A Front Line delegation expressed grave concern about ongoing killings and enforced disappearances of human rights defenders in The Philippines at the end of a two week visit to the country. Front Line representatives met with human rights defenders in Manila, Central Luzon, Zambales, Mindanao and Cebu as well as with the army, the police, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Commission on Human Rights and the Ministry of Justice.

Further Information

Posted 27/10/2007 Many of the human rights defenders Front Line met with had received death threats and two had survived assassination attempts. They spoke of the labeling of human rights defenders as “communists” and “enemies of the state” and regular killings carried out by masked men riding motorbikes.

“There are claims and counter-claims about statistics, but the brutal reality is that human rights lawyers and journalists, peasant and workers' leaders defending the rights of their communities are being targeted and killed or disappeared with impunity,” said Front Line Deputy Director Andrew Anderson in Manila.

An eye-witness showed Front Line the site where Rashid Manahan Executive Director of the Anti Death Penalty Coalition, was gunned down in Davao three years ago. In what became a common story delegates were told how the masked gunman had been waiting for him and made his escape on a motorbike.

In Central Luzon Front Line met with human rights defenders who had not slept in their own beds for over a year, forced to constantly move where they are staying following the extra-judicial execution of several of their colleagues as well as ongoing death threats. One veteran human rights defender spoke of how armed men had called at his home on three occasions in the last months.

Front Line delegates raised with senior police and army officers the cases of Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan reportedly victims of an enforced disappearance in June 2006 as well as Jonas Burgos reportedly the victim of an enforced disappearance in April 2007.

In testimony presented to the Supreme Court in August 2007 two brothers, Raymond and Reynaldo Manalo, who claim they themselves were the victims of an enforced disappearance in February 2006, stated that they saw and spoke with Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan whilst illegally detained by the military. Senior police officials stated that they were unaware of the testimony submitted to the Supreme Court the previous month but that they would follow-up on the information. In the case of Jonas Burgos a car bearing the number plates identified by a witness to his abduction was found in a military facility.

Unfortunately many of the officials Front Line met with were more interested in discussing alleged links between one human rights organization and the Communist Party of the Philippines than discussing how extra judicial executions could be more effectively investigated and those responsible brought to justice. Some military and justice department officials had made little progress beyond the state of denial referred to in the interim report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions, Philip Alston, in February 2007. However, there were some police and military officials who insisted they were making efforts on a number of cases. .

Front Line also received some reports from human rights defenders of death threats made by the armed opposition group, the New People's Army (NPA), against community leaders defending their rights.

Front Line welcomed the initiatives of Chief Justice Puno of the Supreme Court to develop stronger protection measures including a Writ of Amparo. The delegates also stressed in meetings with the police and military the need for urgent action to proactively investigate cases of enforced disappearances and extra-judicial executions and to bring those responsible to justice.

Front Line also met with diplomatic representatives of the European Union and its member states in Manila and requested that they continue to actively engage with the protection of human rights defenders in the Philippines in the context of the EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders.