Amnesty International Report 2000 - Philippines

Head of state and government: Joseph Estrada
Capital: Manila
Population: 71.5 million
Official languages: Pilipino, English
Death penalty: retentionist

Six people were executed by lethal injection in 1999, the first executions in the Philippines for 23 years. At least 350 people were sentenced to death, bringing the number of death sentences imposed since Congress restored capital punishment in late 1993 to at least 1,200. There were serious concerns at apparent grave defects in the administration of justice – particularly allegations of the torture of criminal suspects to coerce confessions. Peace talks between the government and the National Democratic Front (NDF) broke down in May and moves towards peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) faltered amid repeated outbreaks of fighting. Human rights violations, including extrajudicial executions and the torture or ill-treatment of suspected members of armed opposition groups by security personnel, were reported. Abuses by opposition groups were also reported.

Death penalty

In January, a few hours before the scheduled execution of Leo Echegaray, the Supreme Court granted a temporary stay of execution to allow Congress to consider a resolution to review the death penalty law. Despite vocal opposition from the Roman Catholic Church and human rights groups, Congress voted not to review the death penalty law. Leo Echegaray, who had been found guilty in 1994 of raping his step-daughter, was executed in February.

Concerns that the risk of unfair trials and judicial errors could lead to the execution of innocent people intensified as the government apparently failed to investigate allegations of ill-treatment and torture by police of criminal suspects in pre-trial detention to coerce confessions. Although presidential reprieve and commutation powers were exercised during 1999, there was continuing concern at the apparently arbitrary and inconsistent nature of the Executive Review Procedure.

• In June Eduardo Agbayani, who had been convicted of rape, was executed after President Joseph Estrada failed to get through by telephone to the execution chamber in time to grant a reprieve.
• Dante Piandong , Jesus Morallos and Archie Bulan were executed in July. They had been found guilty of killing a police officer during an armed robbery. Dante Piandong had alleged that while being interrogated by police in 1997 he had been given electric shocks to his genitals, and had been handcuffed and forced to lie flat while water was dripped on a cloth held over his face. No investigation was known to have been carried out into these allegations.
• In July the Supreme Court overturned its 1997 decision confirming the death sentence of Marlon Parazo and ordered a retrial after medical tests confirmed that he was deaf and mute and had been unable to fully understand the rape and homicide charges on which he had been convicted.

Abuses in the context of armed conflict

In June, Vicente Ladlad, peace talks consultant for the NDF which represents the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing the New People's Army (NPA), was arrested without a valid warrant; a court subsequently ordered his release. The number of armed confrontations between the security forces and the NPA increased in at least eight provinces. Within the context of anti-insurgency operations, there were reports of at least 14 possible extrajudicial executions and at least eight incidents of torture or ill-treatment of suspected members of armed opposition groups by the armed forces or militia units.

• In August, four suspected NPA members were arrested at a military checkpoint in northeast Mindanao and later reportedly extrajudicially executed, allegedly while trying to escape from a military vehicle.

Periodic aerial bombardment of villages suspected of harbouring members of armed opposition groups led to mass displacements of civilians, especially in Mindanao. With the end of the peace talks, the pace of the amnesty program for former members of armed opposition groups slowed still further, and at least 150 political prisoners, including some possible prisoners of conscience, remained in detention at the end of 1999. Most of the political detainees were held on criminal charges, particularly illegal possession of firearms, robbery and murder.

Armed opposition groups

Members of Muslim armed groups, including the MILF, Abu Sayyaf and renegade members of the Moro National Liberation Front, continued to take civilian hostages and to carry out deliberate and arbitrary killings. The MILF's Shari'a courts sentenced suspected criminals to death. In February an NPA unit in Bataan province executed a man accused of raping his two daughters.

Impunity

Concerns increased that a climate of impunity reportedly protecting police and other officials from effective prosecution for alleged human rights violations was becoming further entrenched.

• In March a court dismissed charges against 27 police officers allegedly involved in the extrajudicial execution of 11 bank robbers while in police custody in 1995. Key prosecution witnesses, including former police officers, had withdrawn their affidavits. In November one of the former accused, General Panfilo Lacson, was appointed head of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

Incidents of alleged extrajudicial executions by police of suspected criminals were reported in Manila, Davao and other provincial towns during 1999.

• In July PNP Colonel Alfredo Siwa was tried and convicted of killing a suspected criminal in a hospital in Nueva Ecija province in March. The victim had earlier been wounded and four other suspected criminals killed in an operation allegedly led by Colonel Siwa.

One possible "disappearance", allegedly carried out by security personnel, was reported during 1999. At least 1,600 "disappearances" reported since the early 1970s remained unresolved. Attempts by relatives of the victims to discover the truth and to seek justice continued to be unsuccessful.

• In a rare test case the family of Jose Sumapad, who "disappeared" in southwest Mindanao in 1986 and whose remains were exhumed in 1996, filed a case in a local court in January. No hearings had taken place by the end of the year, and there were reports that family members and potential witnesses had been threatened by the alleged perpetrators.

Human rights and economic development

Instances of ill-treatment, use of excessive force and possible extrajudicial executions by police and other law enforcement officials were reported within the context of labour or land disputes, and the forced eviction of poor urban residential areas and rural indigenous communities. Some human rights abuses, including deliberate and arbitrary killings, were carried out by private security guards with the apparent connivance of local officials and police.

• In May farmer Sani Wahab and his wife Lala Wahab were killed when unidentified men fired at their house in southwestern Mindanao, reportedly after the couple had refused to sell their land. Sources claimed that the perpetrators included security guards from a local logging company and members of the armed forces.

AI country reports and visits

Report

• Philippines: The resumption of executions in the Philippines – An open letter to President Estrada (AI Index: ASA 35/025/99)

Visit

AI delegates visited the National Penitentiary on the day scheduled for Leo Echegaray's execution.