Monday, February 15, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
Have you cured Ka Roger?,’ other shockers
By DJ Yap
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:50:00 02/12/2010
THE INTERROGATOR’S taunt outraged Dr. Merry Mia Clamor as she sat blindfolded, her hands cuffed, in a room she could not describe, facing somebody she could not see.
The disembodied voice had sneered: “Ginamot mo na ba ang buni ni Ka Roger (Have you cured Ka Roger’s ringworm yet)?”
The 33-year-old physician did not reply.
“I was shocked. I could not say anything,” she told the Inquirer Thursday in her first interview with the media since she and 42 other health workers were arrested on Feb. 6 in Morong, Rizal, on suspicion of links with communists.
The interrogator was apparently referring to Gregorio Rosal aka Ka Roger, the spokesperson of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
The 43 detainees, including two doctors and other health professionals, were finally allowed to confer with their lawyers belonging to the National Union of People’s Lawyers and of the Public Interest Law Center in their tightly guarded detention cells at Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal.
The eight lawyers led by Edre Olalia were assisted by Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Chair Leila de Lima.
Presumption of innocence
At a meeting with Brig. Gen. Jorge Segovia, the commander of the 2nd Infantry Division, De Lima said the military’s treatment of the detainees did not meet human rights standards.
“Even assuming that they are really all NPAs (New People’s Army, the armed wing of the CPP), they still have rights. All civil and political rights are still available to them, especially the constitutional presumption of innocence,” De Lima said.
To which Segovia replied: “The presumption of innocence that applies to NPAs should also apply to our soldiers… As far as our officers are concerned, they’re only trying to do their job.”
Earlier, the CHR accused the military of subjecting the 43 detainees to “psychological torture”—a charge Segovia denied.
'It’s a shame’
Clamor said she was teaching volunteers first aid and other basic medical procedures at a health training seminar in the early morning of Feb. 6 when she and the other health workers were arrested.
She said her unseen interrogator’s question served to trivialize her efforts.
“I was doing this with the purest intention—to train volunteers and to give them skills so they themselves can help others in their community,” Clamor said.
“It’s a shame… I chose to stay here in the Philippines instead of going abroad. I chose to stay [despite] the knowledge it would be a thankless job,” she said.
Clamor said that as a member of the Council for Health and Development (CHD), she had taken part in medical missions and other health training seminars in Rizal, Bacolod, Negros and Iloilo.
Logistics
Segovia said the detainees had not been allowed to see their lawyers until Thursday largely because of a logistical problem.
He said it was the biggest number of arrests of “underground personalities,” and that Camp Capinpin had no ready facility to accommodate all 43 health workers.
The military also needed to process the detainees’ identities, he said.
Olalia at one point objected to the “underground” tag, prompting Segovia to rephrase his remark by adding “alleged.”
Another problem, according to Segovia, was that some of the detainees refused to reveal their identities, and their lawyers also did not provide the right names to the military custodians when seeking permission to meet their clients.
But Olalia said the right of a person to see a lawyer upon arrest was so crucial that denying it constituted a serious breach of human rights.
‘Violated’
“We felt violated. We were illegally arrested. We were questioned without a lawyer present,” Clamor said from her cell.
Recalling her first night in detention, she said the questioning was relaxed at first, with the interrogator asking where she worked, what she did, and so on.
But the tone turned hostile as the night wore on.
When she said she did not want to answer any more questions without a lawyer, she was told: “You’ll be long gone before your lawyer comes.”
Husband Karapatan exec
But while she had initially been denied access to a lawyer, Clamor said her husband, Roneo Clamor, was granted permission to see her.
“He took it in stride. He’s used to situations like this,” she said of her husband, the deputy secretary general of the human rights group Karapatan.
Clamor said she did not experience rough treatment from the soldiers except during the arrest, when they pointed long firearms at her and the others and ordered them to lie on their bellies.
“We appreciate the handling of the female guards,” she said.
In an interview with reporters, Segovia insisted that all 43 detainees were NPA members.
The military provided reporters a list of the detainees, including name, aliases, addresses, age, educational attainment, schools and “position” in the NPA.
Clamor’s position was listed as “national level.”
