Political prisoners mount anti-SONA fast

Activists stage a protest in front of Camp Crame to demand the release of political prisoners (photo from Karapatan)

Interaksyon.com

July 25, 2014

MANILA, Philippines — (UPDATE – 3:23 p.m.) Political prisoners began a fast Friday that will last until Monday, when President Benigno Aquino III delivers his fifth State of the Nation Address, the human rights organization Karapatan said.

Joining the fast are detainees in Camp Crame, who include Benito Tiamzon, alleged chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines, his wife Wilma Austria, and National Democratic Front consultants Eduardo Serrano and Renante Gamara; the New Bilibid Prison; and the Taguig City jail’s female dormitory at Camp Bagong Diwa, where Andrea Rosal, daughter of the late rebel spokesman Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal, is incarcerated.

Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said the fast was meant to underscore the political prisoners’ “disgust” with the Aquino administration.

The Taguig detainees are also expected to stage a march inside the jail compound to protest “Aquino’s misuse of public funds through the creation of DAP (Disbursement Acceleration Program),” key provisions of which the Supreme Court has declared unconstitutional.

“Ang patuloy na pagdepensa at pagtatanggol ng papet na rehimeng US-Aquino sa kasuklam-suklam na paglustay ng salapi mula sa kabang yaman ng bansa, dapat itong panagutin sa pamamagitan ng pagsasampa ng kasong kriminal, pagpapatalsik sa pwesto at paglalagay sa loob ng piitan,” (The continued defense of the US-Aquino regime of the disgusting plunder of public coffers should be held to account through criminal prosecution, ouster and jail),” a statement from the Taguig detainees said.

Also on Friday, Karapatan and the Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto staged protest actions at Camp Crame and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process to demand the release of political prisoners and the punishment of plunderers.

“The detention of activists and those perceived as ‘enemies of the state’ and their condition inside jails poses a stark contrast with how the BS Aquino treats the plunderers, especially the beneficiaries (and) defenders of the presidential pork. It is Aquino’s way of asserting his ‘ignorance’ in the said crime,” Palabay said in a statement.

At the OPAPP protest, Karapatan questioned the DAP funds given to the agency, P1.819 billion in 2011 and P248 million the next year, aside from its regular budget.

“Is the OPAPP deliberately evading public scrutiny by not including their proposed projects for proper allocation in the GAA? Did they find DAP as a way to evade scrutiny for the large amount of money that goes to OPAPP?” Palabay said.

She cited OPAPP’s acknowledgment that the 2012 funds were not included in the list of DAP-funded projects released by Malacanang.

At the same time, she said the huge outlay to the OPAPP, “supposedly spent for the peace initiatives of the government did not translate in concrete gains for the people. At best, only allies of the administration benefited from the DAP funds.”

Human rights activists stage a protest at the OPAPP (photo by Karapatan)

Palabay derided the government’s peace initiatives as “a business venture rather than a sincere effort to go into the root causes of the armed conflict and solve poverty, landlessness and joblessness.”

She also blasted the P264 million given to the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army and the P31 million to the Revolutionary Proletarian Army, former rebel groups that signed peace pacts with government but which the Karapatan official said had transformed into “paramilitary groups” accused of human rights abuses.

“The peace process should serve the interests of the majority of our people and not just a few groups that sow terror,” she said. “Through DAP the money stolen from the people are used against them. With OPAPP, it becomes worse as paying lip service to the peace process only denies the people of a venue where their basic social and economic problems can be discussed and solved.”

‘Sekyu’ jailed, tortured as ‘rebel leader’ says many more held on mistaken identity

 

Rolly Panesa’s face no longer bears the traces of torture, but he suffers a damaged eardrum, among others. He says gratitude to his pro bono lawyers, and other support groups and friends is the only emotion that overcomes the anger he feels over the injustice. BERNARD TESTA, INTERAKSYON.COM

Patricia B. Aquino, InterAksyon.com

September 3, 2013

MANILA, Philippines. “Okay.” This is how Rolly Mira Panesa, the security guard mistaken for a ranking officer of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and detained for almost 11 months at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City, is doing three days after his release on Friday night.

Yet “okay” is woefully inadequate a description for someone who said he was repeatedly tortured during detention, and whose photo–face badly bruised and swollen–has become the latest indictment of human rights observance in the country. Clad in a white polo shirt and pants when he faced the media on Monday afternoon, Panesa seemed meek, almost.

“I am thankful for my freedom,” he said, recalling how a meal of pizza and pancit palabok awaited him at the office of human rights group Karapatan when he was released. Karapatan had been providing him support since he was detained.

He also has a job waiting for him at the same security agency he had been working at for 17 years before he was arrested.

“They called me twice. I just needed to show up after my release,” he said. “I’m still thinking about it, though. I asked them to wait a while. But I’ll still go.”

Things might just return to normal for Panesa after the Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday that he was not Danilo Benjamin Mendoza, a member of the CPP’s Central Committee and the secretary of its Southern Tagalog Regional Committee. The latter is wanted for rebellion.

