Human rights catastrophe in Mindanao - will you help us take action?

My U.S. tax dollars at work via the $30 million aid to the Philippine military.."a few minutes past seven [am]...My husband was outside the house...I saw five soldiers come...straight to him...one of them hit and kicked him...they ganged up on him...hit him with their guns. He tried to stand up...to protect our 7 year old daughter...they shot him...Our three children...witnessed their father being killed...his skull was broken and his left eye popped out.

click on the title to link to the full report.

Peacebuilding update: Philippines

A good up-to-date summary of the peace situation in the Philippines by fellow peace worker Susan Granados.

MINDANAO PEOPLE'S PEACE AGENDA

:: On July 23, 2009, the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) declared its suspension of military operations or SOMO against the MILF.

:: Two days later, July 25, the MILF issued a corresponding order to all its field commands to suspend all military actions or SOMA against government forces.

:: The SOMO and SOMA were declared after almost one year of renewed fighting between the Philippine Government and the MILF that resulted after an aborted signing of an initialed Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) between the two parties. On October 14, 2008, the Supreme Court of the Philippines declared this draft agreement unconstitutional, leading to further escalation of hostilities that displaced more than 600,000 people in Central Mindanao.

:: In late 2008, the formidable Bishops Ulama Conference (BUC), a convergence of high-ranking religious leaders who have resolved to give an interfaith dimension to the continuing search for peace in Mindanao, had tasked a section of the “academic community” in Mindanao to conduct a series of community dialogues and consultations covering the whole of Mindanao on how to put the peace process forward after the MOA-AD controversy.

:: Dubbed “Konsult Mindanaw,” these dialogues began in February 2009 and would soon end. About 800 focus group discussions (FGDs) have been slated to be conducted in eight Mindanao regional groupings, namely: Basilan-Sulu-Tawi-Tawi, Zamboanga Peninsula, Davao region, Caraga, Central Mindanao, Socsksargen, Northern Mindanao, and Lanao region.

:: While government-inspired, Konsult Mindanaw is being done independent of government. It has been made sure that in the dialogues, ample representations cover various sectors among Muslims, indigenous peoples, Protestants and Catholics. The sectors include women, youth, rural and urban poor, local government units, nongovernmental organizations, internally displaced persons, traditional leaders, religious groups, academics, business practitioners and professionals. Special group discussions are being conducted among artists, armed groups, and children. It is hoped that the result of these community dialogues would put the Mindanao peace process back to its track with more vigor and resolved.

:: In February 2009, a civil society – led consultation process was conceived and is currently being undertaken by seven major peace networks in Mindanao, under the umbrella network of networks “Mindanao Peaveweavers” (MPW). Named “Mindanao Peoples Peace Agenda” (MPPA), the objectives include: (1) the development of a common understanding of a Mindanao Peoples Peace Agenda (MPPA) among the MPW member networks and the wider Mindanao peace constituency, and (2) the translation of these Mindanao Peoples Peace Agenda into public policy and lobby points that would help increase engagement of civil society and grassroots in formal policymaking processes in the country.

:: The consultation process hopes to end in a Peoples Peace Assembly to be held in October or November 2009, with the end in view of arriving at consensus points to support and help sustain the peace process in Mindanao.


GRP–MILF PEACE TALKS

:: On July 28-29, 2009, the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Panels finally ended their impasse and held a special meeting in Kuala Lumpur and issued a Joint Statement which included agreements on the following:

.. Mutual effort to sustain both the Government’s Suspension of Military Offensives (SOMO) and the MILF’s Suspension of Military Actions (SOMA).
.. Acknowledgment of MOA-AD as an unsigned and yet initialed document, and commitment by both parties to reframe the consensus points with the end in view of moving towards the comprehensive compact to bring about a negotiated political settlement.
.. Work for a framework agreement on the establishment of a mechanism on the protection of non-combatants in the armed conflict.
.. Work for a framework agreement on the establishment of International Contact Group (ICG) of groups of states and non-state organizations to accompany and mobilize international support for the peace process.

