Verslag oprichting Nederlands-Filippijnse Mensenrechtenbeweging

Killings Alarm Dutch-Filipino HR Movement

“One candlelight makes a lot of difference in a world of darkness. Each candle that we lit and gather together shall be a hundred thousand torches that would light up a hundred paths in our search for justice for the victims of human rights in the Philippines.” - Siswa Santoso, a concerned Dutch citizen

by D. L. MONDELO

Chief Political Correspondent for Europe
Bulatlat.Com

AMSTERDAM - The cry for justice for the victims of human rights violations in the Philippines is just too loud, persistent, alarming and distressing that concerned citizens in this part of the world have resolved to take concrete action.

After several months of painstaking preparations, the Dutch-Philippine Human Rights Movement (DPHRM) took off the ground with a launching in this Dutch city last May 13. The convenors of this initiative took inspiration from the martyrdom of human rights activist Eden Marcellana and peasant leader Eddie Gumanoy who were killed by soldiers and military informers in Mindoro Oriental in April last year. Their gruesome and treacherous murders remained unsolved to this day.

The Dutch-Philippine HR Movement was born after several forums and discussions on the human rights situation in the Philippines beginning October last year. Marie Hilao-Enriquez of human rights alliance Karapatan and human rights lawyer Edre Olalia of the Public Interest Law Center (PILC), fresh from presenting their report on the human rights situation in the Philippines to the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland, inspired and stimulated the audience's interest in pushing forward human rights work for the Philippines.

Several Dutch and Filipino groups that took interest in the report on the grim human rights situation in the Philippines in the first forum in October included the Dutch section of Amnesty International, the Humanistische Overleg Mensenrechten (Humanist Movement), Ecumenical Ministry for Filipinos Abroad, Committee Defend, Filipino Scholars in the Netherlands, Filipino-Dutch residents, and members of the Migrante Party List-Netherlands chapter.


Juvy Magsino

In March this year, the Nederlands-Filipijnse Solidariteitsbeweging (NFS) - the Dutch solidarity group for the Philippines, and Migrante Europe - the coordinating center for promoting Filipino migrant rights and welfare in Europe - which are the main convenors of the HR initiative, organized another forum on human rights. In the forum, the recent murders of progressive political candidates such as Juvy Magsino (who was running for mayor of a town in Mindoro Oriental) and supporters of progressive party list groups such as Bayan Muna, were highlighted. Appalled by the reports, the participants resolved to form a human rights movement for the Philippines that will specifically work for justice for the murdered human rights workers and the release of political prisoners.

In his emotion welcome remarks during the May 13 launching of the DPHRM, Siswa Santoso, a concerned Dutch citizen, said: “This human rights movement for the Philippines that we are launching tonight has so much significance for all of us. It is not so much that we ourselves are directly affected by these reports of violations of human rights that we are involving ourselves with this initiative. Rather, we are concerned and disturbed because, while here in western Europe we enjoy the amenities of life, political choice and democracy, thousands of mile away, the same human beings like us, are deprived of life, freedom and their basic human rights.”

Santoso said human rights are best protected and upheld when they are strongly safeguarded and fought for by everyone.


A candlelight

“One candlelight makes a lot of difference in a world of darkness,” he said. “Each candle that we lit and gather together shall be a hundred thousand torches that would light up a hundred paths in our search for justice for the victims of human rights in the Philippines.”

Dr. Jun Saturay, a dentist and environmental activist who used to live in Mindoro, gave a comprehensive account of the human rights struggle in the heavily-terrorized island of his province. Mindoro island today, he said, is the Manila government's “laboratory” in its drive against the revolutionary movement, particularly the New People's Army (NPA), the guerrilla army led by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

Saturay used to be among the community leaders and activists in the province exposing and fighting big corporate mining, militarization and neglect of the Mangyan communities (a minority group), until he fled the province to escape death threats coming from the military and para-military groups in the island.

