vonjobi: wow, congratulations! kelan ang trip? i hope i'll be around when you come. had a good time with diosa last...
Keith Bacongco: Knowing Nograles and his Big Boss...garapalan na lang talaga.
Vinia Datinguinoo Mukherjee: Congratulations, PCIJ! Mabuhay kayo!
Lead Philippines: But without credible mass media there, what is left to protect the people..?
vonjobi: it's juned sOniDo.

Latest Message 5 months ago

hopeless_race : Lets not just focus sa mga malversation of funds, sa mga overpricing..ating pagtuunan ng atensyon ang diskarte ng mga politiko na umuutang ng bilyon bilyon sa gobyerno."Small time" ang ibang pamamaraan ng pangungurakot kumpara sa pag-utang sa gobyerno ng bilyon na tunay ngang masasabing "pinaka big-time" at wala pang sabit.
hopeless_race : Mukhang tikom ang bibig ng lahat pagdating sa diskarte ng mga politiko sa pagutang ng mga bilyon bilyon sa gobyerno na tinatakbuhan. Itong pamamaraan na ito ang tunay na kumakain ng malaking porsyento ng ating national budget batay na din sa sinasabi ng world bank.
hopeless_race : Pakisilip naman po ang mga utang ni Villar sa BSP, ang mga utang nila RAMON JACINTO, RONNIE ZAMORA, JOE DE VENECIA at madami pang ibang mga pulitiko. Iilan lamang yan sa mga nababanggit sa balita na may mga malalaking utang sa gobyerno.
hopeless_race : Nagmimistulang "small time" lamang ang malversation of funds kumpara sa laki ng kinakamal ng mga umuutang sa gobyerno. At ito ay malinaw na natatakbuhan dahil hindi nga naman pwede makulong ang may-ari ng kumpanya sa pagkaka-utang lamang. Tunay na mga tuso at magagaling sa batas itong mga politiko natin. Masasabi ko na malamang lahat ng mga politiko ganito ang diskarte...wala pang kulong.
hopeless_race : PCIJ pkitingnan naman po ang mga gaya ni Villar na my malaking utang sa Gobyerno pero tinatakbuhan. Magtatayo ng kumpanya at uutang ng bilyon bilyon sa gobyerno ng walang balak bayaran. Tunay ngang walang nakukulong sa utang...ito ang prinsipyo ginagamit ng mga politiko ntin kaya nakakapagtaka kung san napupunta ang daang bilyong pera ng gobyerno.
hopeless_race : Sana itreat naman po ng media ang hacienda luisita at mendiola massacre na parang MAGUINADANAO MASSACRE. Ipublicized ang mga katotohanan at ipakita sa tao ang karumaldumal na pinaggagawa sa mga farmers dun. Untouchable po ba sila cory at danding at hindi magawang batikusin ng media about these two massacres?
hopeless_race : Kapag napaguusapan ang mendiola at hacienda luisita massacre ay parang walang nangyari at parang hindi big deal. Anu po ba ang pinagkaiba ng dalawang nabanggit na massacre sa maguindanao massacre?
hopeless_race : Its sad that we pinoys are blind to the fact of what had happened in mendiola and hacienda luisita. Ang tanong..bakit ang media ay hindi manlang matackle ang ganitong usapin? Takot ba sila kay cory at danding?
hopeless_race : Wilkins" brand, for P1.4 billion.-1999 Sugarland Multi-Food Corp. for P2.9 billion 2001- Purefoods Corp P7 billion P60 billion Coca-Cola ... See More 2002- Cosmos Bottling Corp. from RFM Corp. for P14.1 billion October 2008- GSIS' shares in Meralco worth PHP30 Billion. December 2008- country's biggest oil refiner, Petron Corporation. international company shopping spree: Australian boutique brewer J. Boag and Son for A$96 million in 2000. $97 million for Thai Amarit Brewery Ltd $35.5 mi
hopeless_race : Gud am..glad to be back.
jr_lad : rip mr. alecks pabico. you'll be greatly missed!
sevens21 : Dati input mo lng name at SSS ID makukuha mo agad STATIC INFO...
sevens21 : tawag ka sa HOTLINE nila walang ANSWER grrr we need pa namn ng static info SSS Gising!!!
sevens21 : Gawa naman po kayo ng article about SSS. Pangit ng site nila dali ma blocked ng account
guest_899 : we must check the background of each potential candidates to avoid having another big mistake like GMA
guest_899 : congratulations to PCIJ, more power and God Bless !
jazzymuver : how did Arroyo swallow that kind of things!! how come that she just spend the money our countrymen for her own sake!!
guest_3664 : i would be glad if u can include the investigation of the manner public officials announce infra projects as per COA regulation. It is frustrating to see their faces on the tarpaulin instead of the prescribed information like name of project, date of implementation,amount of contract, source/s of fund, among other things. This is very rampant here in Marikina. Thanks and more power on your noble endeavors. We need people like you to have make our country great again.
jhanz_08 : im making research on R.A 9136...with rgards to the privatization of NPC..could someone out there can let me understand more bout this matter?why was monopoly dismantled?email me..jhanycem@yahoo.com...thanks much
erika marie : P.S.:) my paper is due next week and i do hope someone could provide me these reports coming from reliable resources thank you ulit.
erika marie : P.S.
guest_4275 : i am currently doing a study regarding political killings in the philippines. could someone out there please send me human rights reports under Aquino and Ramos administration. you could send it at my email: erikamariet@yahoo.com your response would surely be very much appreciated. thank you everyone. god bless.
guest_4275 : i am currently doing a study for my paper regarding political killings in the philippines. i noted that there are no human rights reports during the Aquino and Ramos administration. could someone out there please send me reports regarding these matter? i do hope these reports came from reliable resources you could send it in my email; erikamariet@yahoo.comyour response would surely be appreciated. thanks everyone. god bless.
jayson bourne : gusto ko po maging member ng PCIJ, panu po ba? may application po ba? sana mapadalhan nyo ako ng info sa email ko... www.jboxpenshoppe@yahoo.com
jayson bourne : cory is OK, but kris & Noynoy sensationalize masyado...
guest_9891 : LABAN pa rin!
meow : boycotts worked during marcos years. how about doing it now against the businesses of the con-ass congressmen?
meow : aside from 168, what other establishments can we boycott that belong to the arroyos and their cronies?
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Arroyo gov’t guilty of ‘crimes against humanity’ — Hague tribunal

