*The cost of killing Gaddafi*
In 2009 Libya was a friend to the US so much so that Libya allowed several US corporate giants to enter & approval was given for training of Libyan security personnel & civilians. These were the civilians that eventually became “rebels” given arms by the West to overthrow Gaddafi in a movement called “liberating Libya”. Arming locals has become a new strategy to avoid deaths to coalition forces while NATO is tasked to take on the indiscriminate air strikes. So what has been the cost for killing a man who has ruled a nation for 42 years without debt to the IMF or the World Bank? It took 8 months for US-NATO to take over Libya, the pro-US Libyan Government may celebrate & rejoice but that celebration is as short-lived as the jubilations in Iraq & Egypt where the people are beginning to realize their country would have still been better off with Saddam Hussein & HosniMubarak!
The world needs to know that Gaddafi gave Libyans. Education in Libya is free to everyone from elementary school right up to university and post-graduate study, at home or abroad, Libyans enjoy free health care, ratio of one doctor per 673 citizens. Libyans are given interest free housing loans, free land for farmers. In 2010, Libya ranked 53rd on the Human Development Index (out of 170 U.N. member states),<http://hdr.undp.org/
purposely destroyed to advance the agenda of the West.
With the death of Gaddafi the most important question is where are the 50,000 people that Gaddafi is supposed to have killed prior to US-NATO forces attacking Libya? Clearly the “genocide” claim is a lie – a little too late as the objective of killing Gaddafi has been achieved.
The number of civilian casualties as a result of US-NATO airstrikes, rebel attacks & pro-Government forces range between 1000 & 10,000. These remain only “estimates”. Mainstream media has erred in blaming deaths caused by pro-Gaddafi totally ignoring the reality that the majority of deaths would have resulted by the indiscriminate bombing by US-NATO air strikes. NATO cannot deny that it has purposely targeted civilian infrastructure – hospitals (Al-Tajura Hospital & Saladin Hospital in Ain Zara), power generating facilities, water purification systems, tv stations & other communication networks, civilian airports, schools, government buildings & residential complexes. The purpose of such bombings is obviously to destroy the country’s institutions. The UN Human Rights organization or other human rights bodies seem to care little for the realism behind the exercise of freeing Libya & at the fatalities that has been caused by NATO which has no mandate whatsoever to carry out air strikes on Libya. What these
international bodies are doing to humanity is a shame & a crime for which
all of them must be tried for holding office & remaining silent over crimes
taking place under false motives & concocted lies.
Thus the “humanitarian” bombing campaign part of the R2P agenda is part & parcel of a new military strategy carved by the West & a major component of this strategy is to destroy civilian infrastructure. This methodology was applied in Yugoslavia & Iraq where bridges, power plants, water systems, cultural & historical heritages, schools & hospitals were all identified as “legitimate military targets” validated in advance. In Yugoslavia the civilian economy was the target.
The US military intervention in Libya has cost America USD896million. While UK tax payers have to fork out £200m & likely to cost up to £1bn & rising just to kill one man! In all the operation to free Libya of Gaddafi would have cost USD2billion.
The USA is morally and financially broke, uneducated and sick but it is its arrogance that continues to think that all nations must bow down to US dictates. Gaddafi’s Libya will soon find out what it is like to live in a country without Gaddafi’s charisma in a country that is soon likely to be fleeced by the West. Where people will be broke, without money, hungry, paying for all services but reminded all the while that they are “free, liberated & enjoying the fruits of human rights”. In the meanwhile, the US will ensure friction amongst tribes in Libya so that turmoil will prevail just like they are doing in Iraq & Afghanistan while Western oil giants cease the oil, gold & all natural resources that Libya possesses which in reality was the reason for the whole exercise of humanitarian intervention.
It is not difficult to comprehend the trend that is taking place & the dangers of the West’s financial turmoil will mean further “humanitarian” operations on targeted nations & the basis for the next stop being Syria is already under way.