Panesa is free again, but his body bears the traces of his ordeal. He can’t hear too well with his right ear now, as his eardrum was damaged when he was supposedly subjected to torture during his arrest on October 5 of last year in Quezon City.

He doesn’t remember much of what happened then.

 

Then, the world went black

“I only remember my wife shouting, and me being shackled by the soldiers. They flipped me onto the ground.” The world went black after that, he said.

He was allegedly tortured to make him confess to being Mendoza, with Karapatan showing a photo of his battered face to the media shortly after the incident.

He was then taken to Camp Vicente Lim in Laguna with his companions at the time: his common-law wife Maritess Chioco, her daughter Conierey Garcia, and the latter’s husband Peter Que.

“When I woke up it was already Sunday morning, and my wife was dressing me up.” On the same day Garcia and Que were released. They were arrested on a Friday.

“My wife asked to stay because she wanted to be with me. On Monday she said she would go home to tell our kids what happened to us.”

Life was difficult in jail, Panesa recalled, even though he had many friends there. Food was strictly rationed: one piece of tuyo as a viand for lunch, another piece for dinner. Breakfast was sopas or tsamporado.

“It was not properly cooked because the ingredients were not enough. They had to budget what the government gave,” Panesa said.

Being imprisoned also left him too much time alone with his thoughts.“Every day I would wonder, why did this happen to me? I never expected this to happen,” he said.

To entertain himself, he would watch the television, walk out into the hallway, and look down from the fourth floor of the Special Intensive Care Area (SICA) where he was detained with political prisoners and drug lords. He would also go to the rooftop of the facility every now and then.

Now that he is free, he plans to file a case against the persons who arrested him.

“What they did to me was inhuman. And I am not the person they said I was,” he said.

He added that he was not the only one who was imprisoned on false charges.

“Just last month there were two new inmates who were just gathering charcoal when soldiers mistook them as belonging to the hukbo. And now they’re still there, imprisoned.”

He believes the military will continue their surveillance on him even though the court has declared that he was not a rebel. Nevertheless, it is gratitude that takes precedence over whatever negative emotions there are in his heart.

“I am thankful for the lawyers who supported me. To Karapatan, to the members of the Church who supported me. They were always present during my hearings,” he said.

The National Union of People’s Lawyers will continue to represent him to see that justice is served to their client.

According to Atty. Ephraim Cortez, they are still studying the llist of persons to file a case against, but the police who arrested Panesa and their superiors are definitely included.

Charges will include violation of the anti-torture law, violation of the rights of persons under detention, unlawful arrest, perjury, and incriminatory machinations.

The last means fabricating a story to jeopardize an innocent person, specifically so that he or she can be jailed or implicated in a case.

 

No simple mistake

They plan to file the case at the Department of Justice on Wednesday.

“It is clear that this was not a simple mistake. They continued to manufacture, to (present) perjured witnesses, to detain (Panesa) notwithstanding the fact that at the very beginning they knew that he was not Benjamin Mendoza,” Atty. Cortez said.

“They should be held accountable for what they did,” he added.

In fact, in the female quarters of the SICA, said Cortez, was a certain “Evelyn” who was an apparent case also of mistaken identity. The person she was supposed to be? “Bueno”, the wife of Mendoza, the rebel leader that Panesa was being forced to admit as himself.

 

Bounty fuels reckless arrests

The trend of persons being imprisoned on mistaken identity continues, said Cortez, because of a “bounty list”.

Another counsel for Panesa, Atty. Julian Oliva Jr., said the “military’s attempts to violate Rolly’s rights and continue to detain him illegally persisted even after the decision was out,” taking almost a day to prevent him from leaving.

“It was the persistence of those who helped Rolly that swung (in his favor) so that he was released on Friday at 10 p.m.,” he said.

NUPL on the Court of Appeals decision ordering the release of security guard tagged as a rebel leader

Press Statement | National Union of People’s Lawyers

29 August 2013

 

 

On the Court of Appeals decision ordering the release of security guard tagged as a rebel leader:

 A vindication of sorts but essentially a travesty of justice nonetheless

The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), counsel for security guard Rolly  Panesa who who was tagged by the military as a supposed top-ranking rebel leader, welcomed with sigh of relief the August 27, 2013 Decision of the Court of Appeals finally granting after several months the petition for the issuance of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus. Even as it comes belatedly, we commend the Decision for finally seeing through all the deliberate lies and clumsy fabrications of the military to justify the violation of his rights.

Rolly Panesa, an ordinary security guard for the longest time, was illegally arrested way back October 5, 2012 at a busy intersection in Quezon City and detained by joint elements of the 2nd Infantry Division of the Philippine Army, led by Southern Luzon Commander Maj. General Alan Luga, and the Philippine National Police. He was severely tortured while the military cynically misidentified him for a certain “Benjamin Mendoza,” supposedly the secretary of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in Southern Luzon, with a reward of PhP 5.6 million.