Posted by: Alecks P. Pabico | March 26, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Filed under: Governance, Human Rights, In the News

THE Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal based in The Hague, The Netherlands handed down a guilty verdict yesterday against Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the Philippine government for “crimes against humanity” in connection with charges of extrajudicial killings, abductions and disappearances, massacres, and torture perpetrated against civilians. Romel Regalado Bagares, a former journalist now working as a lawyer who is in The Netherlands pursuing masteral studies, filed this report with the PCIJ.

GUILTY!

THE Hague, The Netherlands — The independent Permanent People’s Tribunal based in this international city on Sunday found the Arroyo administration responsible for “crimes against humanity,” and said the Philippines should be stripped of its membership in the 47-member United Nations Human Rights Council because the country’s continued presence in the international body seriously undermines its integrity.

Crimes against humanity are acts committed in both times of peace and of war as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population. Authorities are held responsible for the attack if subordinates launched it with their knowledge. These acts may include, murder, extermination, enslavement, torture, rape, or enforced disappearances of persons.

“The tribunal, having considered the evidence given before it,” the verdict said, “is of the opinion that the reported killings, torture and forced disappearances fall under the responsibility of the Philippine government and are by no way justified in terms of necessary measures against terrorism.”

Specifically, the panel found Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo guilty of colluding with her U.S. counterpart, George W. Bush, to perpetrate extrajudicial killings, massacres, and tortures of civilians in the Philippines in the name of the war on terror.

The panel stressed that the worsening human-rights situation Filipinos face in their country could not be divorced from a long-standing U.S. foreign policy of domination over its former colony as well as it strategies for “global economic and military hegemony.”

The panel found the two leaders and their governments responsible for:

Gross and systematic violations of civil and political rights; extrajudicial killings, abductions and disappearances, massacres, torture;

Gross and systematic violation of economic, social and cultural rights; and

Gross and systematic violations of the rights to national self-determination and liberation.

A body for the oppressed

Founded in 1979 in Italy by a group of law experts, writers, and other intellectuals, the tribunal was built on the idea of the oppressed peoples of the world asserting their fundamental rights under international law and directing the world’s attention to their cries for justice. It has since run 30 sessions on various issues around the globe.

A similar idea was also behind the creation of the International Women’s War Crimes Tribunal on Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery in 2000, which found the state of Japan guilty of gross violations of human rights and humanitarian law on account of its official policy to conscript women from China, Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, and the Netherlands during World War II as comfort women.

After a five-day marathon session on the Philippine human-rights case, the panel zeroed in on Bantay Laya, the Arroyo administration’s counter-insurgency program, as the ill-advised “final solution” to the long-running communist insurgency in the Philippines conceived at U.S. behest. It is also the main reason why the extrajudicial killings, abductions and tortures have been directed against leaders and members of militant groups in “priority areas” identified by the program, the panel said.