Let all US-NATO nations realize that the people of the world are no fools. Citizens of these nations may be fooled since mainstream media have blinded them with lies & false versions to brainwash them but nemesis for the innocent deaths will follow US-NATO & their leaders for the destruction they are doing to the people, the environment & to nations throughout the past decade.
(reposted from a friend's email)
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Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Monday, October 3, 2011
Rights lawyers dispute Malacañang: Political Prisoners exist in the Philippines
“Three hundred sixty political prisoners still
languish in Philippine jails contrary to Malacañang’s denial,” asserted NUPL
Secretary General Atty. Edre Olalia.
“It might be shocking
for Malacanang to find out that there are still political prisoners, several of
whom are our clients,” Olalia sarcastically commented on
behalf of the group of lawyers that handles several political prisoners, victims
of extrajudicial killings, disappearances, torture and arbitrary arrests as
well as peasant, worker and urban poor cases.
Olalia made the assertion in reaction to the recent
statement issued by Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda, who reportedly
boldly claimed there were no more political prisoners in the Philippines.
The NUPL, established in September 2007 amid rising cases of extrajudicial killings and
forcible abductions attributed to state forces, has over 400 members nationwide
comprising lawyers, law students and paralegals . It has discovered and known all along that the
alleged acts of the prisoners they are
representing or helping are, even if hypothetically admitted, actually
political in nature.
Olalia noted that only a minority of political
detainees were charged with rebellion. At least 85 % of suspected political
offenders are improperly charged with non-bailable ordinary crimes and not with
rebellion. They were accused of committing murder, arson, illegal possession of
firearms or explosives, physical injuries and other common crimes. “We have assessed that most of these
are actually false or fabricated charges that further persecute these
detainees, degrade their stature, mock the basic rules of evidence and is a
travesty of justice. These, on top of the multifarious violations of their
rights including torture and harassment.”
Recently, NUPL lawyers had an
audience with Justice Secretary Leila De Lima and Undersecretary Francisco
Baraan III where they pointed out two dirty tricks that gave notoriety to the
past Arroyo administration: Firstly, charging political prisoners with common
crimes and, secondly, the improvident use of “John/Jane Does” in criminal
informations filed in court. This odious practice continues until today.
Political activists are the usual victims of the
improvident use of John/Jane Does. Whenever an information involving “John/Jane
Does” is hastily filed in court, spurious witnesses belatedly spring up to
identify activists and members of political
organizations supposedly as the unknown
suspects, by fabricating affidavits naming certain persons to be the John/Jane
Does in the charge sheet.
“After the political activists are identified in
bad faith as the John/Jane Does, arrest
warrants are issued and they are arrested without any preliminary investigation
in violation of their right to due process,” Olalia added.
The NUPL, which just marked its 4th year
anniversary last month, has joined growing calls for a “ general, omnibus and unconditional
amnesty for all political prisoners” as a matter of justice long overdue.
Aside from their meeting with the justice
secretary, the NUPL visited the Batangas Provincial Jail to
talk with seven political prisoners and coordinated with the local chapter of
the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP-Batangas) to extend to them legal
assistance in close collaboration with the NUPL. One of the political prisoners
visited by the NUPL in Batangas was Maricon Montajes, a mass communication
student of the University of the Philippines . She was charged with Illegal
Possession of Explosives, Violation of the Fire Arm Ban under the Omnibus
Election Code, and Illegal Possession of Fire Arms and Ammunition.
While some political detainees have already been
freed, Secretary De Lima noted that the Justice Department is working to have more
of them released in the near future through the Presidential Committee on Bail,
Release, and Pardon (PCBREP). Secretary De Lima agreed with the legal position
of NUPL and recognized its concerns, telling
them that a directive will be issued to the National Prosecution Service (NPS)
to form a committee that will study these issues and draft a department circular to address
this problem. It was thus
totally puzzling to the NUPL delegation that, unlike the military and
Malacanang, the DOJ tacitly recognizes that there are political prisoners.