At the same time, the NUPL laments the long drawn-out and tedious legal proceedings that Panesa had to undergo just to simply prove that he is not what the military says he was and despite overhelming evidence to establish his identity. This includes multiple official identification cards and records issued by government agencies themselves on top of incotrovertible testimonial evidence, in stark contrast to the self-serving, contrived and ludicrous accounts of spurious witnesses for the military a.k.a. roving rebel retrunees. It does not give comfort that the Office of the Solicitor General was, wittingly or unwittingly, a party all throughout to the perpetuation of this gross injustice.

The NUPL pointed out that the poor fellow had to endure almost 11 months in detention while awating his deserved vindication. If there is any classic example of justice delayed and justice denied, this no doubt fits the bill.  Nothing indeed will bring him back all those times lost and the damage wrought on his reputation, not to mention the agony and ordeal he and his family went through.

The NUPL condemns the money-making scheme of the Department of National Defense-Department of Interior and Local Government’s secret hit list as it is now again proven to be dubious.  Previously, a certain Olegario Sebas of Negros Oriental who was similarly arrested for purportedly being another rebel leader was also ordered released by virtue of a habeas corpus petition.

The payment by the AFP of handsome reward money to supposed informers for the capture of what it referred to as “terrorist personalities and communist leaders” is farcical, withal dangerous. Thus, the DND-DILG’s secret hit list must be scrapped totally and immediately as it has become the basis to arrest, detain, and torture people on false charges; or worse, disappeared or killed. In addition, those who concocted this not so bright idea should also be held accountable for misusing the people’s money to violate people rights.

We shall suppport our client’s longstanding plan to file countercharges against those who have practically destroyed his life beyond `repair as impunity shall simply continue if there is no accountability#

Reference:
Atty. Ephraim Cortez                                                                      

Deputy Secretary General for Legal Services                         

09175465798   

Atty. Edre U. Olalia        
Secretary General
09175113373

MISTAKEN IDENTITY: CA orders release of security guard accused of being ‘CPP officer’

File photo of security guard Rolly Panesa, who the military claimed is a ranking communist rebel but who the Court of Appeals said is a victim of ‘mistaken identity’ and ordered released, showing his badly battered face, the result human rights groups have said of being tortured after his arrest in Quezon City October last year.

Interaksyon.com

August 29, 2013

MANILA, Philippines — The Court of Appeals has ordered the release of a security guard who the military arrested last year and accused of being a ranking officer of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

In its August 27 decision, the CA’s Fifth Division said it was “convinced that this is a case of mistaken identity” as it granted the writ of habeas corpus sought by the family of Rolly Panesa and ordered the warden of the Security Intensive Care Area of the Metro Manila District Jail in Camp Bagong Diwa to free him.

The decision could open the military to countercharges by Rolly Panesa, who was arrested by the military and police in Quezon City on October 5 last year and who the Armed Forces of the Philippines has been insisting is Benjamin Mendoza, the alleged CPP leader in the Southern Tagalog region.

The National Union of People’s Lawyers, which has been representing Panesa, said it would “support our client’s longstanding plan to file countercharges against those who have practically destroyed his life beyond repair as impunity shall simply continue if there is no accountability.”

“The arrested and detained person, Rolly Mira Panesa, is not the same person as ‘Danilo Benjamin Mendoza’,” the CA said.

It said Panesa, a native of Negros Occidental who is in his 40s, “is not and does not look like 61 years old,” which is Mendoza’s age, the decision said. “He is a simple security guard and not a high-ranking officer of the CPP-NPA (New People’s Army).”

“This Court will not further want to hold in detention a person who is not Danilo Benjamin Mendoza, accused of rebellion, murder, frustrated murder, etc.,” it added.

(Click here to view the CA decision)

The CA decision came about two weeks after the AFP handed out rewards for the capture of rebel leaders, including P5.6 million for “Mendoza,” which prompted the human rights organization Karapatan to accuse the military of running an “organized racket” of bounties for fake rebels.

Karapatan and the NUPL also accused the military of torturing Panesa severely, releasing photos soon after his arrest showing the security guard’s badly battered face and other injuries.

The 23-page decision indicated that most of the evidence presented by the military actually helped demolish its claims against Panesa.

Aside from this, the appellate court also said the police had lied when it claimed that the informants who had identified Panesa as Mendoza “were with them before and during the arrest” of the security guard.

The only time the informants saw Panesa, said the court, was in a room at Camp Vicente Lim where the security guard was placed by himself.

This, said the CA,“corrupted the identification procedure with impermissible suggestion,” an “illegal procedure,” that “suggested and implanted on the minds” of its “informants” that the man they were asked to identify was “Mendoza.”

On the other hand, it said that the operations manager of the security agency Megaforce “was straightforward in testifying that he personally knows Rolly Panesa as a pro-guard/pioneer guard of Megaforce, having been in their employ since 1995” and also submitted records of Panesa’s Social Security and Pag-IBIG contributions.

In its statement, the NUPL, while welcoming the decision, lamented “the long drawn-out and tedious legal proceedings that Panesa had to undergo just to simply prove that he is not what the military says he was and despite overwhelming evidence to establish his identity.”

