UA Date: 02 November 2007
UA Title: Human rights workers harassed by soldiers in Batuan, Bohol, Philippines
UA Case: Threat/Harassment/Intimidation
Victim/s: Liza Serenio
· 28 years old, single
· Female
· Secretary General, KARAPATAN-Bohol
Marianne Tagalo
· 25 years old, single
· Female
· Provincial Coordinator, KABATAAN Partylist-Bohol
Maria Fe Celades
· 20 years old, single
· Female
· Organizer, KABATAAN Partylist
Martina Visaya
· 50 years old, widow with 2 children
· Female
· Chairperson, GABRIELA-Bohol
Telesforo Arambala
· 56 years old, driver, married with 6 children
· Male
· Chairperson, Nagkahiusang Driver sa Bohol "United Drivers of Bohol" (NADBO-PISTON)
Hilario Becera
· 25 years old, single
· Male
· Member, KABATAAN Partylist
Vicente Alejandro Tandog
· 30 years old, married with no children
· Male
· Volunteer, KARAPATAN-Cebu
Venyl Joy Tandog
· 25 years old, married to Vicente Alejandro
· Female
· Volunteer, KARAPATAN-Cebu
Daretell Artajo
· 22 years old, single
· Male
· Volunteer, KARAPATAN-Cebu
Adolfo Salas, Jr.
· 25 years old, single
· Male
· Member, KABATAAN Partylist
Place of Incident: Brgy. Rizal, Batuan, Bohol
Date of Incident: 21 October 2007, between 11:30-12:00 noontime
Alleged Perpetrators: Col. Cesar Yano, Commander of the 302nd Infantry Brigade of the
Philippine Army, based in Barangay Katipunan, Carmen, Bohol, Sgt.
Abarri, Lt. Col. Noel Porlucas and members of the brigade
Account of Incident –
KARAPATAN-Bohol received a report from residents of Barangay Rizal, Batuan, Bohol that on 16 October 2007, the Re-engineered Special Operation Team (RSOT) of the Philippine Army conducted a compulsory public meeting for all barangay officials and the public to discuss the setting up of a Barangay Defense System (BDS) where all residents of the village ages 16 and above are required to man the BDS checkpoints round the clock– women to take the day shift and the men to take the night shift. Residents are required to get cedulas or community tax certificates for identification and non-residents are prohibited from entering the barangay if they have no cedula. Supposedly, the military also ordered the residents to throw stones at any KARAPATAN staff members who would enter the barangay. Non-compliance of the soldiers' order would automatically mean giving support to the New People's Army (NPA). The residents also alleged that the military further threatened them by asking, "Would you like it when one of you disappears and your birthdays moved to November 1 or 2, if you disobey our order?" The residents further reported that the military also announced during this meeting that they would give a seminar on BDS on 21 October and the speaker is an associate of retired Gen. Jovito Palparan, Jr.
These blatant violations of the civil and political rights of the residents prompted the KARAPATAN-Bohol office to seek assistance from the local government units. On October 19, KARAPATAN-Bohol, headed by its Secretary General Liza Serenio, lobbied with the Municipal Council and requested the mayor of the Municipality of Batuan, Mayor Gregoria Petito, to send a representative to accompany the KARAPATAN team to attend the 21 October's seminar of the Philippine Army. KARAPATAN gave the mayor a copy of the factsheet of the 16 October incident.
On 21 October at around 9:20 in the morning, together with the mayor's secretary and representatives from KARAPATAN Regional Office in Cebu, members of KARAPATAN-Bohol attended the seminar conducted by the military in Barangay (village) Rizal. The meeting was held at the edge of the forest and far from the houses. The seminar has already started when they arrived. The speaker was Lt. Col. Nestor Porlucas, the battalion commander of the 79th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IBPA), based in Camp Bilarma, Barangay Riverside, Bilar, Bohol. In his speech, the colonel maligned the progressive partylist organizations like BAYAN MUNA, ANAKPAWIS, GABRIELA and KABATAAN. He was followed by the main speaker Sgt. Abarri of the 302nd Infantry Brigade. Sgt. Abarri started his speech by telling the audience to intently listen to what he was going to say because failure to do so would mean a repetition of what he did to the Barangay Captain of Cambigsi, Bilar, Bohol, whom he slapped for not listening and obeying his order. He added that there was no complaint filed against him for this action because he was sure the residents and the Barangay Captain of Cambigsi realized that he was right.
