Scared Silent Impunity for Extrajudicial Killings in the Philippines
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June 2007 Volume 19, No. 9(C) Scared Silent Impunity for Extrajudicial Killings in the Philippines I. Summary............................................................................................................. 1 II. Methods.............................................................................................................7 III. Recent Military Relations with Government and Civil Society ...............................8 Military involvement in politics............................................................................. 8 Military campaign against the New People’s Army ...............................................10 The military and leftist political and civil society groups ...................................... 11 Recent Developments ......................................................................................... 17 Task Force Usig ...................................................................................................18 Melo Commission ...............................................................................................18 Visit by the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions .................................22 IV. Extrajudicial Executions................................................................................... 25 Extrajudicial executions ......................................................................................28 Pastor Isias de Leon Santa Rosa.......................................................................29 Ricardo Ramos.................................................................................................32 Attempted Killing of “Nestor Gonzalez”............................................................34 Pastor Jemias Tinambacan ...............................................................................36 Pastor Andy Pawikan........................................................................................37 “Gloria Fabicon” ..............................................................................................38 “Disappearance” of two women.......................................................................39 “Manuel Balani” ..............................................................................................40 Danilo Hagosojos............................................................................................. 41 Armando Javier ................................................................................................ 41 Attempted Killing of Roderick Abalde ...............................................................42 Sotero Llamas..................................................................................................43 League of Filipino Students (LFS) in Bicol .........................................................44 Ongoing impunity for military personnel...........................................................45 V. Failures to Investigate and Prosecute ................................................................48 Lack of Successful Prosecutions..........................................................................48 State responsibility and command responsibility .............................................49 “Solved” cases unsolved ....................................................................................52 Poor policing.......................................................................................................54 Harassment of families and acquaintances following killings ..............................59 Witnesses and victims’ families’ fears of retribution ............................................62 Impediments to investigating military involvement in political killings.................67 Identification of NPA as perpetrators ...................................................................70 Police identification of unlikely perpetrators........................................................75 Threats and Harassment of human rights lawyers................................................77 Harassment of international human rights workers..............................................78 VI. Recommendations........................................................................................... 81 To the President: .................................................................................................81 To the Armed Forces of the Philippines:...............................................................82 To the Philippines National Police: ......................................................................82 To the Judiciary: ..................................................................................................83 To the CPP-NPA-NDF: ...........................................................................................83 To the United States:...........................................................................................83 VII. Acknowledgments ..........................................................................................84 I. Summary Our hopes and prayers [are] for light and justice for our son… Behind the pains that hurt the deep wound in our hearts we truly love him and we miss a great and unique man. —Mother of shooting victim, Legazpi City, September, 2006 Right now, there is this culture of impunity covering executive officials, that they can do whatever they want and they will not be held accountable. —Senator Rodolfo Biazon, Chair of Committee on National Defense and Security, Manila, September, 2006 It’s a complete breakdown of the rule of law. Civilian rule has been replaced by military rule. The courts don’t function. The prosecutors don’t function. The investigative agencies don’t function. Lawyers are threatened. —Romy Capulong, human rights lawyer, Manila, September, 2006 Rei-Mon Guran, known by his parents as “Ambo,” but by his friends more colorfully as “Rambo,” celebrated his 21st birthday with friends and family in his hometown of Bulan, in Sorsogon province, on July 30, 2006. Early the next morning Guran began to return to nearby Legazpi City, where he was completing his second year as a political science student at Aquinas University. Guran’s mother and father accompanied him to the bus stop to help him load his belongings, and to wave him farewell. As Guran sat in his seat, waiting for the bus to begin its journey, a man in plainclothes walked up the center aisle of the bus and paused in front of Guran. The man pulled out a .45 caliber pistol and shot Guran four times at point-blank range, then fled. Rei-Mon Guran was a leader on his campus and in his community. He was an elected member of his student council, the spokesperson and provincial coordinator for the 1 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH JUNE 2007 left-wing League of Filipino Students at Aquinas University, and an active member of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines’ Christian Youth Fellowship. Although the assailant was unidentified, Guran’s political activities raise concerns that he was the target of Philippine security forces who deemed him to be linked to the long-running communist New People’s Army (NPA) insurgency. An off-duty policeman was sitting on the bus when Guran was shot, but did not pursue the assailant. Other passengers were there, but not a single witness outside of the family will give evidence to the police. The witnesses say they are too scared, and fear reprisals from the assailants or their backers if they come forward. The police say that they cannot complete their investigation for lack of evidence and have asked Guran’s family to plead with witnesses to speak with them. However, Guran’s family have no means—nor the responsibility—to offer anyone protection from harassment or persecution that witnesses fear they may face in retaliation for giving evidence. Rei-Mon Guran is just one case among hundreds of extrajudicial executions and failed prosecutions in the Philippines in recent years. This report, based on over 100 interviews and research that Human Rights Watch carried out in the Philippines between September and November 2006, documents the involvement of the armed forces in the killings of individuals because of their political activities. Witnesses and family members describe how members of left-wing political parties and non- governmental organizations, political journalists, outspoken clergy, anti-mining activists, and agricultural reform activists are being gunned down or “disappeared,” with their murders going unprosecuted. The pattern of these unlawful killings suggests they are intended to eliminate suspected supporters of the NPA and its political wing, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), and to intimidate those who work for progressive causes certain critics in the government and armed forces consider linked to the insurgency. Human rights groups, local church leaders, and politicians have repeatedly raised concerns about the impact on civilians of a government policy of “all-out war” declared against the NPA in June 2006. Most of the victims of these political killings are SCARED SILENT 2 members of legal political parties or organizations that the military claims are allied with the communist movement. None of the incidents investigated by Human Rights Watch involved anyone who was participating in an armed encounter with the military or was otherwise involved in NPA military operations. Each victim appears to have been individually targeted for killing. An investigating commission established by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in