The
existence of political prisoners in several parts of the country is an obvious
matter of fact that Malacanang will be hard put to deny with a straight face
like the dictator Marcos. #
Reference:
Atty. Edre U. Olalia, NUPL Secretary General (09175113373)
Sunday, October 2, 2011
FrEEdom
Not even the foreshadowing ferocity of Typhoon “Pedring” concealed the immense delight of Maricon Montajes and six other political detainees inside the Batangas Provincial Jail, as they shared their stories to our group of lawyers and paralegals who visited them last Wednesday.
The 21-year-old Montajes, a native of Davao City, was a Film and Audio Visual Communication student at the University of the Philippines-Diliman when she was “illegally arrested” together with two other youths last June 3, 2010 by elements of the Philippine Air Force while on an exposure and integration trip with farmers in Taysan, Batangas.
Accustomed to the nurturing environment of a close-knit family back in Mindanao, the diminutive Montajes, also known as “Eedom” to friends, has since learned to lean on her fellow political detainees and share her joys and tears with them. “Sa kulungan, ang pagsuko ng malayang kaisipan ang pangunahing kalaban na dapat talunin (In prison, the temptation to surrender the freedom to think independently is the No. 1 enemy one must conquer),” she said.
The howling rain almost drowned her accounts of seemingly endless, rough interrogations and “torture” that she and her friends suffered after they were arrested; and, her lament over the slow resolution of the cases filed against them.
Eedom decried the government’s “criminalization” of their status, an irony that was not lost on her. As it was before, it is still so now. “We were falsely presented as NPA rebels, but we were charged with common crimes,” she bewailed. They are facing such charges as illegal possession of firearms and explosives, election gun ban violation, and frustrated homicide.
The charges shocked her childhood friends in Davao City, where she is known as someone “who would never do anyone or any living organism on earth any harm.” Consistently a student leader, Eedom spent her elementary and high school years at the city’s Stella Maris Academy, where she was a “grand slam class president from elementary to high school, became vice president of the Student Coordinating Council and president of the Social Studies Club until she graduated with academic honors in 2007.”
“Young as she was, she already manifested a strong sense of justice and unwavering leadership among her peers, the embodiment of a Marisian leader possessing the kind of faith in God’s people,” said the academic community of Stella Maris in a statement calling for her and her companions’ release. “Maricon’s passion for what is good and just is clearly expressed in her art, in her dances, music and poetry, where she knows no bounds but freedom in relaying the kind of social consciousness expected of a true Marisian.”
Earlier that day, in a meeting, our delegation from the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) brought the cases of Montajes and her companions to the attention of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.
Records of the rights watchdog Karapatan show that out of the country’s 360 political prisoners as of August 2011, at least 303 (84.17 percent) have been charged with common crimes. Only 15 (4.17 percent) have been charged with rebellion. Twenty others have been charged with common crimes in addition to rebellion and two are charged with “terrorism.”
“This phenomenon continues despite the fact that even the testimonial and documentary bases—spurious or otherwise—submitted to the prosecutors show that the alleged acts are obviously in furtherance of one’s political beliefs,” stated an NUPL aide mémoire submitted to De Lima during the meeting.
We also presented to De Lima the rampant and improvident use by prosecutors of the “John Doe” information in court, in violation of the justice department’s Circular No. 50, which mandates, among other things, that other appropriate descriptions of a particular “John Doe” must be elicited from supposed witnesses, to distinguish him or set him apart from the others.
The October 1999 department circular also directed public prosecutors “to place a new name in the Information in lieu of a John Doe only when the description of this John Doe as appearing in the sworn statement of a witness substantially tallies with the description of the person in John Doe’s stead.” Yet, despite these clear directives, public interests lawyers are still “confronted with this frustrating and unjust practice and the same continues to be violated and not strictly complied with.”
“There is from our experience on the ground, a continuing trend to indiscriminately file charges and secure warrants of arrests against our clients who are invariably leaders, members of legal mass organizations, NGO workers, party-list groups and even human rights advocates by means of ‘John Doe’ cases, which are intended to silence or neutralize them and deter others from joining their causes,” the NUPL noted.