:: In this same statement, it was mentioned that the GRP Panel Chairman took serious note of the concern of the MILF on the implication of the exclusion from the SOMO of some MILF commanders tagged as “rogues” by the Government.

:: The formal resumption of the GRP-MILF Peace Talks was set to the third week of August with two issues top in their agenda: Formation of the International Contract Group and setting up of a mission that will protect non-combatants from harm’s way. But the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) postponed the resumption of peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

:: The two parties would also discuss the possible return of the International Monitoring Team (IMT) and the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group (AHJAG). But decision on their return is still hazy as this will require the concurrence of contributing countries.

MILF CONSULTATION AMONG THEIR PEOPLE

:: The MILF conducted Mindanao-wide consultation meeting of grassroots leaders on August 7- 12, 2009.

:: Ghazali Jaafar, Vice Chairman of the MILF for Political Affairs, said the purpose of the consultation is to provide updates on the recent developments on the peace process between the government and MILF, particularly on the four issues reached by the government and MILF during the special meeting of the two parties’ peace negotiating panels in Malaysia last July 28-29, 2009.

:: Jaafar also said the consultation is not as massive as what the MILF had on May 29-31 in Darapanan, where at least a million people came and participated in said direct consultation.


GRP TALKS WITH THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC FRONT OF THE PHILIPPINES (NDFP)

:: The NDFP is the umbrella organization of revolutionary forces in the Philippines led by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People's Army (NPA).

:: Secretary Avelino Razon of the Office of the Presidential Assistant on the Peace Process (OPAPP) recently announced that peace talks with the NDFP will resume in Oslo, Norway in October instead of this year as originally set.

:: Peace talks between the Philippine government and the NDFP reached an impasse in 2004. A year later (2005) the Joint Agreement on Security and Immunity Guarantee (JASIG), providing “safe conduct pass” to panel members to the talks, was suspended.

:: In 2008, a Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) was signed between the two parties. CARHRIHL is the first out of four main agenda in the GRP-NDF peace talks. The other three are: (1) Social and Economic Reform, (2) Political and Constitutional Reform, and (3) Disposition of Forces.

:: At the moment, a series of regional consultations are being conducted by the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP), which is supported by the Norwegian Ecumenical Peace Platform (NEPP), all over the Philippines on a draft agreement between the Philippine government and the NDF on Social and Economic Reforms.

:: These consultations are spearheaded by the Ecumenical Bishops Forum (EBF), the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches (PCEC--a member of PEPP), together with the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and the Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines (AMRSP).

Peacebuilding and Transformation....

click on the title for a well written exposition on the meaning of peace - "Shalom" or "Salaam," in our context, as Dann traces the genesis of our work for peace in Mindanao Philippines.

Recommendations from the fields of Mindanao

Since 9-11, the U.S. has been poviding $30 million in military assistance annually as part of a counter-terror operation in the Philippines. This assistance is being subsumed in the larger civil war between Bangsamoror freedom fighters and the Philippine government. Unfortunately, this puts the U.S. on the side of one of the most corrupt governments in Asia, where impunity is widespread.

Human rights groups such as Amnesty international, Human Rights watch and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions have all conducted and issued extensive reports on this in the past several years. The Committee to Protect Journalists ranks the Philippines 6th in it's world impunity index, worse than Mexico, Russia and Afghanistan. Filipino humanitarian workers in Mindanao recently found over 200 houses burned by the Philippine army, which is directly supported by American tax dollars. Peacebuilders field workers have witnessed the deployment in central Mindanao of “ghost units” of the Philippine military, operating without insignia or identification.

To top it off, Melissa Roxas, an American woman from California volunteering as a community health outreach worker, was recently abducted, tortured and accused of being a communist. Evidence suggests that this was carried out by agents of the Philippine military. This has been widely reported in Philippine news, but not in the U.S.

