Canberra, Australia - The Philippine government gave at least tacit approval for the murder of 14 members of a Protestant denomination, apparently by security forces, a national Australian church group said Wednesday.
The Philippine ambassador to Australia denied the allegations.
At the United Nations (UN), Gabriela Representative Liza Maza asked a women’s conference to “immediately send an independent body to investigate the political killings, enforced disappearances, political persecution and other forms of human rights violations committed with impunity in the Philippines.”
Maza made her appeal as she delivered a “shadow report” or alternative account of the official government report on the situation of Filipino women before the 36th session of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in New York City on Tuesday, a press statement from her office said Wednesday.
The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Council (AHRC) said the Arroyo government’s apparent lack of political will to stop the killings did not only indicate a “drift from democracy” but also raised questions about who is actually in control.
“Is President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo willing to stop these killings, or is she really supporting such action by the military? Or is she not capable of stopping these killings?” the AHRC asked in a statement. “If the latter is the case, a serious issue exists in which the government has no control over a military enterprise that is now affecting, not only a large number of lives in the country, but also the security of the people as a whole.”
“If the government is afraid of creating friction with the military or some of its leaders, then the issue of greater concern that arises is whether the democratic form of government as envisaged by the Philippine Constitution is intact or not,” it added.
The Uniting Church in Australia, the third largest Christian denomination in Australia, released a report in Canberra on its investigation into the deaths over the last two years of 14 clergy and members of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines.
The report found that no one had been charged in any of the murders, and that evidence in all the deaths suggested the involvement of the Philippine police and military.
It was released a day after Amnesty International (AI) issued its own report saying the growing number of political killings in the Philippines could lead to spiraling violence as the government wages an all-out war against communist rebels.
There were 51 political killings in the first six months of this year compared with 66 for all of 2005, the London-based human rights group said in a report.
AI said the methodology of the assaults, the left-wing profile of the victims and the "climate of impunity" that has shielded the perpetrators led it to conclude "that the attacks are not an unconnected series of criminal murders but constitute a politically motivated pattern of killings."
The group also called for an independent body to investigate the killings.
The Philippine government has called the AI report unfair.
"The 14 cases of murder and summary execution outlined in this report suggest the use of serial killings and systematic violence by the Philippine military and the police to create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation," the Uniting Church report said.
"That faithful and nonviolent Christians are the target of such sustained violence amounts to an organized regime of Christian persecution with, at the very least, the tacit approval of the Philippine government," the report concluded.
The Philippine ambassador, Ernesto De Leon, denied his government gave tacit support to the killers and said the report would be investigated. The Philippines is predominantly Roman Catholic.
The statement from Maza’s office said the solon challenged “the Philippine government’s initiative, or lack thereof, and culpability in the dire conditions of Filipinas,” citing “the killing of 78 women activists and community organizers in the last five years under (President) Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.”
Her alternative report said "Filipino women who individually and collectively advance the CEDAW ideals of women's empowerment and participation in the political, economic, social and cultural well-being of the country, have become the targets of human rights violations."
She also offered herself as an example of the “unfettered political persecution and
repression in the Philippines.”
"I am a victim of political persecution," Maza said. "For standing firmly against the government's policies and programs that threaten the rights and welfare of women and the people, Gabriela and I were implicated in the baseless charge of rebellion which aims to muffle our opposition."
But Maza claimed the rise in human rights violations was the handiwork of a “beleaguered presidency, whose administration continues to face unresolved political and humanitarian issues, including the charge of election fraud and the lack of credible, independent investigation into more than 700 politically-motivated killings.”
The AHRC said it noted an “internal transformation into an authoritarian system” while keeping up the façade of democracy and said the matter of ending the killings was “an issue related to the very survival of democracy in the Philippines.”
But it also noted that “the people of the Philippines have a long history of resistance to authoritarianism, and perhaps one more moment in their history has arrived for them to save their values and democratic system through open resistance.”
“At this moment, the people of the Philippines deserve the complete support of all democratically minded people throughout the world,” it added.