“If there is any classic example of justice delayed and justice denied, this no doubt fits the bill,” it said. “Nothing indeed will bring him back all those times lost and the damage wrought on his reputation, not to mention the agony and ordeal he and his family went through.”

The NUPL also reiterated its demand for government to do away with the list of “terrorist personalities and communist leaders” used by the Departments of National Defense and of Interior and Local Government, which it had been used as “the basis to arrest, detain and torture people on false charges or, worse, disappeared or killed.”

It also called for the prosecution of those responsible for handing out the reward for the capture of what the CA has now ruled was the wrong person.

From behind bars, political prisoners aid ‘habagat’ victims

InterAksyon.com

MANILA, Philippines — During the height of severe flooding brought by the tropical storm “Maring”-enhanced southwest monsoon, schools, corporations and ordinary citizens who spared the worst of the calamity responded swiftly to the needs of those who were affected, mobilizing in government offices, covered courts, even private homes to donate and repack relief goods for deployment.

But locked away within the Special Intensive Care Area of Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, 27 political detainees, people deemed “enemies of the state” and “high risk” threats to national security, also responded as soon as they of the disaster unfolding in the “outside.”

They pooled their earnings from the handicrafts they make and donated these through the human rights organization Karapatan, which, with allied organizations like Selda or the Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto, and Hustisya or Victims United for Justice, regularly visits and assists them.

The donation of the political prisoners went to a community in Manila’s Sampaloc district that had been hard-hit by the floods.

The detainees spend much of their days crafting everything from replica jeepneys, tissue holders and pen holders from folded strips of telephone directory pages; to greeting cards with pressed dried flowers; taking sacks apart and weaving these into hammocks.

They concede using rope to make the hammocks would be a lot easier except that this is not allowed inside the detention center.

Their handicrafts sell from P50 to P800 each, the earnings supplementing their meager food rations, buying medicines and personal needs and, yes, supporting their families.

And while they did need the money, this time, other people just needed it more.

Alan Jazmines, consultant of the National Democratic Front and, according to the government a ranking officer of the Communist Party of the Philippines, said the disaster was so widespread that it was shocking.

Jazmines, who has been detained since February 14, 2011, said he considered himself lucky to have family, friends, and former classmates who send money every now and then to support his needs in jail. So why not share with the flood victims what others have shared with him?

This was the same sentiment that prompted his fellow “poldets” — six of them toa cell — to donate to the flood victims.

Voltaire Guray, a peasant organizer, said it was important to take action and not leave the relief efforts solely in the hands of the government.

Charity did seem to agree with him, as he seemed to be in good spirits even if the rains cancelled a hearing of his case scheduled for August 20.

His last hearing had been in March.

The 27-year-old has been detained for a year and eight months on charges of illegal possession of explosives and ammunition, which he denies.

He spends his days doing human rights-themed paintings, aside from fashioning craft works from telephone directory pages.

Through their products, he hopes people on the “outside” become conscious that there are political prisoners in the country.

He said he feels no shame being in jail as he was not imprisoned for committing a crime but for his political beliefs and asserts that the charges against him were “made up.”

He wishes, however, that the wheels of justice would turn more swiftly for him and his fellow detainees, who he says are innocent of the crimes they are accused of committing, except for fighting for the rights of others.

Jazmines said it was ironic that the Aquino government does not recognize the existence of political prisoners, despite previous administrations since the time of then President Fidel Ramos doing the opposite.

In fact, he said former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo even promised to look into the cases of 300 political prisoners, who included 32 women, minors, elderly, and the sick, who were set to be released in 2001.

However, four of them are still in Camp Bagong Diwa; a fifth died in prison.

Detained thrice — twice during Martial Law for subversion, and currently for rebellion and 13 counts of murder — Jazmines, a former Asian Institute of Management professor and steel industry manager, says he and his fellow political detainees are being held “hostage to the peace talks” between communist rebels and the government, their release dependent on whether stalled negotiations move forward again.

But while jail may have robbed them of their physical freedom, it has not doused their desire to help their fellowmen.

NDF consultant’s arrest and detention inspires daughter’s activism

A sign calling for the release of NDF consultant Renante Gamara is painted on the sidewalk outside Camp Crame (Abigail Kwok, InterAksyon.com)

Abigail Kwok | InterAksyon.com

MANILA, Philippines — The arrest and detention of a Bayan Muna campaigner who is also a consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines has inspired his daughter to become a human rights activist campaigning for the release of political prisoners.

Nicolette, 23, youngest child and only daughter of Renante Gamara, who was arrested in Quezon province on April 4, 2012 for what his family and supporters describe as trumped up charges of kidnapping with murder, said she grew up often joining her father at trade union rallies and meetings and became sympathetic to the workers’ struggles.

But her father’s arrest, she said, prodded her to working full time in the mass movement.