These are just several examples of the many human rights problems in the Philippines. The government and military here have virtually no accountability. Rarely is there prosecution and conviction of perpetrators, if even an effective investigation.

Currently, only $2 million of the 30 million U.S. military aid is contingent on human rights conditions. We are at an important juncture as the government and Muslim sides in Mindanao have declared a truce in the fighting and the country heads into it's "election season" for the 2010 presidential elections. The U.S. government needs to make it clear that fighting terror does not mean condoning rampant impunity and disregard for basic human rights.

Therefore, we at Peacebuilders Community are remmending the following policy initiatives:

1) Immediate suspension of U.S. military aid to the Philippines pending an inquiry into counter-insurgency military operations, human rights and impunity, especially the case of American citizen Melissa Roxas.

2) Creation of a multi-sectoral task force to visit the Philippines to investigate the human rights situation and make recommendations for further policy changes.

3) Re-positioning of U.S. policy and program initiatives related to the civil war in Mindanao as a more neutral arbiter.

4) Conven an international advisory group of peace "elders," especially from the Muslim nations, to help shepherd the peace process forward for both the Muslim and Communist insurgency and to submit recommendations for a long term transitional/restorative justice process (aka, truth & reconciliation commission).

5) The creation of a UN peacekeeping force to intervene in Mindanao.

6) Creation of an environmental report card/sign posts for appropriate development so that the root causes of conflict are addressed in an ecological way.

Poem 1: Moses Running

Moses running

We all walk in Moses steps -
strike the slavedriver
burn the bush
seize the snake
- test the ancient God

while cramming in
another prayer
on the morning ride.

Looking for the green light
I thought was God saying
GO!

Ahead the traffic parts
before me
red sea of my rush hour
that holds me back from
winning
advancing
(up the ladder)
dancing
to the beat of Pharaoh’s drums.

O God make speed to save me
(but please
don’t exceed
the speed
limit)
Oh Lord make haste to help me,
because I’m running late-

running,
lately,
-that is-
from Pharaoh’s war drums
pulsing and throbbing and mobbing.

Sobbing as I say
“Lord
have mercy,
on me,

a winner.

Where in the world is Melissa Roxas

At home in Los Angeles, California. Recovering after her weekend press conference detailing her trauma incurred here in the Philippines.

Melissa, an American community health volunteer in the northern Philippines, was kidnapped last month, tortured and released, she alleges, by agents of the Philippine military.

I note this NOT because it's remarkable. There has been a perpetual, and perpetually violent, counterinsurgency war of attrition going on in the shadows of Philippine society. It has been waging at least since the era of Marcos. Left leaning civil society groups allege hundreds of tortured, killings and disappearances at the hands of government agents and security services. The government insists these are just propaganda of the communist party of the Philippines and points to individuals killed in acts of "revolutionary justice" by the armed wing of the communist party, the New People's Army.

Yet this is the first time an American citizen has been dragged into it in many a year. What is amazing to me is the lack of coverage. LA Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Denver Post (my hometown paper) - searches by her name come up with zilch. Nadie. None. Aside from Denver, all major cities with significant Filipino populations. The New York times had a story soon after she was released.

Wait a minute, this is an American citizen (hate to say it, but the torture of an American has more value than a non-American), and it seems to reach a new low point for the Philippine human rights situation.

And the media silence is deafening.

Crossing the Upian at flood stage

We awoke at 3 am to catch the bus from downtown Davao City, Philippines to the whistle stop at Marahan, an hour and half up the mountains, though still technically within city limits. Marahan does not have much to boast, aside from one two story building painted green. From there we rented dirt bikes drivers, with our stuff tied in sacks on the side, to fly 30 minutes down a rocky dirt road to Maluan village and the Uppian River, our trail head. We then forded the river with the sacks tied onto a horse, (though in Colorado we would call it a pony), as well as a water buffalo. Then began an hour hike straight up the next hill to the village of Malikongkong.