“That’s not true,” she said.
Online campaign
The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has launched an online campaign for the release of the 43 health workers.
In a letter posted on Tuesday on its website (http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2010/3362/), the AHRC said two of the 43, Janice Javier and Franco Romeroso, were illegally held from September 2008 to June 2009 and tortured by state forces to admit that they were NPA members.
The two were released for lack of evidence but were rearrested, along with Yolanda Caraig, in Morong Rizal, on Feb. 6, the AHRC said.
It also named Clamor of the CHD, Dr. Alex Montes of the Community Medicine Development Foundation, nurse Gary Liberal, midwife Teresa Quinawayan, and other members of the CHD staff as among those arrested.
The AHRC listed the case under its “urgent appeal” desk, which, it said, was a tool “to create an international support network and open venue for action.”
It expressed the hope that the letter would reach United Nations representatives, national human rights commissions, court houses and government officials.
The AHRC suggested that the letter also be sent individually to President Macapagal-Arroyo, CHR Chair De Lima and other government officials by fax or mail.
Melissa Roxas’ case
In a separate statement dated Feb. 7, the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan chapter in Canada said it was “demanding the immediate and unconditional release” of the 43 health workers.
The group said the arrests were “reminiscent” of the alleged torture suffered by US citizen Melissa Roxas in May 2009 in the Philippines, when she was abducted while on a medical mission.
With a report from Maricar Cinco, Inquirer Southern Luzon
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:50:00 02/12/2010
THE INTERROGATOR’S taunt outraged Dr. Merry Mia Clamor as she sat blindfolded, her hands cuffed, in a room she could not describe, facing somebody she could not see.
The disembodied voice had sneered: “Ginamot mo na ba ang buni ni Ka Roger (Have you cured Ka Roger’s ringworm yet)?”
The 33-year-old physician did not reply.
“I was shocked. I could not say anything,” she told the Inquirer Thursday in her first interview with the media since she and 42 other health workers were arrested on Feb. 6 in Morong, Rizal, on suspicion of links with communists.
The interrogator was apparently referring to Gregorio Rosal aka Ka Roger, the spokesperson of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
The 43 detainees, including two doctors and other health professionals, were finally allowed to confer with their lawyers belonging to the National Union of People’s Lawyers and of the Public Interest Law Center in their tightly guarded detention cells at Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal.
The eight lawyers led by Edre Olalia were assisted by Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Chair Leila de Lima.
Presumption of innocence
At a meeting with Brig. Gen. Jorge Segovia, the commander of the 2nd Infantry Division, De Lima said the military’s treatment of the detainees did not meet human rights standards.
“Even assuming that they are really all NPAs (New People’s Army, the armed wing of the CPP), they still have rights. All civil and political rights are still available to them, especially the constitutional presumption of innocence,” De Lima said.
To which Segovia replied: “The presumption of innocence that applies to NPAs should also apply to our soldiers… As far as our officers are concerned, they’re only trying to do their job.”
Earlier, the CHR accused the military of subjecting the 43 detainees to “psychological torture”—a charge Segovia denied.
'It’s a shame’
Clamor said she was teaching volunteers first aid and other basic medical procedures at a health training seminar in the early morning of Feb. 6 when she and the other health workers were arrested.
She said her unseen interrogator’s question served to trivialize her efforts.
“I was doing this with the purest intention—to train volunteers and to give them skills so they themselves can help others in their community,” Clamor said.
“It’s a shame… I chose to stay here in the Philippines instead of going abroad. I chose to stay [despite] the knowledge it would be a thankless job,” she said.
Clamor said that as a member of the Council for Health and Development (CHD), she had taken part in medical missions and other health training seminars in Rizal, Bacolod, Negros and Iloilo.
Logistics
Segovia said the detainees had not been allowed to see their lawyers until Thursday largely because of a logistical problem.
He said it was the biggest number of arrests of “underground personalities,” and that Camp Capinpin had no ready facility to accommodate all 43 health workers.
The military also needed to process the detainees’ identities, he said.
Olalia at one point objected to the “underground” tag, prompting Segovia to rephrase his remark by adding “alleged.”