We hope changes are forthcoming. De Lima said she “agreed” with the NUPL’s “legal posturing” and committed to immediately form a committee to draft guidelines relating to the criminalization of political offenses and the use of John Doe charges. “It is just a question then of how to operationalize (these guidelines) and make our public prosecutors understand,” De Lima said.
Indeed, it is the height of irony that Eedom and other political offenders continue to languish in various jails, while those who sponsored and promoted the culture of impunity in our country remain scot-free in this supposed era of “matuwid na daan”—shamelessly enjoying their plundered riches and flaunting their residual power and influence.
But, as political detainee and teacher Charity Dino noted during the meeting: “Mga katawan lang talaga namin ang puwedeng ikulong ng mga rehas na bakal (It’s only our bodies that they put behind a jail’s iron bars).”
Free Eedom.
Free them all.
By: Isagani Zarate
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Palparan Should End Up in Jail not in Congress “Stop Daydreaming and Face the Music”
“Gen. Palparan’s incorrigible, remorseless and unmitigated demonization of defenseless civilians merits him a place behind bars more than a seat in Congress.” This was the statement of Atty. Edre Olalia, Secretary General of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), in response to reports that retired Major General Jovito Palparan was planning to run for a partylist seat in Congress in 2013 on the basis of his “expertise in security.”
“He should not be daydreaming this early. It would be healthier for him if he deals with the reality that he is facing and will be facing a string of multiple charges in different fora and that sooner or later, justice will catch up on him, “Atty. Olalia added.
Trying to smokescreen the strength of the evidence against him, Palparan manifested his intention to run for Congress in an interview during a break in the clarificatory hearing of the preliminary investigation conducted by a panel of the Department of Justice (DOJ) for the enforced disappearance of University of the Philippines (UP) student-activists Karen Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan.
“The partylist system is intended to empower the marginalized sectors and not to perpetuate into power those who marginalize them. It is supposed to be a social justice mechanism intended to give more in law to those who have less in life and not to those who have destroyed many lives,” Atty. Olalia pointed out.
Palparan continues to label activists, progressive groups and members of Congress as enemies of the state. This fascist way of thinking and messianic delusions, according to Atty. Olalia, is the mindset for extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances as it makes no distinction between armed rebels and defenseless civilians and as it gives no regard to legal processes and to human rights.
Meanwhile, during the pendency of the preliminary investigation, Wilfredo Ramos, one of the eye-witnesses for the complainants, was approached three times in their barangay by military men to recant his testimony in exchange for economic considerations. Ramos vividly recognized a security aide of Palparan as one of the abductors. The aide was later named as Staff Sergeant Edgardo Osorio of the 24th Intelligence Service Unit of the Philippine Army based in Fort Bonifacio. “This is clearly a case of subtle harassment by the military in a desperate attempt to weaken the merits of the case and to relieve of any criminal responsibility all those who are part of the conspiracy,” Atty. Olalia commented.
Also, Raymond Manalo identified during the clarificatory hearing one of his abductors as Major Harry Baliaga, the identified suspect in the abduction of activist Jonas Burgos. Manalo is a human rights victim himself and an eyewitness for the complainants in the case of Sherlyn and Karen. “Baliaga’s involvement both in the enforced disappearance of the Manalo brothers and of Jonas only attests to the fact that security forces systematically perpetrate extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in that they should not be taken simply as individual cases of human rights violations unrelated to each other,”Atty. Olalia insisted.
Criminal Charges Against Palparan Nears Resolution
The clarificatory hearing last Friday concluded the preliminary investigation on the criminal charges against Palparan et. al. for the enforced disappearance of the two UP students. “The clarificatory hearing reinforced that the testimonies of the witnesses for the complainants were vivid, candid, consistent and straightforward.” Atty. Olalia noted. “This is as opposed to the telling inconsistencies between the testimonies of the respondents denying the accusations against them to save their skin.” In fact, Palparan was compelled to make damning admissions that further “connect the dots,“ he added.
