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by Rizalene P. Acac
The progressive group Suara Bangsamoro has viewed the writ of amparo cannot be an effective tool in stopping human rights violations.
Amirah Ali Lidasan, national president of the group, said yesterday in a press conference the writ of amparo is not a guarantee that the enforced disappearances and abductions will end.
Lidasan said law enforcement agencies blamed for most of the human rights violations might not follow the order of the court.
Calling it a “band aid” solution of the government’s lapses in addressing the violations, Lidasan said her group and human rights group Karapatan, will explore possibility of using it for the release of Rahman Camili and saabdurah ala and Moro civilians who were abducted.
Aminah Ala, Saabdurah Ala’s wife, who was also present during the press conference, said although there were no indications that he was still alive, her family will continue the search for her husband as she is hopeful that he can eventually be found.
“Itutuloy ko pa rin ang paghahanap sa kanya,” she said.
Ala, a Muslim community leader, was abducted four years ago near his welding shop in Maa, Davao City, by unidentified men while Camili, amember of Suara Bangsamoro, was shot and abducted in his residence in Madaum, Tagum City.
Camili was first abducted in 2003, allegedly perpetrated by the military.
Their kidnappings came following the Davao International Airport and the Sasa Wharf bombing in 2003.
Camili was tagged as one of the suspects in the two bombings, including the 2004 Valentine’s Day bombing at the Davao City Overland Transport Terminal which killed a 12-year old boy.
Lidasan said they also urge Muslim legislators and government lawyers to help them in fighting for the rights of their people.
Suara Bangsamoro sponsored a Human Rights Forum for stakeholders yesterday as a jum-off activity for the International Human Rights Day on December 10.
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Suara Bangsamoro National President Amirah Ali Lidasan talking vs the Human Rights Violetions against the moro people. Photo by Miki Reyes/suara, Iligan City
The Suara Bangsamoro and the Kawagib Moro Human Rights Organizaiton led the commemoration of the 59th year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in different cities in Mindanao.
Suara Bangsamoro presented the Report on the Human Rights Violation committed against the Bangsamoro people in Cotabato City on December 4, Davao City on December 6 and on December 10 a simltaneous forum in Iligan City, Zamboanga City, and General Santos City.
According to Suara Bangsamoro, despite of the on-going peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the two Moro Liberation Fronts in Mindanao, there is still no atmosphere of peace in the Moro areas in Mindanao. The combined anti-terror policies of the US government and the Philippine government give license for state agents to disregard the civil and political rights of the Moro people.
Suara Bangsamoro added that the Moro people continue to face a militarized community, most of them becoming more vulnerable with the deployment of massive government forces and foreign troops in their communities. According to the Armed Forces of the Philippines, four brigades were deployed only in pursuit of “Muslim militants”, roughly more than ten thousand government troops are dispersed in the Moro communities.
Kawagib Moro Human Rights has documented at least 22 types of violations committed by the Philippine government against the Moro people. Foremost affected in the list is the 78,000 Moro persons who were displaced due to indicriminate bombings and strafings in their communities as a consequence of President Arroyo’s declaration of full-launch war in the Moro areas.
According to Kawagib often Moro civilians are affected in the military operations against the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Civilians, and a high number of children also fall prey to the hot pursuit operations against Abu Sayyaf and JI militants. Kawagib has documented several cases of extrajudicial killing, death due to indiscriminate firing, frustrated killing, massacre, torture, physical assault or injuries as a consequence of the military operations.
The violation to the civil and political rights of the Moro people are often disregarded because of the impact of the “war on terror” on the views and opinions of the public on the Moro people. There were several cases of illegal arrests, detention and search and siezure documented by Kawagib in their report on the violations on human rights of the Moro people. There was also a case of a victim being denied of medical attention and of decent burial and refusal to tender remains.
Threat, harassment and intimidation on Moro activists and religious leaders were also part of the violations on the Moro people. On December 10 last year, the names of Moro activists belonging to Suara Bangsamoro, Kawagib ang Liga ng Kabataang Moro were written in streamers displayed in the main roads and highways of Cotabato City and Midsayap, North Cotabato calling them terrorists and their organizations as communist fronts.
Religious leaders in Basilan and Sulu are often targetted as possible Abu Sayyaf or MILF members and sympathizers. Fifteen ustadz (religious leaders) were included in the warrant of arrest issued last July against those who were suspected of beheading 10 element of Marines in Basilan.
A leader of the Ulama Coucil for Peace and Development in Sulu, Ustadz Yahiya Sarahadil Abdulla, protested upon seeing his picture in a Rewards for Justice Recognition Handbook being distributed by Filipino and American troops in Talipao, Sulu. His picture was used to identify Yassir Igasan, that according to intelligence reports was the chosen leader of the ASG after Khadaffy Janjalani’s death last year.
The leaders of the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front were also tagged as local criminals as warrants of arrests were issued against them for the cases of unresolved bombings in Mindanao this year. According to Suara Bangsamoro, implicating Ustadz Habier Malik of the MNLF and Al-Hajj Murad of the MILF is undermining the current peace negotiation and makes the people question the sincerity of the Arroyo administration in the peace talks.