The panel also said it found “unequivocal [pieces of evidence]” that the Philippine military “has a central role in the greatest majority of the scenarios of human rights violations in the Philippines.” It stressed that the Armed Forces of the Philippines is a structural component of the policy on the war on terror pursued jointly by the U.S. and Philippine governments, which fact should end debates about the direct or indirect participation of the Philippine military in human rights violations.

Symbolic – and significant

Strictly speaking, the panel’s findings are symbolic and judicially non-binding. It is the International Criminal Court, created in 2002 and also based at The Hague, which is the permanent tribunal that tries grave breaches of international law, including crimes against humanity. Heads of state accused of crimes against humanity may not raise a defense of state immunity before the international tribunal.

But over the years, the Permanent People’s Tribunal has had a certain measure of success in directing international attention to grave abuses of human rights in various countries, including the Philippines during the Marcos regime, the case of the desaparecidos of Argentina, and the repression suffered by indigenous peoples in Guatemala (with Nobel Peace Laureate Rigoberta Menchu testifying before one of its sessions).

Tribunal secretary Gianni Tognoni warned the Arroyo administration not to take its verdict lightly. “The Arroyo administration should remember that the Permanent People’s Tribunal has been convened in The Hague the capital city of international law,” said the Italian international lawyer.

He said copies of the 13-page verdict will be sent to various international bodies, including the International Court of Justice, the various embassies and legations in the Hague, and the Parliament of the European Union.

Official invitations had been sent to the embassies of the United States and the Philippines in Rome and The Hague to participate in the international forum, but neither had a representative at the proceedings. Tognoni noted how ironic it was that “those who say they don’t fear the rules of international law somehow don’t show up in such a proceeding as this.”

He said this only underlines the significance of the work of an independent body like the Permanent People’s Tribunal to hold into account governments and leaders for their disregard of the fundamental rights of citizens. In an apparent swipe at the way the Arroyo administration has belittled the tribunal’s influence, Tognoni said, “This means that when the tribunal speaks, it does not speak (about) nothing.”

‘Unprecedented’ gathering

About 200 people, consisting of Filipino expatriates, as well as activists, academics, and lawyers, rose from their seats to give the members of the seven-member panel a standing ovation after the verdict was read by the international opinion tribunal’s session president, Belgian lawyer Francois Houtart.

Seen among the audience at the Paxta Christi Kerk at The Hague were exiled Communist Party of the Philippines chair Jose Ma. Sison and former priest Luis Jalandoni, who heads the negotiating panel of the National Democratic Front in its peace talks with the government and a member of the organization’s executive committee.

In 1980, it was the NDF, along with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), that paved the way for the opening of the first session of the international tribunal on the abuses of the Marcos regime — the very first in the international sphere.

“This gathering is unprecedented,” said Edre Olalia, one of the Filipino lawyers who helped put together the case against Arroyo at the tribunal. “We have seen how various groups worked together to bring the abuses in the Philippines to international attention.”

Houtart later said at the open forum following the reading of the panel’s verdict that members of the international community should exert more pressure on the Philippine government to put a stop to the spate of extrajudicial killings and abductions targeting members of militant groups in the Philippines.

He singled out the European Union as not having done enough on the human-rights situation in the Philippines, adding that member-states should make active representations not only with Manila, but also with Washington on the matter. Said Houtart: “The dramatic and worsening human rights situation in the Philippines is the responsibility for us all, not just for those who struggle for their rights in that country.”

A formidable panel

Aside from Houtart and Tognoni, the other panel members were Irene Fernandez, session vice president and a Malaysian lawyer and development advocate; and members Makoto Oda, a noted Japanese novelist; Ties Prakken, a professor of law at the University of Maastricht; Oystein Tveter, a prominent Norwegian human rights campaigner; and Lilia Solano, a Colombian activist.

Of the seven, only Houtart and Oda are veterans of the tribunal who trace their involvement in its works to the first session it had conducted on the Philippines during the time of the late strongman Ferdinand E. Marcos.

Houtart said since the first session on the Philippines in 1981 directed against the repressive Marcos regime, the human rights situation in the country has turned from bad to worse. He also said hideous economic realities Filipinos face today under the Arroyo administration only underscores the truth that nothing has really changed in the Philippines nearly a generation later.

He repeated an earlier warning he issued that the Arroyo administration would be held responsible for any harm that may fall upon witnesses whose testimonies had been presented to the tribunal during the proceedings.