“Given the strength of the evidence against Palparan and his cohorts, the context and the circumstances of the case and related incidents, we trust that there is a sufficient ground to hold the respondents for trial and that corresponding charges will be filed soon,” Atty. Olalia asserted. “We should not let up and be vigilant in ensuring that the perpetrators of this horrendous crime will be accountable for their felonious acts,” he concluded.
The legal team for the complainants and their witnesses include Atty. Julian Oliva, Atty. Ephraim Cortez, Atty. Cristina Yambot, Atty. Jobert Pahilga, Atty. Jill Santos and Atty. Olalia, all members of the NUPL. .#
Reference: Atty. Edre U. Olalia, NUPL Secretary General (09175113373)
Saturday, September 3, 2011
WHO WILL DEFEND THE DEFENDERS?
In our practice court in law school our professor would advice us: if you are strong on the law - pound on the law; if your are strong on the facts - pound on the facts; but if you are weak both on the facts and the law - pound on the table!
But in the Philippines, the security forces don’t pound on the law; they don’t pound on the facts; they don’t pound on the table … they pound on the lawyers, especially human rights lawyers.
Human rights lawyers have committed to help promote and protect the rights of the people, particularly the oppressed and marginalized, from the abuses of the few who belong to the dominant elite of our society. But, the spate of impunity is so brazen that even human rights advocates, both lawyers and non-lawyers alike, are not spared from the repressive apparatus of state forces.
This is coupled with the failure of the judicial and the legislative branches of the government to counteract the coercive undertakings of the executive branch and its security forces without respect to the rights of defenseless civilians and the so called “rule of law.” With this set-up, any semblance of order and faith that remains in the legal processes crumbles, making things worse as perpetrators are left free from any accountability.
The inadequacy, ineffectivity and failure of existing legal remedies to obliterate the climate of impunity is apparent in the cases of human rights defender Eden Marcellana, peasant leader Eddie Gumanoy and journalist – activist Beng Hernandez which, despite United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee (HRC) resolutions finding the Philippine government guilty of human rights abuses, has been left unsolved as the perpetrators remain free from any accountability.
In this light, in the case of Razon vs. Tagitis[1], the Supreme Court itself recognized that it is an extremely difficult condition for the disappeared (and of those extrajudicially killed) victims’ families to get justice because it is the State itself, the party whose involvement is alleged, which investigates the incidents of enforced disappearances.
“Past experiences in other jurisdictions show that evidentiary difficulties are generally three-fold. First, there may be a deliberate concealment of the identities of the direct perpetrators. Experts note that abductors are well organized, armed and usually members of the military or police forces. Second, deliberate concealment of pertinent evidence of the disappearance is a distinct possibility. Third is the element of denial; in many cases, the state authorities deliberately deny that the enforced disappearance ever occurred.”[2]
Victimizing Human Rights Lawyers
Since 2001, state forces have been waging a systematic and conscious attack on activists, farmers, workers, indigenous peoples, journalists, human rights advocates, and even church people and people’s lawyers. As the strategy of the counterinsurgency efforts of the government, Oplan Bantay Laya (Operation Plan Freedom Watch) has been linked with extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture and harassments as it does not distinguish between rebels and civilians, and underground and legal organizations, such vio9lations as well as the filing of false charges have been carried out with odious brazenness and cruelty.
These patterns of human rights violations continue even with the promises of the new administration to end government abuses and excesses – which PNoy calls “utak wangwang.” 48 cases of extrajudicial killings have already been documented in the first year of the Aquino administration alone.
Out of the hundreds of civilians that were extrajudicially killed since January 2001, 27 were lawyers, 8 of whom were involved in human rights issues. The human rights lawyers who were killed were:
Atty. Juvy Magsino of Mindoro, counsel for militant groups and local official who was vocal against military abuses and mining projects affecting the people. She was riddled with bullets while driving her car.
Atty. Teresita Vidamo of the Public Attorneys Office of Las Pinas, Metro Manila. She was handling controversial land and labor disputes at the time she was shot.
Atty. Arbet Yongco of Cebu, private prosecutor in a parricide case against a cult leader belonging to a powerful family. She was shot inside her house.