Now spokesperson of the Free Renante Gamara and all Political Prisoners Movement, Nicolette said she yearned for her father, who authorities say is a ranking member of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

According to records of Karapatan, there are 430 political prisoners in the country as of December 2012, 14 of them, including Renante, NDFP consultants who communist rebels say are covered by the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees, which grants protection from arrest and detention to peace negotiators and to their staff and security personnel.

Nicolette said her father was illegally arrested, his name not even included in the original warrant but merely “inserted” by authorities.

“Our government has only proven that there is something wrong with the system and those critical of the system are harassed,” Nicolette said.

On Tuesday, as the nation observed Araw ng Kagitingan, which marks the Fall of Bataan and the subsequent Death March of World War II, over 30 members of the FRGM held a protest outside Camp Crame to call for the immediate release of political prisoners.

“Just like the heroes of the Bataan Deaath March, they are being made to suffer because of their love for our country and people,” Nicolette said.

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From Philippines guerrilla ‘post’ to hospital life, Vanessa’s journey of courage

Former NPA guerrilla Vanessa Delos Reyes talks to the author, Cameron Walker, in the Southern Medical Centre in Davao City, Philippines. Image: Cameron Walker/PMC

At first it was difficult to adapt to life as a guerrilla. Living in the mountains brings its own set of challenges. Newrecruits must get used to building temporary shelter, known as postings. Now Vanessa Delos Reyes is grappling with life in support of detainees after a crippling spinal wound.

Pacific Scoop: Special Report

By Cameron Walker

At the Southern Medical Centre of the Philippines in Davao City, I visited Vanessa Delos Reyes, a 27-year-old former guerrilla of the New People’s Army (NPA).

Vanessa is undergoing physical therapy to restore movement to her lower body after suffering a bullet wound to the spine while carrying an injured colleague to safety during an attack by the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Scout Rangers in 2011.

She had been a member of the NPA, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, since 2006.

Before arriving at the hospital, I had been told to expect to be searched by armed guards.  Instead, I was greeted with warm smiles and handshakes by Vanessa’s parents and a Catholic nun who is in charge of the hospital ward.

Delos Reyes was sitting on her bed.

She laughed when I said she didn’t really look like a terrorist.  It became apparent during the visit that we had a similar sense of humour.

 

From student to guerrilla

Vanessa Delos Reyes, the second youngest of four siblings, studied agriculture at the University of Southeastern Philippines.

Philippine universities adopted a number of American traditions while the country was a US colony in the early 20th century.  Students join sororities and fraternities for academic support and to take part in social and charitable activities.

Delos Reyes was elected leader of the Pi Sigma Delta co-fraternity by her fellow students.

She enjoyed her studies but like many Filipino students struggled with financial difficulties.  During her studies the university had become more commercialised, with government education budget cuts and large fee increases.

In the Philippines, large numbers of students drop out of degrees before finishing them, not due to a lack of academic merit but rather a lack of finances.  Many jobs available to students during their studies and even after graduation are casual, poorly paid and unable to properly cover the costs of study.

One of Delos Reyes siblings had to drop out of university due to financial constraints.

Delos Reyes had wondered during her student years why “students had to pay such high fees while those in government were rich and did not have to worry”.

In Philippine politics. the same last names appear continuously because the country’s political system is dominated by wealthy dynasties.

At university, Delos Reyes came into contact with Kabataang Makabayan (KM), the youth organisation of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, an alliance of underground left wing organisations, including the Communist Party.

She took part in political discussions with KM about political economy and the different forms of struggle in the Philippines.

 

Joining the NPA

After this, she decided to go on a five-month integration with the New People’s Army (NPA).

At first it was difficult to adapt to life as a guerrilla. Living in the mountains brings its own set of challenges, such as learning where to wash and go to the toilet.

New recruits must get used to building temporary shelter, known as postings, that can be assembled and disassembled quickly in case of an attack by the Armed Forces of the Philippines.  It is a highly mobile life.

At the end of her integration she was given the option of returning to the city or joining the NPA.  She decided to join.

 

Why an armed struggle?

I asked why she felt armed struggle in the Philippines, a country which in theory is a democracy, was necessary.  She answered that the country has an extreme division between rich and poor and there has been violent repression against those who have pushed for social change peacefully.

She cited the 2004 Hacienda Luisita massacre when police and soldiers opened fire on peasants during a land dispute at a huge landholding, owned by the family of the current Philippine President, killing seven and injuring scores more.

Not long before I arrived in the Philippines a 14-year old-boy had been killed when police opened fire on residents protesting the forced demolition of their homes in a Tarlac City urban poor community.

Delos Reyes said of the situation: “The poor only have stones to fight back against the guns of the army.  That is why we need armed struggle”.

She joined the NPA because she wanted to “help change the nature of Philippine society, so everyone is able to access services” such as education and healthcare.

 

Political killings

The year Delos Reyes joined the NPA, 2006, was a turbulent year in the Philippines.  In February, then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared a state of emergency and civil liberties were suspended.

The office of a newspaper critical of Arroyo was raided and those who attempted to hold rallies were beaten by riot police and arrested.