A network of militant groups had pressed for the opening of the second session. The network includes HUSTISYA! (Victims of the US-Arroyo Regime United for Justice), SELDA (organization of political prisoners), Desaparacidos (organization of victims, relatives and friends of the disappeared), Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN, New Patriotic Alliance), KARAPATAN (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights), Public Interest Law Center, Peace for Life, Philippine Peace Center, IBON Foundation, United Church of Christ in the Philippines, and the Ecumenical Bishops Forum.

‘Astounding’ amount of evidence

The panel received evidence presented by militant human rights groups documenting with “painstaking detail” 839 cases of extrajudicial killings committed under the Arroyo administration.

The panel also received evidence from various international fact-finding missions sent to the Philippines to investigate the situation there, including a 40-page report presented by a Belgian lawyers’ association that who conducted a probe in the Philippines on the killings of lawyers and judges, as well as the findings of the Hong Kong Fact-Finding Mission and the International Peasants’ Fact-Finding Mission on the human-rights situation in the Philippines under the Arroyo administration. In addition, it took note of the findings of the Melo Commission as well as that of the UN Human Rights Council special rappourteur Philip Alston.

“The amount of documentary evidence we went over is simply astounding,” the 82-year-old Hooter told the PCIJ. “The pile of documents is about as tall as I.” He then volunteered that he stands at around 1.80 meters tall.

Recalling the proceedings of the first session on the Philippines, Houtart said that this time around, the panel “had more evidence to consider, more preparation, and a more professional approach in the way it conducted its proceedings — perhaps, because it has learned so much since the first session on the Philippines.”

Houtart is a veteran of Philippine political affairs. In the late 70s, Marcos expelled him from the Philippines after he conducted a series of church-sponsored seminars on how to do “structural analysis,” an activity that government authorities interpreted as euphemism for a Marxist-inspired politics.

‘Beyond expectations’

“This is beyond our expectations,” said Dr. Carol Pagaduan-Araullo, who read the indictment against two governments during the first of the five-day panel proceedings and is one of the complainants. “Somehow I feel that this verdict will be of tremendous importance to the struggle to bring to the world’s attention the real situation in the Philippines.”

Marie Hilao-Enriquez, secretary general of the militant human rights group Karapatan and one of the resource persons of the tribunal, fought back tears as she listened to the reading of the verdict. “We will not stop until the whole international community has learned the truth about the situation in the Philippines,” she said.

Senator Ma. Consuelo ‘Jamby’ Madrigal, who testified at the proceedings on the second charge against Arroyo, also said, “I am happy to say that the tribunal has exposed that the Arroyo administration is a dictatorship masquerading as a democracy.” She added that she will bring the results of the tribunals investigations to a forthcoming meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

The executive summary of the tribunal’s findings carried a message of solidarity with the Filipino people from another Nobel Peace Laureate, South African Bishop Desmond Tutu. In his message, the highly-respected Anglican clergyman demanded that President Arroyo act decisively and put an end to the spate of gross human rights violations happening under her watch. “The President of a country should be honor-bound to protect those who seek justice on your land,” he said. “Stop using the so-called war against terrorism to oppress and kill your own people!”

Tognoni read aloud the message of solidarity, an act that received a second standing ovation from the audience.

The 75-year-old writer Oda drew the third standing ovation when, speaking toward the formal close of the session, he noted, “This is now my second session. I don’t want to attend anymore a third session. I want to attend a celebration of the true liberation of the Filipino people.”

The Colombian activist Solano also drew loud applause and a fourth standing ovation when, with her voice breaking, she spoke of the many parallels that ran between the histories of her country and of the Philippines.

Romel Bagares, a 32-year-old Filipino lawyer, is currently working on a master’s degree in social and political philosophy on scholarship at the Vrije Universiteit te Amsterdam in the Netherlands, specializing on international legal theory.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 26th, 2007 and is filed under Governance, Human Rights, In the News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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[...] A PCIJ stringer (Romel Regalado Bagares) filed a report about this development also, please visit their site. [...]

BY JOVE! » Blog Archive » GUILT wrote on March 26, 2007 - 4:28 pm | Visit Link

[...] Arroyo Government Guilty of Crimes Against Humanity — Hague Tribunal: The Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal based in The Hague, The Netherlands handed down a guilty verdict yesterday against Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the Philippine government for “crimes against humanity” in connection with charges of extrajudicial killings, abductions and disappearances, massacres, and torture perpetrated against civilians. [...]

Feigning Ignorance: UN Report on Philippine Extra-Judicial Killings « Yaw and Mog wrote on April 25, 2007 - 9:55 am | Visit Link