have communicated and coordinated with the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities and, through this, with the MILF, as required by the already-made peace agreement awaiting legislative approval and the still-continuing peace process between the GPH and the MILF.

As Malacañang has main full local reponsability for the SAF's failed January 25 operations in Mamasapano, Maguindanao and for the casualties such operations inflicted not only on the SAF forces, but also on MILF forces, on the local civilians and others, Malacañang should be made to principally answer for the failed operations, the casualties and the violations of the peace accords and process, and other related negative effects of the SAF operations.

Benigno S. Aquino III has also to answer for the dire and bloody results of his utter puppetry to the U.S., including its negative effects on the GPH-MILF peace process.

A related serious questions that needs to be asked of him and his regime is if he and his regime is really interested in the peace process—not only with the MILF, but also with others including the National Democratic Front of the Philippines(NDFP).

It is the U.S., however, that has been on top of it all and should be made to principally answer and be made to pay for all the violations, intrusions, casualties and other damages.


NDFP Peace Consultants
detained in Camp Bagong Diwa,
Taguig City, Metro Manila

ALAN JAZMINES
EMETERIO ANTALAN
LEOPOLDO CALOZA
TIRSO ALCANTARA
LOIDA MAGPATOC

January 30, 20115
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Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights
2nd Flr. Erythrina Bldg., #1 Maaralin corner Matatag Sts., Central District
Diliman, Quezon City, PHILIPPINES 1101
Telefax: (+63 2) 4354146
Web: http://www.karapatan.org

KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties. It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign.

Statement on the occasion of the International Migrants Day, 18 December 2014

Resist commodification and slavery of migrants,
Dismantle labour export programs

Work towards a development agenda that is truly just and transformative

Statement on the occasion of the International Migrants Day,
18 December 2014

The Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) joins the hundreds of millions of migrants around the world in commemorating the International Migrants Day 2014. As various activities are held to mark this day, it must also be remembered that the declaration of the IMD was brought by the ceaseless struggles of migrants to defend their rights, their wellbeing and their dignity as workers and as human beings.

Over two decades have passed since the United Nations declared the IMD and yet, the condition of migrants remains unchanged. Poverty, unemployment and underemployment, and general displacement still force millions to seek employment and decent living for their families overseas. Meanwhile in receiving countries, migrants remain as marginalized and discriminated, excluded from social protection, and treated as disposable labour and cheap workers.

The economic, social and political offensives of neoliberal globalization has led to more frequent, multiple and serious crisis in the world. Even in the heart if superpower economies like the United States, displacement is rampant and victimizes the working people especially the immigrant communities while trafficking is on the rise as temporary workers programs are institutionalized and expanded.

Notably, international migration increased dramatically in the decades when neoliberal globalization went full-throttle. In 1990, there were 154 million migrants in the world. This increased to 175 million when the neoliberal globalization-driven Millennium Development Goals were formulated and now stands at 232 million after more almost 15 years of the MDGs implementation.

In the midst of the long-running crisis, there is now a move to sugarcoat current labour migration as an engine that can contribute to a country’s development. Through the Global Forum on Migration and Development or the GFMD, the migration for development framework is being advanced by various states – as a way of intensifying labour export for sending countries, and a means to secure the flow of the cheap and flexible labour of migrants.

Such a framework is also now carried in discussions for the world’s post-2015 development agenda. It tries to sanitize the current migration that is forced and commodifies migrants, while also denying the fact that development of a country cannot be achieved through remittances of migrants.

Both in the outcome document of the Open Working Group, tasked to draft the Sustainable Development Goals document for negotiation, and in the synthesized report of the UN Secretary General on the SDGs, migration is packaged as a development strategy with remittance playing a big role in financing development.

This framework, however, aside from not bringing forth genuine development for the people, will only lead to the further commodification of migrants, expansion of the labor export program and intensification of modern-day slavery of foreign workers. This is the framework on migration that neoliberal globalization is advancing together with its other destructive policies of liberalization, deregulation and privatization.

The militant movement of grassroots migrant workers has played a significant role in exposing the migration for development agenda of the GFMD. Initiatives, particularly those led by the International Migrants Alliance or IMA, have demystified the migration or development mantra and delegitimized the GFMD as only servicing the interests of the private sector engaged in the migration business, the sending countries and the labour-receiving governments.

This same movement is steadily growing in the international, regional and national levels. This is also the movement that consistently stands for the right of migrants, wins victories for the rights and wellbeing of migrant workers, and makes the commemoration of the IMD 2014 even more significant and inspiring.