A group of left wing congressmen and congresswomen were forced to stay inside the Congress building for several weeks to avoid being arrested.  While one of their colleagues, Crispin Beltran, was arrested and held in detention for more than a year, after the state of emergency was lifted.

Under Arroyo’s administration murders and disappearances of trade unionists, peasant leaders, progressive clergy and student activists by the armed forces became common place.

To many observers the events seemed eerily similar to the situation during the Marcos martial law dictatorship (1972 – 1986).  The spate of extrajudicial killings has not come to an end under the rule of the current President Aquino.

 

The NPA’s rural role

The Philippine media often report when the NPA undertake tactical offensives against the Armed Forces of the Philippines and paramilitary groups.  Yet it would be a mistake to think that armed attacks are the only activity of the NPA.  As the Philippine academic Paz Verdades M. Santos wrote in her essay in the edited collection Primed and Purposeful: Armed Groups and Human Security Efforts in the Philippines (2010):

Though it wages a “people’s war”, the NPA is essentially a political rather than a military force.  Aside from armed struggle, its primary tasks are mass base building and land reform.

Delos Reyes explained that she and other NPA members would speak to people in poor rural communities about their problems and work to find solutions.

Rural communities have been badly neglected by the government and lack basic services, such as healthcare.  NPA medics conduct medical missions in isolated communities.  The guerrillas also help mediate in family disputes and disputes between peasants over farm boundaries, as well as help them negotiate better prices for their produce.

The level of services provided by the underground movement is so advanced in some areas that it is referred to as the “underground government”.

 

A near fatal encounter

Vanessa lived as a guerrilla for nearly five years until May 30, 2011, at around 1pm when a group of Scout Rangers from the Armed Forces of the Philippines attacked her camp in Davao Oriental.

As the NPA fighters tried to repel the attack, two guerrillas were injured and two were killed.  Delos Reyes ran into open fire to rescue one of the injured.  While carrying her wounded colleague to safety she was hit in the spine.

Vanessa was taken by her colleagues to a safe place and they conducted first aid.  They took her to a hospital in Surigao del Sur.  She was completely paralysed from the waist down.  There was a 50/50 chance whether she would live or die.  Medical attention in Davao was required.

As a goodwill gesture in response to the NPA previously releasing captured soldiers, the Vice-Mayor of Davao, Rodrigo Duterte, sent a private plane to fly Delos Reyes from Surigao del Sur to the Southern Medical Centre of the Philippines in Davao.

The human rights organisation Karapatan and Exodus for Justice and Peace, a religious organisation that works to build a peaceful settlement to the conflict in the Philippines, helped facilitate the safe transfer.

Vice-Mayor Duterte told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that once in Davao the authorities could arrest her but he would make sure that her rights were respected.|

 

Under armed guard

Delos Reyes was initially under heavy military guard at the Southern Medical Centre.  This must have been a strange sight considering she was paralysed from the waist down and lying in bed with no ability or desire to escape.

She was now considered hors de combat (out of fight), according to the Geneva Convention.  A fighter is hors de combat if they are in the power of an adverse party and are unable to take part in any further hostilities due to their health condition.

Despite her serious health condition, the Armed Forces attempted to have her removed from the hospital and brought into full army custody.  The courts blocked this request.

 

Free Vanessa Movement formed

In July 2011, four charges of frustrated murder (attempted murder) were filed against Delos Reyes. One charge has already been dropped due to a lack of evidence.

Delos Reyes family, university friends, her former fraternity, church people and human rights organisations, such as Karapatan, SELDA (the ex-political detainees organisation), women’s organisation Gabriela and the Union of People’s Lawyers Mindanao have formed a Free Vanessa Movement to push for the three remaining charges to be dropped.

They argue the charges are politically motivated and not based on concrete evidence.  It is yet to be disclosed who Vanessa is alleged to have attempted to murder.

Delos Reyes has also received strong support from Luz Ilagan, a Davao resident and congresswoman from the Gabriela Partylist.  In a press release Ilagan wrote:

“Vanessa has manifested sheer courage in living out her political beliefs. Some may not agree with the path she took, but the fact remains that she is proof of how women and the youth are desirous of real political change, and that they play a role in the over-all struggle for genuine change and democracy.”

 

The Hernandez Doctrine

The Hernandez Doctrine, an important Philippine Supreme Court decision, held that those who have engaged in insurrection against the government should only be charged with the political offence of rebellion and not multiple common crimes.

This legal precedent, which originated in the 1950s case of Amado V. Hernandez, a union leader and alleged sympathiser of the Philippines’ first Communist Party the PKP, has been upheld a number of times by the courts.

A number of legal commentators argue that this precedent should also be upheld in the case of Delos Reyes and other NPA fighters – if they are going to be charged with anything it should be rebellion, not common crimes, such as frustrated murder.

 

Ongoing medical treatment

Delos Reyes’ supporters also argue that as a hors de combat, she is entitled to medical treatment and other rights under international humanitarian law so the charges should also be dropped on humanitarian grounds.  Her medical condition means she will never be able to join the guerrillas in the mountains again.

