By Ronron
March 26, 2007
An international people’s tribunal based in the Netherlands found Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her government guilty of human rights violations following a three-day session at The Hague.
In a public forum on Sunday afternoon (Sunday evening, Manila time), Permanent People’s Tribunal (PPT) session President Francois Houtart read from the 13-page verdict: “The tribunal, having considered the evidence before it, is of the opinion that the reported killings, torture and forced disappearances fall under responsibility of the Philippine government and are by no way justified in terms of necessary measures against terrorism.”
The PPT, which is an international opinion tribunal composed of “law experts, writers and other cultural and community leaders from 31 countries, probed on the Philippine’s human rights situation after receiving complaints in “early 2006 by a broad coalition of social and religious organizations, based in the Philippines as well as in Europe and Canada.”
The seven-man jury, led by Houtart, heard a total of 21 witnesses and resource persons from the Philippines during its three-day session, held on March 21 to 23. The 21, however, did not include representatives from the Philippine government since the invitation coursed through the consular offices at The Hague and in Rome apparently were not heeded to.
On Monday morning, a video of the reading of the verdict at The Hague was shown at the Sulo Hotel in Quezon City by the Philippine Coordinating Secretariat of the PPT. It was followed by a press conference by the following human rights advocate group: Hustisya, Desaparecidos, SELDA, and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan).
“The extension and the systematic nature of the violations of the rights of the Filipino people committed by the governments of Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and with the support and full awareness of the government of George Walker Bush, qualify the same violations as crimes against humanity, with all the consequences for the persons who are responsible for them,” Houtart said.
“Such violations must be stopped immediately,” he added.
The PPT received a total of 839 cases of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines from the year 2001 until the first quarter of this year, submitted by the various groups, headed by Karapatan.
It noted the participation of military men in some cases, and the “absence of any serious attempt to assure an investigation on the killings,” as claimed by the witnesses.
“The wealth and consistency of the oral and written documentation made available through witnesses and expert reports, has convinced the PPT that each and all of the three charges presented against Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her government, and against George Walker Bush and his government, are substantiated,” Houtart said.
“The PPT underlines that the charges cannot be considered separately nor independently. The atrocities of extra-judicial killings, of massacres, of tortures, of communities destroyed and dispersed are the visible and dramatic expression of one strategy… ,” he went on.
Houtart said the PPT found “unequivocal evidences that the militaries have a central role in the greatest majority of the scenarios of human rights violations in the Philippines.”
And “to justify all illegal actions and their impunity,” the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Houtart said, joined with the US government’s global war on terror.
“The Philippine government and the Bush administration have knowingly and willingly colluded with each other in implementing the US’s so-called “war on terror” in Southeast Asia and in the Philippines in violation of national sovereignty and territorial integrity, violating the Philippine Constitution which bans the presence of foreign troops and nuclear weapons on Philippines soil,” Houtart said.
And with all its findings, Houtart said “the PPT denounces as unacceptable the inclusion of the Government of the Philippines in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UN HRC).”
During the press conference, BAYAN Secretary General Renato Reyes, Jr. said the various cause-oriented groups will lobby for the delisting of the Philippines from the UN HRC following the PPT’s verdict against the Arroyo government.
“Though this is not legally enforceable, the PPT verdict is morally binding. This result will be forwarded to other international bodies like the European Union, the United Nations, and other international organizations to the embarrassment of the Arroyo government,” Reyes said.
He said to celebrate their victory, many cause-oriented groups will hold a rally today (Tuesday) at 1pm at the Plaza Miranda in Quiapo, Manila City to make the verdict known to the wider public.
Further, should the opposition win in the upcoming mid-term elections and outnumber the allies of the administration in Congress, the verdict, Reyes said, can be used as ground to advance another impeachment move against Arroyo.
“Arroyo and Bush are criminals, according to the PPT. And she (Arroyo) could no longer redeem her self because the truth has already come out. This should lead to her removal from power,” Dee Ayroso of Desaparecidos said in the same conference.
Sought for comment on the PPT’s verdict, Philippine Defense Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane, Jr. told reporters in Camp Aguinaldo: “What is that? A kangaroo court? An International kangaroo court?”
Ebdane said the it was not fair for the PPT to accuse the Arroyo government of violating human rights because it did not take the testimony of any government representative.
“We use to say that a person is presumed innocent until he is proven otherwise. Nowadays, it seems another thing. In the Hague, or even in other courts, they should first hear both sides. How can they conclude when they have not even talked to the organizations or the agencies concerned?” said Ebdane.
The Netherlands Ambassador to Manial Robert Vornis echoed the same comment: “It would seem to me that the verdicts of the tribunal was a foregone conclusion. And therefore, it is a tribunal that is, to me, at least, more of a political exercise than a judicial exercise.”
“So, from that perspective, I think, perhaps, we should think of it more as a kangaroo tribunal than anything else,” he added.
But Reyes said branding the PPT as a kangaroo court would not be appropriate because it was the Philippine government who opted not to send its representatives to the hearing of the charges.
“Why, when the Philippine government was not invited to the US Senate inquiry a few days back, we sent our officials there, but in this hearing, we did not despite the invitation? So the government should not take it against the tribunal or the complainants,” Reyes said.
Asked if the will take any action against the PPT, Ebdane said the Department of Justice (DOJ) would be the better agency to decide whether to file a protest against the body or just ignore it.
The Philippines was earlier slapped with similar judgment by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings, Professor Philip Alston, and later by the Malacañang-created Melo Commission./DMS
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