Another problem, according to Segovia, was that some of the detainees refused to reveal their identities, and their lawyers also did not provide the right names to the military custodians when seeking permission to meet their clients.
But Olalia said the right of a person to see a lawyer upon arrest was so crucial that denying it constituted a serious breach of human rights.
‘Violated’
“We felt violated. We were illegally arrested. We were questioned without a lawyer present,” Clamor said from her cell.
Recalling her first night in detention, she said the questioning was relaxed at first, with the interrogator asking where she worked, what she did, and so on.
But the tone turned hostile as the night wore on.
When she said she did not want to answer any more questions without a lawyer, she was told: “You’ll be long gone before your lawyer comes.”
Husband Karapatan exec
But while she had initially been denied access to a lawyer, Clamor said her husband, Roneo Clamor, was granted permission to see her.
“He took it in stride. He’s used to situations like this,” she said of her husband, the deputy secretary general of the human rights group Karapatan.
Clamor said she did not experience rough treatment from the soldiers except during the arrest, when they pointed long firearms at her and the others and ordered them to lie on their bellies.
“We appreciate the handling of the female guards,” she said.
In an interview with reporters, Segovia insisted that all 43 detainees were NPA members.
The military provided reporters a list of the detainees, including name, aliases, addresses, age, educational attainment, schools and “position” in the NPA.
Clamor’s position was listed as “national level.”
“That’s not true,” she said.
Online campaign
The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has launched an online campaign for the release of the 43 health workers.
In a letter posted on Tuesday on its website (http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2010/3362/), the AHRC said two of the 43, Janice Javier and Franco Romeroso, were illegally held from September 2008 to June 2009 and tortured by state forces to admit that they were NPA members.
The two were released for lack of evidence but were rearrested, along with Yolanda Caraig, in Morong Rizal, on Feb. 6, the AHRC said.
It also named Clamor of the CHD, Dr. Alex Montes of the Community Medicine Development Foundation, nurse Gary Liberal, midwife Teresa Quinawayan, and other members of the CHD staff as among those arrested.
The AHRC listed the case under its “urgent appeal” desk, which, it said, was a tool “to create an international support network and open venue for action.”
It expressed the hope that the letter would reach United Nations representatives, national human rights commissions, court houses and government officials.
The AHRC suggested that the letter also be sent individually to President Macapagal-Arroyo, CHR Chair De Lima and other government officials by fax or mail.
Melissa Roxas’ case
In a separate statement dated Feb. 7, the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan chapter in Canada said it was “demanding the immediate and unconditional release” of the 43 health workers.
The group said the arrests were “reminiscent” of the alleged torture suffered by US citizen Melissa Roxas in May 2009 in the Philippines, when she was abducted while on a medical mission.
With a report from Maricar Cinco, Inquirer Southern Luzon
Study in contrast
Streetwise
By Carol Pagaduan-Araullo
The contrast is too stark to be missed. “But they are NPA (New People’s Army)!” Thus did Executive Secretary and former General Eduardo Ermita justify the arbitrary arrest of 43 health workers and professionals attending a training seminar in Morong, Rizal last Saturday, their torture, subjection to indignities, deprivation of legal counsel, and denial of visits by relatives and officers of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR).
This is the same Secretary Ermita who, along with other Arroyo henchmen, immediately invoked the right to due process of the Ampatuans, Arroyo’s warlord allies in Muslim Mindanao suspected to be behind the gruesome mass murder of relatives and supporters of their political enemies, a bevy of media personnel as well as innocent bystanders.
To be labeled as NPA, ergo an “enemy of the state”, is tantamount to a death sentence (via extrajudicial execution) or being subjected to the worst human rights violations by state security forces with the blessings of Malacañang. On the other hand, to be a valued political ally of Mrs. Arroyo, able to deliver hundreds of thousands of fraudulently acquired votes for her presidential bid, to beat back government opposition in an entire region and to terrorize a dirt-poor and restless populace is to be dealt with kid gloves despite being the prime suspects in the most heinous of crimes.