Atty. Felidito Dacut of Leyte, counsel for unions and people’s organizations. He was shot by armed men riding in a motorcycle while inside a passenger jeepney on his way to buy milk for his 3-year old daughter. He was then handling cases involving human rights and labor disputes.
Atty. Norman Bocar of Samar. He was counsel for militant organizations and partylist groups when he was shot.
Atty. Gil Gojol, Former local public official, former bar president, professor and legal counsel of progressive party-list groups and peoples’ organizations.
Attys. Cynthia Oquendo and Concepcion Brizuela of Mindanao. They were part of those massacred by the powerful Ampatuan family closely affiliated with the former administration.
Atty. Brizuela, an officer of the Union of Peoples’ in Mindanao (UPLM) and founding member of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), was interviewed by a foreign mission of judges and lawyers regarding the threat on her life a year before she was killed.
During the same period, 42 other lawyers who were involved in human rights issues and cases were subjected to different forms of attacks. Human rights lawyers and their families received death threats and are subjected to constant or periodical surveillance. Some of them are harassed, intimidated, red-tagged and have their offices ransacked by unidentified armed men.
These unresolved killings and continuing attacks on lawyers and judges is an attack on the legal profession, a travesty of due process, the “rule of law” and the system of justice. As these incidents are the function of the counterinsurgency program of the government, it is not surprising that a considerable number of victimized lawyers are either counsels of entities conveniently labeled as “enemies of the state” or are themselves labelled as such.
It is very ironic that the rights of the human rights defenders are violated. Indeed, it is the height of impunity when human rights advocates themselves become the hapless victims of the climate of impunity.
This manifests that there is a deliberate and methodical effort to thwart attempts to hold perpetrators accountable for their actions. This requires no less than a reciprocally deliberate and methodical effort to defend the defenders themselves from human rights abuses through a strong mass movement, a broad network of support and campaign, and international solidarity and vigilance.
With the continuing incidents of killings ,forcible disappearance, torture and arbitrary arrests and with the perpetrators still able to evade punishment to this day, there is an obvious lack of correct pro –people political will or sincerity on the part of the Aquino administration to eradicate the climate of impunity that has long prevailed and which continues to persecute mostly those from the marginalized sectors or those who stand by them
The struggle to change this impunity that has been engendered remains a challenge to those of us in the legal profession and, of course, all other human rights defenders. The perils in our line of work and commitment as human rights lawyers which we continuously face day in and day out will not discourage us, much less demoralize our ranks, and from standing by the rights and interests of the poor and the oppressed in our society and struggling, in and outside of the courtrooms, for the causes that we believe in.
As one of our people’s lawyers has said: “It does not matter how long you have lived, what is important is what you have done to serve the people and the county.”[3] Indeed, it has been said that only those who choose to fight with the dangers of the battlefield and sacrificed the comfort of the fence live beyond irrelevance.[4]
Finally, As NUPL Chairperson Emeritus Romeo Capulong said,
“We have brave clients. They deserve brave lawyers.”
[3] Atty. Kathrina Castillo, NUPL National Auditor, “A Young and Fearless People’s Lawyer,” Attacks on Lawyers: Human Rights Defenders Under Siege, NUPL, 2011.
[4] Former Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno, Message to the NUPL Founding Congress, September 15, 2007.
National Secretariat
National Union of Peoples' Lawyers(NUPL)
3F Erythrina Bldg., Maaralin corner Matatag Sts. Central District,Quezon City, Philippines
Tel.No.920-6660,Telefax No. 927- 2812
Email addresses:nupl2007@gmail.com and nuplphilippines@yahoo.com
"Visit the NUPL at http://www.nupl.net/
By calling yourselves the 'people's lawyer,' you have made a remarkable choice. You decided not to remain in the sidelines. Where human rights are assaulted, you have chosen to sacrifice the comfort of the fence for the dangers of the battlefield. But only those who choose to fight on the battlefield live beyond irrelevance." Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno, in his message to the NUPL Founding Congress,Sept. 15, 2007
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