The residents of Barangay Rizal therefore listened as Sgt. Abarri continued his speech. He menacingly called out the names of the residents who are members of Hugpong sa mga Mag-uumang Bol-anon (HUMABOL) or Farmers Association of Bohol, and who were in the military's list of supposed supporters of progressive partylist organizations, and made them come to the front one by one. In front of the crowd, these residents were interrogated and forced to admit that they are NPA supporters. Sgt. Abarri threatened that those who would not tell the truth would be "visited" by the soldiers in their homes and they would probably not like what they are going to do to them. He even quoted a passage in the Bible, Luke 19:27 that say, "for those who disobey, send them in front of me and kill them!"
Then the commander of the 302nd Infantry Brigade, Col. Cesar Yano, arrived and took the stand to deliver his speech which was generally a vilification of the progressive partylist organizations and KARAPATAN. Col. Yano sarcastically apologized to the KARAPATAN contingent when he said that as per his experience in other areas, people from KARAPATAN are liars and fabricator of stories. He told the audience that he has made the acquaintance of the National Secretary General of KARAPATAN Marie Hilao-Enriquez when the latter went to see him searching for a victim of enforced disappearance and that the meeting lasted for an hour with Marie Hilao-Enriquez unable to say anything because he gave her a lecture. At this point, the mayor's secretary handed him the factsheet submitted to Mayor Petito. He read the factsheet and became enraged as to why his name was included in it. He faced the KARAPATAN contingent and angrily shouted "You!" and walked out of the seminar together with his aides-de-camp.
Sgt. Abarri resumed his speech but this time, he bore down on the KARAPATAN team with the intention of humiliating them. He furiously rallied the already terrified audience against KARAPATAN. He led the chanting "Go away KARAPATAN!" and "Down with KARAPATAN!" But the team members did not budge from their seats which further incensed Sgt. Abarri and prompted him to order the soldiers to encircle the area. He threatened the KARAPATAN members that they would be bodily taken out of the place. The KARAPATAN team only left when the people dispersed for lunch, fearing that the soldiers may shoot and declare them killed in an encounter with the rebels owing to the location of the meeting.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Send letters, emails or fax messages calling for:
1. The immediate formation of an independent fact-finding and investigation team composed of representatives from human rights groups, the Church, local government, and the Commission on Human Rights that will look into the threat/harassment/intimidation of Liza Serenio, Marianne Tagalo, Maria Fe Celades, Martina Visaya, Telesforo Arambala, Hilario Becera, Vicente Alejandro Tandog, Venyl Joy Tandog, Daretell Artajo and Adolfo Salas, Jr.
2. The immediate stopping of threat/harassment/intimidation of the human rights defenders.
3. The immediate protection of the victims; and
4. The Philippine Government to be reminded that it is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and that it is also a party to all the major Human Rights instruments, thus it is bound to observe all of these instruments' provisions.
You may send your communications to:
President of the Republic
Malacanang Palace ,
JP Laurel St., San Miguel
Manila Philippines
Voice: (+632) 564 1451 to 80
Fax: (+632) 742-1641 / 929-3968
Cell#: (+ 63) 919 898 4622 / (+63) 917 839 8462
E-mail: corres@op.gov.ph / opnet@ops.gov.ph
Department of National Defense
Room 301 DND Building, Camp Emilio Aguinaldo,
E. de los Santos Avenue
Quezon City
Voice:+63(2) 911-9281 / 911-0488
Fax:+63(2) 911 6213
osnd@philonline.com
Hon. Raul M. Gonzalez
Secretary, Department of Justice
Padre Faura St., Manila
Direct Line 521-8344; 5213721
Trunkline 523-84-81 loc.214
Fax: (+632) 521-1614
Email sad@doj.gov.ph
Chairperson, Commission on Human Rights
SAAC Bldg., UP Complex
Commonwealth Avenue
Diliman, Quezon City
Philippines
Fax: (+632) 929 0102
Email: drpvq@chr.gov.ph
Please send us a copy of your email/mail/fax to the said government official to our address below.
URGENT ACTION Prepared by:
KARAPATAN (Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights)-National Office
1 Maaralin cor Matatag St., Brgy. Central, Quezon City 1100 PHILIPPINES
Voice/Fax: (+632) 435 4146
Emails: <karapatan@tri-isys.com > / karapatan@edsamail.com.ph / karapatan.pid@gmail.com
Website: www.karapatan.org