According to General Ermita there was nothing illegal in the arrest of the 43 - two of whom are doctors, two others a nurse and midwife and the rest community health workers - because this is based on solid intelligence information. If this were the case, why were the combined AFP/PNP raiding force of 300 who came in four military trucks and two armored personnel carriers, unable to present any valid search or arrest warrants? Why did they conduct their search of the private resort owned by Dr. Melecia Velmonte, an infectious disease expert at the UP-Philippine General Hospital, to come up with so-called evidence without any impartial witnesses to corroborate their find.
The same military intelligence that led to the "discovery" of a bundle of arms and explosives in a health training seminar had failed to detect an entire arsenal of weapons, ammunition and even armored vehicles in the Ampatuans' possession. It took the declaration of emergency rule and eventually martial law before the authorities could come up with anything substantial against the Ampatuans.
And this same AFP-PNP combine that willfully allowed the Ampatuans to commit the massacre, if they did not actually participate in it by refusing to provide security to the prospective victims, has turned its brutal, coercive power on hapless doctors and health workers whose only intent was to learn how to care for the sick in a setting of want and government neglect.
In order to give the Gestapo military and police time to manufacture more evidence and extract tortured confessions from their victims, the 43 were blindfolded and shackled, held incommunicado, denied food and toilet privileges for maximum discomfort, and deprived of mandatory visits by their legal counsel and CHR officers.
After two days, when the relatives of some of the arrested were allowed in, they were given a very short time to inquire into the condition of their loved ones and always in the intimidating presence of their captors for which reason many could not speak about the despicable treatment they had received.
While refusing to present the 43 to the media, the AFP keeps issuing press releases in a ludicrous attempt to concoct a story about their latest victims: that they were undergoing training in bomb manufacture; that the 60-year-old physician in the group, Dr. Alex Montes, is actually the NPA operative assigned to kill retired General Jovito Palparan, the bloodthirsty general who confesses to “inspiring” his men to kill NPA suspects vigilante style; that several of the women have been identified as having participated in NPA attacks.
And lo and behold, the AFP reported that campaign materials of the progressive party list Bayan Muna were also seized from the group. All the better to keep up the military’s vilification campaign against the party that has successfully won several seats in Congress since 2001 and is now fielding a senatorial candidate? Why limit the propaganda to the AFP’s having chalked up a big blow against the NPA when you can also, by innuendo, implicate Bayan Muna, currently in the thick of the electoral campaign, as an NPA “front” and scare away potential voters?
The raid against the health workers can only be seen as part of the Arroyo regime’s propensity to crack down on those who oppose its policies and its illegitimate rule. The Council for Health and Development, under whose auspices the training was undertaken, is a non-government organization committed to rendering health services to poor and underserved communities. They are critical of government policies and programs that underlie the people’s poverty, ill health and inadequate, low quality health services. As advocates of community-based health care, health training for community volunteers is a staple of their program.
The practice of treating “NPA” or “NPA suspects” as “enemies of the state” and therefore undeserving of due process rights and, more important, non-derogable human rights such as the right to life, against being tortured, against unjust arrest and detention, etc. has brought about a situation wherein military and police officials up to the Executive Secretary can blithely justify their fascist actuations on their mere say so that someone is an NPA.
But more than the fascist military mindset, it is the overweening brutality, ruthlessness and arrogance of power that characterizes the Arroyo regime, in combination with its rabid craving and desperation to remain in power that has cultivated and nurtured the culture of impunity for perpetrating such horrendous atrocities.
With elections crucial to the fate of the Arroyo cabal just around the corner, there is reason to fear that the worst is still to come. #
By Carol Pagaduan-Araullo
The contrast is too stark to be missed. “But they are NPA (New People’s Army)!” Thus did Executive Secretary and former General Eduardo Ermita justify the arbitrary arrest of 43 health workers and professionals attending a training seminar in Morong, Rizal last Saturday, their torture, subjection to indignities, deprivation of legal counsel, and denial of visits by relatives and officers of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR).
This is the same Secretary Ermita who, along with other Arroyo henchmen, immediately invoked the right to due process of the Ampatuans, Arroyo’s warlord allies in Muslim Mindanao suspected to be behind the gruesome mass murder of relatives and supporters of their political enemies, a bevy of media personnel as well as innocent bystanders.