At the Southern Medical Centre of the Philippines, Delos Reyes has been able to undergo therapy to try and restore movement to her legs and feet.  She can now walk a few steps with the help of a walker – a remarkable improvement on a year ago, when she had completely lost any movement or feeling in the lower half of her body.

Although to travel any further distance a wheel chair is required.

The Free Vanessa Movement has started fundraising to pay for Vanessa’s ongoing medical costs.  During my visit Vanessa showed me her medical bill for 550,000 pesos (NZ $16, 142) – a lot of money in New Zealand but even more for a Filipino family of limited means.

 

Future prospects

I asked Vanessa Delos Reyes what she would like to do once her legal difficulties are over.  She answered that she would continue her therapy but would also like to work for SELDA, the organisation of ex-political detainees.

“I can’t walk at a rally but I can do paperwork” she said.

No matter where one stands on the political spectrum, it would be hard not to be moved by Vanessa’s bravery under fire or continued commitment to her principles, even in the face of an on-going legal battle and an injury which will have lifelong consequences.

Cameron Walker is a law/arts student at the University of Auckland.  From November to December 2012 he took part in an exposure programme with the Philippines’ human rights movement.

OPAPP Eyes Release of NDF Detainees

Francis T. Wakefield | Manila Bulletin

February 21, 2013

MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) is looking into the release of detained political consultants of the National Democratic Front (NDF) through the legal process, according to OPAPP spokesperson Polly Michelle Cunanan.

Cunanan made the statement after Karapatan, Bayan Muna, Gabriela, Bayan, Selda, Hustisya, Kilusang Mayo Uno, Kabataan and Desaparecidos held a protest rally outside the OPAPP headquarters in Pasig City on Wednesday.

Cunanan said OPAPP representatives took note of their grievances, got their contact numbers and assured them that their requests will be processed.

“On the matter of the release of political prisoners, OPAPP is conducting an internal review process in accordance with our laws and court processes as this remains a priority,” Cunanan said amid calls of some groups to free detained NDF consultants.

“OPAPP is pursuing different paths to a durable peace, including the peace negotiations and everything that it entails. Besides the informal talks which are happening outside the public view, OPAPP is pursuing socio-economic and development programs in the grassroots, and leading the discussion and actions in government on the release of political detainees,” she said.

The NDF, which is the political arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA), has been pushing the government to free its detained consultants allegedly covered by the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) as a precondition to resume formal talks that have been stalled since February 2011.

JASIG is among the agreements signed by both parties to allow those involved in peace negotiations to freely discuss and move without any threat of being arrested. The NDF insisted that consultants arrested by the government are protected by this agreement, and should be released.

In July 2011, panels of both sides flew to The Netherlands to verify if the NDF’s detained consultants were indeed JASIG-covered. They agreed to open a sealed envelope stored in a safety deposit box kept by the parties eight years ago in a bank. The envelope was supposed to hold the photos and aliases of the NDF’s consultants.

“But when they opened the envelope, it did not contain actual photos of alleged NDF consultants using their aliases, but only diskettes allegedly containing photos, and these could not be decrypted,” Cunanan said.

“As a logical consequence of the NDF’s failure to comply with the terms of the verification mechanism, JASIG has been rendered inoperative,” she said.

Cunanan said that JASIG remains as the biggest challenge in the negotiations with the NDF. “But the government remains committed to the peace process. We will still be the last to leave the peace table.”

Last December 2012, Special Representatives of both parties met in The Netherlands and agreed to observe a 27-day ceasefire and resume talks in early 2013 to continue discussions under the Special Track.

They also agreed to discuss the forging of a Common Declaration of National Unity and Just Peace which will prompt the immediate implementation of a truce.

Negros church worker accused of murder and being a rebel decries police treatment

Julius D. Mariveles | InterAksyon.com

A policeman stands guard with an assault rifle outside the office of Branch 60 of the Regional Trial Court where suspected NPA member Aniceta Rojo was brought following her arrest. JULIUS MARIVELES/InterAksyon.com

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines – A Catholic pastoral worker who was nabbed inside a church convent decried what she called the “Gestapo-like” tactics employed by the police’s Regional Intelligence Unit when they served the arrest warrant against her Friday morning.

“They did not present any document and suddenly grabbed me and hauled me down a flight of stairs into a waiting vehicle,” Aniceta Yaun Rojo told InterAksyon.com in Cadiz City, where she and several others have been charged in court for allegedly being communist rebels responsible for the death of an Army lieutenant more than two years ago.

The 49-year-old Rojo, a mother of four and grandmother of two, was having breakfast with several other church workers inside the convent of the San Juan Bautista Parish around 8:30 a.m. in Bago City, just south of here, when a woman who identified herself as “Juvy” told her some people wanted to talk to her downstairs.

Rojo, a resident of Barangay Sum-ag in this city, has been a pastoral worker with the Bacolod diocese for many years and has also worked with several non-government organizations in Negros Occidental.

She said she told Juvy to let whoever was looking for her come up into the convent.

