ASEAN

Journalistsโ€™ widows file complaint at Asean

Widows of journalists who were among the 57 victims in the so-called Maguindanao massacre have filed a complaint before an international human rights body against the government for failing to prevent the carnage.

Lawyers Harry Roque and Pete Prinsipe, representing the 14 widows of slain journalists, told reporters that the complaint was filed before the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, an international human rights body based in Jakarta and composed of advocates from Asean member-countries.

The 23-page complaint was sent to the rights body via e-mail and registered mail, with the Republic of the Philippines as the main respondent.

Outside the improvised court room in Camp Crame, where the trial of the massacre is being heard, Roque said the government violated Article 1 of International Convention of Civil and Political Rights: the right to protect and promote the right to life.

He said freedom of the press was similarly violated as โ€œkilling of journalists is the highest form of censorship (ang pagpaslang sa mga mamamahayag ang pinakamataas na kind of censorship.โ€

At least 30 journalists were among the victims of the massacre.

In the complaint, the widows specifically implicated Army officials Major General Alfredo Cayton and Colonel Medardo Geslani, the commanding general of the 6th Infantry Division and the commanding officer of the 601st Brigade, respectively, who โ€œinexplicably turned down repeated requests from the Mangudadatus as well as from members of the media to provide security escorts for the convoy led by the vice mayorโ€™s wife Genalyn to the Commission on Elections office in Shariff Aguak town.โ€

Myrna Reblando, widow of slain Manila Bulletin correspondent Bong Reblando, said that night after the massacre on November 23, Cayton admitted to her that he wasnโ€™t able to provide security to all the massacre victims.

โ€œEh bakit ganon ang nangyari? Ang sabi niya kasi kailangan daw meron daw transfer na ililipat sa Samar. Sabi ko ang mga taong ito ay nangangailangan ng tulong. Wala namang giyera duon sa Samar para yun ang bigyan nila ng napakalaking importansya na kukunin yung tropa (Why did it happen? He said there was a transfer of troops to Samar. I told him that these people needed his help. There is no war in Samar to warrant such attention and troop transfer),โ€ she said.

The widows also implicated President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, saying she โ€œowed the Ampatuans many political debts, not least of which was the victory the political family assured for her through massive cheating in the May 2004 elections.โ€

Reblando also cited a November 19, 2009 intelligence report that a possible massacre or abduction in the province could take place.

โ€œKaya sabi ko ganun ba kawalang-kwenta yung ating mga kapulisan yung ating mga sundalo, na walang kwenta pala yung mga intelligence report na nasasagap nila? (So I told him, is that how useless our security forces to ignore such an intelligence report?)โ€ Reblando added.

Roque said the complaint implicates the police and the military in the November 23 mass murders.

โ€œKaya nga po ang sinasabi naming paglabag ito ng right to life dahil ang estado dapat pinoprotektahan ang mamamayan hindi po dapat pinapatay. At siyempre ang estado gumagalaw yan through state agents (Weโ€™re saying thereโ€™s a violation to the right to life because the state should protect its citizens, not kill them. Of course, the state acts through state agents),โ€ Roque added.

The international community thinks that the case is of โ€œurgentโ€ nature, Roque said. And this opinion could push the national government to act swiftly on the case.

Lawyer Rommel Bagares, executive director of CenterLaw, cited โ€œthe need on the part of the (Asean) Commission to issue an urgent declaration calling on the Philippine state to abide with its obligations under international law and ensure the protection and conviction of the perpetrators of the massacre as well as the provision of adequate reparations, including compensation and satisfaction, to the victims and their hears.โ€

Asean, or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, groups together Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Source: http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/breakingnews/view/20100203-251083/Journalists-widows-file-complaint-at-Asean

Email from:aseancats@googlegroups.com

By: Abigail Kwok
When: 7/2/2014

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