To be labeled as NPA, ergo an “enemy of the state”, is tantamount to a death sentence (via extrajudicial execution) or being subjected to the worst human rights violations by state security forces with the blessings of Malacañang. On the other hand, to be a valued political ally of Mrs. Arroyo, able to deliver hundreds of thousands of fraudulently acquired votes for her presidential bid, to beat back government opposition in an entire region and to terrorize a dirt-poor and restless populace is to be dealt with kid gloves despite being the prime suspects in the most heinous of crimes.
According to General Ermita there was nothing illegal in the arrest of the 43 - two of whom are doctors, two others a nurse and midwife and the rest community health workers - because this is based on solid intelligence information. If this were the case, why were the combined AFP/PNP raiding force of 300 who came in four military trucks and two armored personnel carriers, unable to present any valid search or arrest warrants? Why did they conduct their search of the private resort owned by Dr. Melecia Velmonte, an infectious disease expert at the UP-Philippine General Hospital, to come up with so-called evidence without any impartial witnesses to corroborate their find.
The same military intelligence that led to the "discovery" of a bundle of arms and explosives in a health training seminar had failed to detect an entire arsenal of weapons, ammunition and even armored vehicles in the Ampatuans' possession. It took the declaration of emergency rule and eventually martial law before the authorities could come up with anything substantial against the Ampatuans.
And this same AFP-PNP combine that willfully allowed the Ampatuans to commit the massacre, if they did not actually participate in it by refusing to provide security to the prospective victims, has turned its brutal, coercive power on hapless doctors and health workers whose only intent was to learn how to care for the sick in a setting of want and government neglect.
In order to give the Gestapo military and police time to manufacture more evidence and extract tortured confessions from their victims, the 43 were blindfolded and shackled, held incommunicado, denied food and toilet privileges for maximum discomfort, and deprived of mandatory visits by their legal counsel and CHR officers.
After two days, when the relatives of some of the arrested were allowed in, they were given a very short time to inquire into the condition of their loved ones and always in the intimidating presence of their captors for which reason many could not speak about the despicable treatment they had received.
While refusing to present the 43 to the media, the AFP keeps issuing press releases in a ludicrous attempt to concoct a story about their latest victims: that they were undergoing training in bomb manufacture; that the 60-year-old physician in the group, Dr. Alex Montes, is actually the NPA operative assigned to kill retired General Jovito Palparan, the bloodthirsty general who confesses to “inspiring” his men to kill NPA suspects vigilante style; that several of the women have been identified as having participated in NPA attacks.
And lo and behold, the AFP reported that campaign materials of the progressive party list Bayan Muna were also seized from the group. All the better to keep up the military’s vilification campaign against the party that has successfully won several seats in Congress since 2001 and is now fielding a senatorial candidate? Why limit the propaganda to the AFP’s having chalked up a big blow against the NPA when you can also, by innuendo, implicate Bayan Muna, currently in the thick of the electoral campaign, as an NPA “front” and scare away potential voters?
The raid against the health workers can only be seen as part of the Arroyo regime’s propensity to crack down on those who oppose its policies and its illegitimate rule. The Council for Health and Development, under whose auspices the training was undertaken, is a non-government organization committed to rendering health services to poor and underserved communities. They are critical of government policies and programs that underlie the people’s poverty, ill health and inadequate, low quality health services. As advocates of community-based health care, health training for community volunteers is a staple of their program.
The practice of treating “NPA” or “NPA suspects” as “enemies of the state” and therefore undeserving of due process rights and, more important, non-derogable human rights such as the right to life, against being tortured, against unjust arrest and detention, etc. has brought about a situation wherein military and police officials up to the Executive Secretary can blithely justify their fascist actuations on their mere say so that someone is an NPA.
But more than the fascist military mindset, it is the overweening brutality, ruthlessness and arrogance of power that characterizes the Arroyo regime, in combination with its rabid craving and desperation to remain in power that has cultivated and nurtured the culture of impunity for perpetrating such horrendous atrocities.
With elections crucial to the fate of the Arroyo cabal just around the corner, there is reason to fear that the worst is still to come. #
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
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