As the world gets ready to firm up the post-2015 development agenda, migrants are again challenged to engage, resist neoliberal dictates on migration and development, and advance development justice as the transformative framework for a development that is based in justice, sustainability and human rights.

With the grassroots movement of migrants strengthening its ranks, the APMM is confident that the movement is ready to face such challenge.

Long live the migrant workers!

Advance development justice!

Resist neoliberal globalization dictates on migration!

Long live international solidarity!

==============================
Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM)
Office Address: G/F, No.2 Jordan Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR

Tel. no.: (852) 2723-7536
Fax no.: (852) 2735-4559
General E-mail: apmm@hknet.com

Jennifer Laude hate crime: Murder most foul, pathetic mendicancy like no other

Press Statement
15 October 2014



We cannot perhaps add anything more to the universal condemnation and loud calls for justice for the grisly murder of Jennifer Laude. There is no legal nor moral justification for an apparent hate crime.

Yet the BS Aquino government is failing us again. It is not standing up for its own people despite the horrible beastly murder. It is simply pathetic to grovel for custody of a suspect just to routinely bring him to justice.

You bellow grandiosely that you have legal jurisdiction over a suspect yet you peep with a whimper over a simple exercise of custody?

And the US is flouting all laws of decency and humanity for its own military interests. Shielding US Marine Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton is unmitigated callousness.

What if it were an American transgender and a Filipino soldier? The latter would be instantly renditioned by the US and thrown overboard from the docks.

The nexus with scandalously one-sided "agreements" that institutionalize and legalize what are essentially master-slave arrangements like the so-called Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) on the one hand, and transgressions against our sovereignty, our laws, our environment, our dignity as a people and as human beings is patent as it is overt, on the other hand.

From Subic to Tubbataha, from Smith to Pemberton: it is one straight path to subservience and docility sanctified by legal gobbledygook and discombobulated by legal hermeneutics.

We told you so. These and other outrageous things are bound to happen. And will happen again.

But we will tell you again and again and again and again. Until lowly life forms camouflaged in elegant uniforms are brought to us for reckoning. Until you respect us as a people. Until you treat us as human beings. #

Reference:

Edre U. Olalia
NUPL Secretary General
+639175113373

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National Secretariat
National Union of Peoples' Lawyers (NUPL)
3F Erythrina Bldg., Maaralin corner Matatag Sts. Central District,Quezon City, Philippines
Telefax no.920-6660
Email addresses: nupl2007@gmail.com and nuplphilippines@yahoo.com
Follow us on twitter @nuplphilippines and facebook @https://www.facebook.com/nuplphilippines
Visit the NUPL website at http://www.nupl.net/

Unequal US-PH military agreements license to violate people’s rights

Press Statement
October 14, 2014

Reference: Cristina “Tinay” Palabay, Secretary General, +63917-3162831
Angge Santos, Media Liaison, +63918-9790580



http://www.karapatan.org/Unequal+US-PH+military+agreements+VFA-EDCA+license+to+violate+people%E2%80%99s+rights+Jennifer+Laude

“The killing of transgender woman Jennifer Laude by a US serviceman is the most recent vivid violation of people’s rights, a consequence of lopsided military agreements between the US and the Philippine governments. The US-RP Military Bases Agreement to the Visiting Forces Agreement and the US-GPH Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement have become licenses for numerous gross transgressions, especially on the rights of Filipino women and children,” said Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general.

An online US-based news site, www.marinecorpstimes.com cited an internal US Navy memorandum identified the perpetrator as a US Marine deployed to the Philippines as part of the Balikatan joint military training exercise. The suspect, whose identity is kept from the public, and three other Marines are in the custody of US Navy officials since Sunday.

The Balikatan joint military exercise is a component of the Visiting Forces Agreement which in effect ensures the permanent, albeit rotational, presence of the US troops in the country. “The newly signed EDCA ensures the increased and permanent presence of US military troops, anywhere and everywhere in the Philippines, at the expense of the Filipino people, both monetarily and in relation to our sovereignty and territorial integrity,” she said.

Palabay warned that the “issue of jurisdiction and custody over the case may go the way of all previous cases where criminal accountability of US soldiers in Philippine territory were exonerated under the pretext of the MBA and the VFA.”

She stated that in 1987, a US serviceman stationed in the US base on Olongapo and accused in the rape of 12-year old Rosario Baluyot was “whisked out of the country to avoid prosecution.” The child later died from sepsis because parts of a vibrator that was inserted in her vagina remained stuck for seven months.

