Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders Annual Report 2004 - Philippines

Extra-judicial execution of Mrs. Juvy Magsino and Mrs. Leima Fortu⁹²

On 13 February 2004, Mrs. Juvy Magsino, a human rights lawyer and chairperson of Mindoro for Justice and Peace (MFJP) and vice mayor of Naujan, in Mindoro Oriental, and Mrs. Leima Fortu, a MFPJ volunteer and acting secretary general of the Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights (KARAPATAN), were both executed.

Two alleged members of the 204th Infantry Brigade of the Philippines Army (IBPA) followed Mrs. Magsino and Mrs. Fortu while they were driving to Pinagsabangan to get a computer from a friend. In Barangay Amuguis, the two men, who were driving a motorcycle without a license plate, peppered Mrs. Magsino's vehicle with bullets and shot dead Mrs. Magsino and Mrs. Fortu.

Mrs. Leima Fortu was a public teacher and a member of the party-list group Bayan Muna, in the Calapan City Chapter.

Mrs. Juvy Magsino, who was running for mayor of Naujan in Mindoro Oriental against current mayor Norberto Mendoza, had received two death threats stating that she would not live past 15 February 2004. Mrs. Magsino was a outspoken critic of the increasing military deployment in the island province. She also spoke out against former 204th IBPA commanding officer, Col. Jovito Palparan Jr., whose promotion as brigadier general was confirmed in February 2004 by the Commission on Appointments although human rights groups had filed a complaint against him with the Philippine Commission on Human Rights in July 2003. Col. Jovito Palparan Jr. is indeed suspected of involvement in the abduction and extra-judicial execution of Mrs. Eden Marcellana, secretary general of the Tagalog-South office of KARAPATAN, and Mr. Eddie Gumanoy, chairman of the Kasama-TK peasant group, both kidnapped as they were investigating human rights violations committed in the eastern province of Mindoro, in April 2003.⁹³

In late 2004, the killers of Mrs. Marcellana and Mr. Gumanoy had not been brought to justice, in spite of an express request by the UN Human Rights Committee in December 2003. Likewise, the deaths of Mrs. Magsino and Mrs. Fortu remained unresolved at the end of December 2004.

Killing of Mr. Rashid Manahan⁹⁴

On 24 August 2004, Mr. Rashid Manahan, coordinator of the Movement for Restorative Justice (Mamamayang Tutol sa Bitay – MTB-Davao), a network of NGOs and human rights institutions involved in the struggle for the abolition of the death penalty, was killed in front of Ponce Suites, Bajada, Davao City, while he was on his way to attend a forum against the death penalty and salvaging at the University of the Philippines in Mindanao.

The assassination of Mr. Manahan took place during an OMCT mission that was part of the follow-up to the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) recommendations. The mission was carried out together with the national coalition of NGOs (Task Force for Detainees in Philippines – TFDP, Women's Education, Development, Productivity and Research Organisation – WEDPRO and People's Recovery, Empowerment, Development, Assistance, Foundation – PREDA), which took part in the drafting of the alternative report submitted to the HRC in October 2003. During his stay in Manila, the OMCT coordinator, together with the national coalition of NGOs, had the opportunity to speak with the Chief State Counsel, and with Attorney Wilhem Dabu Soriano, commissioner at the Commission of Human Rights in the Philippines, about this killing and to request an investigation. Mr. Soriano said that the authorities would carry out an investigation into these events.

As of December 2004, the government of the Philippines had failed to carry out an impartial and independent investigation into the killing of Mr. Manahan, and the perpetrators of this crime had not yet been brought to justice. Yet, on 4 October 2004, Mr. Raul Gonzalez, Secretary of Justice, claimed that the Presidential Human Rights Committee (PHRC) endorsed the investigation of Mr. Manahan's case before the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

Staff members of KARAPATAN and the EMJP subjected to harassment⁹⁵

On 9 October 2004, staff members of the National Office of the Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights (KARAPATAN) and of the Ecumenical Movement for Justice and Peace (EMJP), as well as relatives and victims of human rights violations that were staying at the KARAPATAN office and other families living within the compound, were awakened by loud banging on their gate. Five masked men wearing bonnets shouted invectives against KARAPATAN members for about 30 minutes. The harassers also called for justice for the 26 September 2004 slaying of Mr. Arturo Tabara, founder of the Revolutionary Proletarian Army (RPMP-RPA) in 1992, which merged with the Alex Boncayao Brigade (ABB) in 1997 to form the RPA-ABB.

After the men's departure, the staff found flyers on the floor and posters on their gate, on the trees and on other entrances to the building. These posters, signed RPA-ABB, contained baseless messages linking KARAPATAN to the New People's Army, which had admitted its responsibility in the killing of Arturo Tabara.

The attack against KARAPATAN might be related to the organisation's documenting of human rights abuses by RPA-ABB against civilians, particularly in the Negro provinces in Central Philippines.

Summary execution of Mr. Marcelino Beltran⁹⁶

On 8 December 2004, Mr. Marcelino Beltran, chairman of the Peasants' Alliance in Tarlac (Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Tarlac – AMT), and vice chairman of the Peasants' Alliance in Central Luzon (Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon – AMGL), was killed by military elements in front of his house in San Sotero, Santa Ignacia, Tarlac.

As his wife and children scrambled out of the house after hearing some gunshots, they saw some armed men leaving and Mr. Beltran, still alive, told them that he had been shot by military soldiers.

His family brought him to the clinic, which they thought was the nearest place Mr. Beltran could get treatment or first aid. When they got there, they saw two soldiers on a motorcycle who asked them if they had brought a wounded person from San Sotero. Mr. Marcelino Beltran's son denied that they had brought his father to the clinic and told the soldiers that the injured person was from Calapayan. Since the clinic did not seem safe, they took Mr. Beltran to a nearby hospital, which was not able to provide the appropriate care, and they were thus obliged to transfer Mr. Beltran to the Tarlac provincial hospital, 20 kilometres away. Mr. Marcelino Beltran died on the way to the hospital.

Prior to his death, Mr. Marcelino Beltran joined the strike of peasant workers in the Luisita Hacienda to give them his organisation's support. The farmer leading the strike is also said to be a witness in the massacre in Luisita Hacienda on 16 November 2004, during which 14 people were killed and several hundreds were injured by the Philippines national police and military belonging to the 69th and 703rd Infantry Battalion who were ordered by the hacienda's management and the Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE) to crack down on the workers' strike.

[Refworld note: This report as posted on the FIDH website (www.fidh.org) was in pdf format with country chapters run together by region. Footnote numbers have been retained here, so do not necessarily begin at 1.]

92. See Urgent Appeal PHL 001/0204/OBS 011.

93. See Annual Report 2003.

94. See Open Letters to the Philippine authorities, 26 August and 3 September 2004.

95. See Urgent Appeal PHL 002/1004/OBS 080.

96. See Urgent Appeal PHL 003/1204/OBS 095.