Suara Bangsamoro laments the conditions of the Moro people and also added that the presence of foreign troops will worsen their conditions. There is an undetermined number of US soldiers from the airforce, marines and the army doing a medical mission and other civic activities program in public but also involve themselves in covert combat operations that often affects the areas of the MNLF and the MILF.
Next year another round of Balikatan military exercises will resume in different parts of Moro provinces. Added to this is the possible training of Australian troops as a commitment of the Arroyo administration in the Status of Forces Agreement it signed this year with the Australian Government.
Suara Bangsamoro lambasts the government form turning Moro communities into a den of live targets for the “war on terror” military exercises of local and foreign troops. It also accuses the government of disregarding the lives of the Moro people and reiterates that her administration is no bringer of peace to the Moro community, only death.
Suara Bangsamoro and Kawagib joined the rest of the Filipino people in condemning the Arroyo administration and calling for her ouster as one means to stop the incessant attack on the rights of the Moro people.
In light of Senator Antonio Trillanes and General Danilo Lim’s call for the military’s withdrawal of support to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the Suara Bangsamoro joins the rest of the Filipino people in the street march calling for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to step down.
“The Moro people have suffered so much at the machinations of the president to stay in power, their sentiments were reflected in the calls of Senator Trillanes and Brig. Gen. Lim for the president to step down,” said Amirah Ali Lidasan, national president of Suara Bangsamoro.
Lidasan hopes that both will also expose President Arroyo’s atrocities against the Moro people and President Arroyo’s penchant use of the Moro “terrorist” hysteria as a way to cover up mounting calls for her to step down.
“For the Moro evacuees in Basilan and Sulu, Senator Trillanes and Brig. Gen. Lim’s actions against Arroyo is more appealing than boxing champ Manny Pacquiao’s visit to the military units stationed in Basilan,” said Lidasan stating that the Pacqiao’s actions support the military’s continuing offensives against the Moro people.
It would be remembered that during the Philippine Marine’s offensives in Basilan last July and August, Senator Trillanes accused Malacanang of using the atrocities to cover up the crisis in the Philippine Military.
Lidasan also hopes that should the military command and its rank and file heed the call of Trillanes and Lim, it would create a pause in the on-going military offensives in Basilan and Sulu.
“I only hope that no bomb would blow off tomorrow or the next day. It would be foolhardy for the government and President Arroyo to concoct another “terrorist” bombing just so it can avert the public’s attention from the mounting crisis brought about by Trillanes and Lim’s actions,” said Lidasan.
Lidasan cites the suspicions mounting about Malacanang’s hand in the Glorietta and Batasan complex bombing as the president’s attempt to veer away the public’s attention against the impeachment process and the mounting call against her stay in power.
Lidasan added that the Moro people will heave a sigh of relief if Arroyo will step down as it would ease the attack on the civil liberties of the Moro people who are constantly being tagged as the perpetrators of the several bombings that happened in the past months.
The Suara Bangsamoro resents the arrests of Moro civilians, the raids in their communities and the call for military offensives in Moro areas just so President Arroyo, her police and military, can immediately close further investigations by pinning the blame on the Moro people by hyping up the “Moro terrorist” hysteria.
The Suara Bangsamoro will also march alongside the Filipino workers, drivers and urban poor people in tomorrow’s commemoration of Bonifacio Day, the day of the toiling masses, as they call for the stop to the rising cost of prices due to the unabated oil price hikes and the number of political activists being killed in the country.
The military offensive ordered by the Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon in dealing with the protest made by Senator Antonio Trillanes and Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim show’s the Arroyo regime’s way of dealing with people who are critical of her administration.
“While the politcal crisis brought about by the protest of Trillanes and Lim was shortlived, the calls for Gloria Macapaagal-Arroyo to step down continue,” said Amirah Ali Lidasan, national president of Suara Bangsamoro.
However, Esperon’s reprisal against Trillanes and Lim should not be directed at the driver’s transport strike and people’s protest tomorrow against the rising price increases caused by the unabating oil price hikes.
Suara Bangsamoro stands with the Moro drivers and urban poor who will join the transport strikes tomorrow in different parts of the country. Suara Bangsamoro feels for the Moro people’s plight as they are being doubly attacked by the Arroyo government, military offensives on one side and rising poverty on the other.
“The Moro people could relate to the calls of Trillanes and Lim for the President to step down because this administration has brought misery to the Moro people,” said Lidasan adding that the footages showing tanks entering the Manila Peninsula reminds every Moro people of the tanks entering their villages affecting residents, mostly women and children.
“The Moro people had hoped that Trillanes and Lim’s appeal to the military to withdraw their support from the Arroyo administration will give respite to the military offensives in Moro areas,” said Lidasan.
Lidasan fears that the Gen. Esperon’s military response will be seen as his supposed “victory” over Trillanes and Lim’s protest, which will all the more make the president indebted to the military. This supposed victory will embolden the military to commit more atrocities against the people, especially those who are critical of the Arroyo administration, in the name of securing her term.
Senator Trillanes in his speech today also talked about the rising political killings in our country, which was the headline two days earlier as United Nations Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings Prof. Philip Alston presented his official report where he explicitly stated that the AFP are responsible for the more than 900 activists killed during Arroyo’s presidency.