The rape of “Nicole” by US Marine Daniel Smith in 2005 was the first case where a member of the US military was tried, convicted and sentenced for a crime on Philippine territory. However, the local court ruling on the landmark case was overturned when Smith was secretly transferred from the Makati City Jail to the US Embassy’s custody in 2006.

“In both cases, the issue of US government custody on the perpetrators from the US military was invoked,” Palabay added.

“We call on the Filipino people to assert the country’s sovereignty and jurisdiction over the case, including custody and investigation of the perpetrator, and his prosecution. We demand justice and accountability. We call for the immediate junking of the VFA and the EDCA, which are threats to the Filipino people’s liberty and security,” she concluded. ###

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Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights
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Diliman, Quezon City, PHILIPPINES 1101
Telefax: (+63 2) 4354146
Web: http://www.karapatan.org

A CALL FOR PRAYER IN PIKIT, A CALL FOR PRAYER FOR PEACE

Show the World that we, as people--whether Christian, Muslim or Lumad, long for Peace

Press Statement

A CALL FOR PRAYER IN PIKIT, A CALL FOR PRAYER FOR PEACE

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”     Jesus (Matt. 5:43-44)

Last Wednesday, during the Midweek Prayer service, an M203 grenade was fired inside the UCCP-Pikit in Pikit, North Cotabato, resulting in the death of two of our worshiping members and caused injuries to several others. Two men riding in tandem aboard a motorcycle were seen speeding away from the church immediately after the bombing.

As this time, there is no evidence as to who were responsible and what their motives were. There are theories and speculations but no concrete proof as of yet.

In times like this, when emotions and passion tend to run high, we call for sobriety. Let us avoid speculations and a rush to judgment that are unwarranted and which may just lead to further escalation of tension and of violence.

In times like this when are are in the dark and do not know for certain who the perpetrators are, our best recourse is prayer. Prayer has always been the best refuge for believers, whether Christians, Muslims or of other faiths. Our God does not slumber or sleep and hears the cries of the oppressed.

One thing that unites us, whether Christians, Muslims or Lumads, is our high respect for houses of worship. Time and again those who work against peace and who would turn the conflict into a religious war have violated holy places by violence. This is totally unacceptable and should not be tolerated nor countenanced by any group or religion. As in the past, we have called on our churches as sanctuaries of peace and have protested the putting up of detachments and camps in places of worship.

We are heartened in this hour of our grief, that as we condemn the attack on our church in the strongest term possible, that Muslim leaders in the area have joined us in condemning this despicable act.

Our Muslim brothers and sisters in the area are fully aware of the inter-faith and ecumenical posture of our Church and how our Church people and institutions, like the Southern Christian College, had been in the forefront of promoting peace in Mindanao.

This may be an opportune time to show to the world that we, as a people - whether Christians, Muslims or Lumads - long for peace by calling for an inter-faith, tri-people prayer rally for unity, justice and peace.

I ask our leaders in Mindanao, from Bishops to Conference Ministers and local church leaders to consider doing so. I call on our ecumenical and inter-faith partners to consider doing so.

I urge all our local churches throughout the Philippines to designate a time in their worship services this Sunday to remember those who died and those who are in need of healing and to pray for peace as well as for justice for the victims and comfort for their families.

We continue to implore on the authorities to speed up their investigations and to leave no stones unturned to bring the perpetrators to account for their crime. We call on witnesses to this dastardly act to surface and to cooperate with investigators.

Let us pray for God’s comfort upon those whose loved ones have perished. To the families of Felomena Nacario-Ferolin and Gina Cabiluna, we lift you up in prayer that God’s consoling presence dwell with you in these difficult times. For those who were injured, that God would heal your wounds, both physical and emotional. For those who have done this cowardly act, while you may escape human justice, you can never escape God’s judgment.

Let us pray for our beloved country that peace and justice may soon inhabit the land, where there is an end to senseless violence and injustice, and where instruments of violence may be converted into tools for the well-being of its people.

(Sgd.) Bishop REUEL NORMAN O. MARIGZA

UCCP General Secretary

Interviews may be arranged through Media Liaison Rebecca Lawson, 0919-828-9514

Chuseok holidays 2014 and Seokcho beac

https://plus.google.com/106930013618771461276/stories/851f1110-45c2-381a-91ad-c76c951f327514883119b7b?authkey=CK7IzsOl6KaE3gE