The point of this whole endeavor was to attend a community meeting of the Matigsalug tribe, who had been mysteriously chosen by the local oligarchs down in the city proper to have a new city jail built in their ancestral territory. While it is beyond me as to how the city chose this exact location, there seems to be a propensity (which translates across cultures) to try and isolate and hide those who have been judged as threats to society. Never mind that they might become less threatening if they were close enough to have their children, brothers, sisters, parents, or anyone for that matter, come visit them.

In exchange for enticing a third of the families in Malikongkong to donate their land to the project, the city government agreed to “terms and conditions.” These included the city constructing a “model tribal village” including water, electricity and homes with cement floors - for the thirty-one families only. Apparently the carrots (basic services) dangled to split the community were luxuries the rest of the community would have to somehow acquire on their own. Yet as we came to the top of the hill where the elementary school framed the Malikongkong village green, there was a model tribal village standing in front of me. It’s their current village, alive, simple, beautiful.

We were soon to discover further irony as the city was simultaneously supporting an environmental disaster preparedness project in Malikongkong. The environmental surveyor for that project was presenting his results at the community meeting. He had completed surveys of the area, which was classified as city watershed, and found much of the land, including the part donated for the jail, was at a “critical” risk for landslides due to deforestation. (Somehow this had been missed when the city issued an “environmental clearance certificate” for the jail site.) Meanwhile just last week, in a not so distant community, a landslide had washed away virtually an entire mountain. The slide covered a village killing 31 residents, though rescued teams were still digging through the mud to get a final count.

My job, as a peace worker, would be to try and work with the community leaders of Malikongkong to see if they could re-unite themselves and advocate for their common interests as a single Matigsalug indigenous community, including their right not to be washed down into Davao City proper. As the community meeting ended and we had lunch of sardines and rice wrapped in banana leaves, clouds began to move across the ridges and valleys. I hurriedly finished my meal and followed my guide Sam down the trail, hoping to make the Upian crossing before the rain brought it to flood stage. We didn’t have a chance, minutes into our hike, it began pouring and Sam took off his flip flops to slide barefoot down the creek that had been the path on my hike up. Just before reaching the river, two Matigsalog men came riding up the trail on water buffalo, yelling through the downpour that the river was already too high. As we arrived, the rain subsided but the river continued raging in a muddy brown funk.

It was mid afternoon, Sam said it could take hours for the water to subside. I suggested maybe we just return up the muddy trail to Malikongkong. My wife would be left at home overnight with three small children, but there seemed no other way. Some of the residents of Maluan village on the other side came out to yell and wave us away from the rapids, their gesticulations indicating it might be possible to ford further up the river. We tried walking round the bank, but a cascading tributary feeding the Upian was literally rolling large rocks down it’s riverbed in defiance.

We returned to the Upian to see a man coming toward us along the river bank. He had somehow crossed at the shallower ford up the river. With his help we made it to the ford where the Upian current was still flowing fast. Another man came swimming around the bend and pulled himself out, with a rope in hand. The first didn’t wait for it to be tied across, without a word, he took my back pack, and, like the fox with the gingerbread man on his nose, waded out deeper and deeper til it was just his head above water, arms holding the back pack aloft. He seemed to be swimming, but made it across. I, then Sam my guide, followed his exact route. It was chest high on me, just shallow enough not to get swept away if Ileaned into it, holding the rope.

Laughing and commenting about the whole event, a small crowd had gathered on the other side to see the spectacle of a white guy pulling his muddy self out of the water. The dirt and sand that was once their land was now caked into my shoes and pants. Whatever the path ahead for the Matigsalug of Davao’s valleys and hills, they would face it with a smile and self sacrifice. I just hope their dreams of fertile forests prevail before the rains wash them away in a nightmare mud.