Three men, all in plainclothes, came up and “I told them to sit down so we can talk but they did not and one of them told me that I have to answer for a crime,” she said.

None of them presented any identification or even the warrant itself, Rojo added.

When she asked them to wait for parish priest Rodolfo Tan, the four became impatient and told her she had to go with them.

“Juvy then told me that she wanted to talk to me near the stairs but once I was there, she forced me to go down,” Rojo said.

Rojo, who stands less than five feet, screamed for help and one of the parish workers, Nilda Plomeda, grabbed her arm and engaged in a tug-of-war with the policemen, who easily overpowered her.

Rojo was forced into a waiting vehicle and taken to the Bago City Police Office where the RIU operatives had the arrest recorded.

She was then brought to the Cadiz City Police Office, about two hours’ drive north of here, where she was eventually informed that she was charged along with 24 others for the death of 1st Lt. Archie Polenzo.

Polenzo, an officer of the Army’s 62nd Infantry Battalion, was killed March 7, 2010 in a New People’s Army ambush in Sitio Aluyan, Barangay Bonifacio, Cadiz City.

The NPA, however, said the Army initiated the encounter in which Polenzo was killed.

Court records showed the charges against Rojo and the others was filed by then acting City Prosecutor Eduardo Sayson and had as witnesses Privates First Class Oliver Porten and Ray Fontanalgo.

Most of those charged are known to local media as leaders of activist labor organizations or non-government organizations like Isidro Castillo, former regional chairman of the National Federation of Sugar Workers, a labor federation that has consistently been tagged by the Army as a front of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

Wild goose chase

Rojo’s family and human rights workers were led on a wild goose chase Friday as they searched for her.

Less than an hour after the arrest, Rojo’s husband, Rodel, an artist, immediately went to the headquarters of the Bago City police where he was at first denied a copy of the blotter entry.

Rodel said they did not receive any subpoena related to the murder charge filed against his wife.

“We do not know a thing about this case,” he said.

Learning that the arresting team and his wife had already left Bago, Rodel sought the assistance of lawyers and human rights workers.

A check by a reporter with Cadiz City police chief Superintendent Noel Manaay around 10 a.m. but was told that they did not have Rojo in their custody.

It was only past 11 a.m. when Manaay finally confirmed Rojo was being “processed” at the station and was to be presented to Judge Renato Muñez of Regional Trial Court Branch 60, where the murder complaint was filed.

Rodel and human rights workers rushed to the Cadiz City Police Office but were informed upon arriving there that Rojo had been brought to the City Health Office.

They failed to find her there but were told by health workers that her blood pressure had shot up to 210 over 130 when she was checked at the emergency room.

The RIU operatives, however, did not let her rest long and, after being given medicine, she was immediately brought to the RTC located at the nearby City Hall.

‘No comment’

The team finally caught up with Rojo at the RTC where she was accompanied by four RIU operatives.

Lawyer Rey Gorgonio asked the policemen why they had arrested Rojo but one of said they had been instructed not to issue statements to anyone.

“We were told to just refer all questions to Col. Senoron,” a male operative said, referring to RIU chief, Supt. William Senoron, who could not be reached for comment.

“A lot of human rights violations were committed,” Gorgonio said when asked about the manner in which Rojo was arrested.

He pointed out that the policemen did not present the warrant as required by law and did not even coordinate with the local police in carrying out the arrest.

Worse, they did not present any identification and did not even read Rojo her rights under the Miranda doctrine.

“They just told me that I have all the rights but only when we reached Cadiz City,” she said.

The court issued a commitment order for Rojo to be detained at the Cadiz City Jail where another suspect in the same case, NGO worker Zarah Alvarez, is jailed.

Fred Caña of Karapatan called Rojo’s arrest part of the malicious filing of charges by the Army against human rights and development workers.

“There is no other intent but to harass them and make their lives miserable,” he said.

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Photos by Julius Mariveles

Detained guard’s kin ask CA for help

Dennis Carcamo | Philippine Star

January 25, 2013

MANILA, Philippines – The relatives of a security guard arrested for reportedly being a ranking member of the Communist Party of the Philippines will troop to Court of Appeals in Manila for a hearing on the case, the rights group Karapatan said on Friday.

Karapatan members will join the legal counsels from the National Union of People’s Lawyers and relatives of Rolly Panesa for the hearing of the writ of habeas corpus this afternoon at the CA building in Ma. Orosa St., Ermita, Manila.

Respondents in the case are Insp. Bernardino Camus of Metro Manila District Jail warden, Maj. Gen. Alan Luga of the Southern Luzon Command, Maj. Gen. Eduardo Del Rosario of the 2nd Infantry Division, Chief Superintendent James Melad and Police Senior Superintendent Manuel Abu.

Karapatan said Panesa, a security guard of the Megaforce Security, was arrested on Oct. 5, 2011 by police and military personnel.

The group claimed that Panesa was mistaken for “Benjamin Mendoza”, whom the military alleged as a high-ranking official of the Communist Party of the Philippines with a bounty of P5.6 million.