Members of the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP) could have belonged to the population who leisurely stroll along EDSA-Cubao. Their office is just a city-block away from a dome-shaped recreational landmark and they could watch basketball games and concerts here almost every night.
But what made the human rights (HR) watch group situate their office along St. Mary Street is not the Araneta Coliseum, not even its adjacent malls. It is the strategic spot that this site offers in collecting information regarding HR violation. Here, they are in the center of many institutions that will help them with their campaigns. Other cause-oriented groups, activists, mainstream media, schools, and major government offices found in Quiapo, Taft Avenue, Quezon Avenue, Katipunan, Diliman, and somewhere else in Metro Manila are all minutes away from their present location. Rowed along a residential area, the office has been the home of TFDP’s cause.
Inside, in one corner of a room, two human-tall cabinets are placed side by side, housing records of violations since the 1980s. The organization originally focused their attention on cases of political detainees during the Marcos era, but after sometime, the records already included many types of HR violations. TFDP’s Richie Supan provided the Heraldo Filipino an overview and analysis of the HR situation in 2004. In 2004 alone, they were able to document 119 cases of HR violations affecting 3,942 individuals. But many were not documented. The 22-page summary acknowldeges that it must have missed other cases due to decrease in personnel—they had 24 field staff in 2003, only 17 in 2004.
TFDP’s overview indicated that many cases of HR violations happen in far-flung areas with military detachments. Arbitrary political arrests and detention registered the highest among all cases. Such is the case of four Higaonon children in Agusan del Sur last year. Evening of March 15, 2004, the children spent the night at the house of a certain Joel Ondog. Later, they were arrested by members of army battalion assigned in the province. “At around 7 o’clock in the evening, Nito Sumpada, Litto Sumpada, Tema Namatidong and Gerry Sumpada were arrested by members of the 29th Infantry Batallion of the Philippine Army. According to the Episcopal Commission on Indigenous People, the children were in Joel Ondog’s house to sell rattan products. Since Ondog was a frequent buyer, the children already knew him and since their houses were a long way from Ondog’s house, they spent the night at his house” the document read. “While the children were eating supper, four soldiers and a certain Nathan Ondog forcibly took the children for some unknown reason.” The children were forced to admit that their uncles, Gala Lidanhog and Impil Sumpada, were members of the New People’s Army (NPA).
All four children were released after a week but they are “still under rehabilitation and undergoing therapy due to trauma and tension caused by the abduction.” Looking at a tabular list from TFDP’s website, it seems common for those allegedly arrested, detained, or killed to be linked to the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), or any “armed dissident groups”.
Militant groups-CPP-NPA links?
During a congressional hearing on the deaths of human rights leaders Eden Marcellana and Eden Gumanoy in 2003, watch groups questioned some state policies. One of them is the alleged “military’s qualification of legal organizations as fronts of CPP-NPA-NDF.” Ecumenical Movement for Justice and Peace secretary-general Danilo Beltran said that Marcellana and Gumanoy were not the first human rights activists killed by the military. He mentioned the killings of Milagros Belga in Laguna (2001) and Tirso Ebuenga in Sorsogon (2002).
He also mentioned Benjaline “Beng” Hernandez. Beng was her campus paper’s features editor and an AB Literature student-on-leave at Ateneo de Davao University. She became the secretary-general of Karapatan, vice-president for Mindanao of the College Editor’s Guild of the Philippines and a member of Bayan Muna. Her activism must have made her uniquely remembered by people she was able to work with. She was a “somewhat coquettish schoolgirl”. As Carlos Conde put it, she “defied the G & D (grim and determined) image of a tibak (local slang for activist)” due to the “playful innocence that she exuded at times.”
Conde, who is a writer for the New York Times and International Herald Tribune, also remembers Hernandez as the girl who would tease him about his relationship with her friend. Midday of April 5, 2002, Hernandez, along with other victims, was killed by Army soldiers and members of Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) in Arakan, North Cotabato. Beng was there to research on the peasant situation and was following-up a fact-finding mission regarding an alleged massacre that happened the previous year.
The spokesperson of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division said that Hernandez and three farmers were killed in a “legitimate armed encounter” between NPA guerillas, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and CAFGUs.
Witnesses and evidences, however, say otherwise. Lawyer Ciriaco Jabido Jr., regional director of the Commission on Human Rights at the time of the killing, conducted an investigation. He later noted an affidavit and said that the slaying of Hernandez was “an instance of summary or extra-legal execution, hence an unjustifiable killing committed under circumstances that qualify it as murder.” He based his conclusion on an investigation report of NBI that said she was killed through bullets fired “at a very close distance which could have been no more than one foot from the right breast, and not more than two feet from the left side of the neck.”
Ret. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia, 2003 Armed Forces of the Philippines vice chief of staff, denied allegations that the military qualifies progressive groups as communist fronts when he spoke as a resource person during the Marcellana-Gumanoy hearings. But Bayan Muna party-list representative Satur Ocampo supported the allegation by citing a video presentation entitled “Art of Deception” that was aired in government TV channels. The video said that CPP is using Congress to harass the AFP through investigations on human right violations. In April this year, a powerpoint presentation was brought to the attention of media groups. The “Know Your Enemy” meant for intelligence officers of the AFP, lists the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP), Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), the Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines (AMRSP), and other organizations critical of the government as groups that supposedly comprise the “legal machinery” of the CPP.
PCIJ campaigns against corruption by public officials, NUJP denounces the spate of killings of journalists while CBCP and AMRSP are religious groups that may be even against communist ideologies. An Internet news website reported that some congressmen denounced officials in the Cabinet who are “engaging in a demonization campaign linking progressive party-list groups to the underground Left.”
Political detainees
TFDP’s record shows that virtually all political detainees are jailed using criminal allegations such as murder or kidnapping. A previous visit of HF to the Maximum Security compound of the New Bilibid Prison confirmed this. Of all the detainees in political quarters, none are charged with rebellion, sedition and subversion. They are wrongfully associated with common criminal offenders. In 1994, Former Commissioner Sedfrey Ordoñez, said, “Wala ng political prisoners pero may nakakulong dahil sa kanilang pampulitikong paniniwala (There are no more political prisoners but there are those who are jailed because of their political beliefs),” referring to the exact situation of current detainees.
The human rights problem is hounding the country in years. Harassment, abduction, torture and killing have always been a part of the angst of the victims’ families. The figures presented by the government and non-government organizations differ but both agree that abuse cases do not result in tens nor hundreds, but in thousands of sufferers. It’s sad that these violations happen in areas with high number of state-assigned armed forces and allegedly done by government’s agents. The AFP is reinforced to protect the country from terror threats but with these human rights allegations against them, it seems the government forces are eyeing the wrong enemy.
Senator Aquilino Pimentel once called the attention of Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights regarding Hernandez’ case. “It is distressing to note these summary killings,” he said. “You are rubbing out people because of their views.”
With reports from Mathhew Ventura, saw print on La Salleño, August 2005. Links and credits: Task Force Detainees of the Philippines, Mindanews, STExposure, Bulatlat.com, Matanglawin, AFP Website.