Many of the Filipino dentist's colleagues, such as Marcellana and Magsino, have been summarily executed by the military. The most recent murder victim, Isaias Drummond Manano, a peasant organizer and Anakpawis party list leader in Mindoro Oriental, was Dr. Saturay's close colleague in the campaign against the Mindoro nickel project, a Canadian mining venture.

Saturay, who has applied for political asylum in the Netherlands, appealed to the Dutch and Filipino communities to raise their collective voices to stop human rights violations in Mindoro island.

Jan Beentjes, one of the staunch Dutch supporters of the Philippine progressive movement and a member of the NFS made an interesting power point presentation arguing the urgent need for a human rights movement for the Philippines. In his presentation, Beentjes put forward the proper framework and perspective of the defense of human rights in the Philippines, by explaining that so long as there is exploitation, people will resist, and when people resist, human rights are the targets of those who thrive on exploitation and oppression.

The open forum that followed was animated with the presence of Fidel Agcaoili, a member of the peace panel of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, and Prof. Jose Maria Sison, chief political consultant of the NDFP peace panel.


Human rights pact

Agcaoili is also co-chair of the newly-formed Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) that will oversee the implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CAHRIHL) - the first important agreement between the NDFP and the Manila government in their peace negotiations. He visited Manila recently to finalize details on the operationalization of the JMC, including the opening of the Philippine office of the JMC. The overseas office of the JMC will be opened here in the Netherlands.

Agcaoili said that with the formation of the JMC, there is now a mechanism to receive complaints of human rights violations. He told the audience at the forum that the signing of the CAHRIHL and the formation of the JMC are in keeping with the framework of the peace talks which is that each party in the talks cannot impose its constitution and laws on the other. The NDFP, he said, has its own constitution and laws, and that it will go after human rights violators.

Professor Sison, for his part, gave an update on the possible political scenarios as a result of probably the most fraudulent, violent and expensive elections in the Philippines. Sison said that incumbent President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has used bribery, wanton cheating and violence to ensure her victory and steal votes from her closest rivals and the progressive party list groups.

He said that if the progressive party list of Filipino migrants, Migrante Party, would win a seat in Congress, Filipino migrants could have another arena in the fight for their rights and welfare. Sison bewailed the intensifying fascism in many countries in Europe, Asia-Pacific and the United States, which is targeting and victimizing migrants and refugees.

The DPHRM is basically a network of individuals, organizations and groups concerned with human rights in the Philippines, explained Grace Punongbayan, convenor of Migrante Europe and the DPHRM. She said that this partnership between the Dutch and Filipino communities is a concrete expression of solidarity with the victims and those who are courageously defending the human rights of the poor sectors.


New momentum

“The launching of the DPHRM shows that an important aspect of solidarity work for the Philippines has once again gained momentum here in the Netherlands,” stressed Punongbayan. She was referring to the solidarity work for the Philippines in Europe, particularly in the Netherlands, which diminished after the people's uprising in 1986 toppled the U.S.-supported Marcos dictatorship, and the ideological confusion in western Europe resulting from the downfall of many Eastern European regimes.

The Migrante-Europe convenor said this human rights movement, despite its nascent character, has gained the support of many individuals and organizations within the Netherlands, among them leading personalities of the Socialist Party of the Netherlands - one of the bigger progressive political parties who has a number of seats in the Dutch Parliament, the Humanist Platform for Human Rights, The Hague-based development agencies, big environmental advocate groups such as Friends of the Earth and Both Ends, and church officials of the Old Catholic Church.

The Amnesty International-Dutch Section - the biggest AI section in western Europe in terms of membership, and which has strongly registered its concern for the murder of human rights workers in the Philippines, has taken on the campaign for justice for Magsino and Leyma Fortu, according to Punongbayan.

“This shows how urgent and critical the human rights situation in the Philippines needs to be addressed,” Punongbayan stressed.