Category: Statements

Committee on Women, Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation

Philippine Province of the Good Shepherd 

1043 Aurora Boulevard, 1108 Quezon City

Gathered in our Province Assembly in Quezon City from November 12-14, 2007, we, the undersigned Good Shepherd Sisters, coming from different parts of the country decry the recent bombing of Batasan Pambansa causing the loss of lives and severe injury to many. This recent event, added to the long list of suspicious events and scandalous deals and scams allegedly attributed to the present national administration.

November 14, 2007

We from the PASAKA Confederation of Lumad Organizations in Southern Mindanao, the Solidarity Action Group for Indigenous Peoples (SAGIP)  and KALUMARAN (Kusag sa Katawhang Lumad sa Mindanao) express our deepest concern for the health and safety of our beloved Ma’am Luz Ilagan (Gabriela Women’s Partylist Representative and SAGIP Chairperson), who aside from being a woman rights defender is also a genuine advocate of the rights of the indigenous peoples, which she has fully expressed in her first privileged speech in Congress.

A CALL TO ACTION FOR RADIO BROADCASTER ROEL SEMBRANO

(Statement on the filing of criminal and administrative charges today before the Office of Ombudsman Mindanao against Compostela Valley Provincial Board Member Neri Barte who mauled and pointed a gun at Radyo Natin Compostela broadcaster Roel Sembrano inside the announcer's booth on October 24).

We gather here today to express our unity for the protection of the mandate of our profession.

What happened to Roel Sembrano manifests the ongoing attempts to curtail the freedom of expression in the country which we ourselves are held victims. 

November 6, 2007

A Question of Truth

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines is saddened and appalled by the defacement of the press freedom mural commissioned from the Neo-Angono Artists Collective by the National Press Club.

Absolutely nothing can justify the indignity done to a work of art that, ironically, seeks to honor the Philippine media's struggle for press freedom, a struggle, we would like to stress, that is far from over.

29 October 2007

COMPOSTELA VALLEY (NPA Southern Mindanao/29 October) —  Army Prisoner of War Army detachment commander Sgt. Raul Reyes was released, 12 noon today by the custodial unit of the Alejandro Lanaja Command-NPA in Barangay Casoon, Monkayo in Compostela Valley Province. He was turned over to the designated representative of Compostela Valley Province Governor Arturo Uy and Rep. Manuel Zamora.

(Statement on the attack of Radio Broadcaster Roel Sembrano of Radyo Natin Compostela, Compostela town, Compostela Valley Province)

We express our shock and disgust over the attack of radio broadcaster Roel Sembrano, who was inside the announcer's booth, when a politician he criticized on air came in with his wife and daughter and mauled him.  

It has been announced not a few times that I am getting married soon. While it is true that I am somewhat a personality and I do acknowledge that as public property, I am

 fair game, my other half to this marriage is a very private person. We do not want to invite attention to the wedding because it does not concern public welfare and interest.

ALEJANDRO LANAJA COMMAND
Front 3 Operations Command
New People's Army-Southern MindanaoPress Statement
October 14, 2007

The Alejandro Lanaja Command-Front 3 Operations Command of the New People's Army is holding under its custody Army detachment commander Sgt. Raul Reyes, along with paramilitary Civilian Action Auxiliary members Glorieto Mahumas, and Rudy Villaflor.

Once again, a member of the Muslim community was arrested without warrant. Once again, someone was subjected to physical abuse to force him to admit to a supposed terrorist plot. Once again, there is an attempt to hoodwink the public and to prostitute the judicial process through evidence that was not only unconstitutionally obtained but all indications point to its spurious nature. Once again, there is an attempt to earn media mileage points at the expense of protecting the public by going after those who are truly guilty. Once again, an excuse is being manufactured to have another escalation of hostilities in Mindanao.

Another accused “terrorist” was illegally arrested, tortured and indicted as member of Jamaah Islamiah (JI) and had involvement in the bombings of Yellow Bus Liner (YBL) in Koronadal City terminal last week.

“Limited police action”, that is how the hawks in government and military describes the impending offensive in Basilan to assure the people that it will not lead to another all-out war.  We have heard this phrase before. 

We, the concerned muftis, ulama and imam of Maguindanao, Shariff Kabunsuan, Sultan Kudarat, SOCSARGEN, Zamboanga del Sur, North Cotabato, and Cotabato City, having gathered in Cotabato City for the second regional consultative forum of the "Empowering the Ulama of the Philippines" project;

Karapatan in Southern Mindanao condemns in the highest terms today the continued spate of killings in the wake of the efforts of the Supreme Court-led summit to work measures that would defend and protect human rights.

The Southeast Asia Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (SEA GPPAC) is very concerned with the situation in Basilan.  The condition on the ground is uncertain with a seeming  “Sword of Damocles” hanging over the heads of Basilenos, in particular, and the Mindanaoans, in general.

For most of us Muslims who are observing the peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, we are saddened by what is happening in Basilan for the past few weeks.  

Mindanao Churches: Opposed to the Anti-Terror Law
(The Human Security Act of 2007-RA 9372)

Because the poor are oppressed, I will now rise up, says the Lord;
I will place them in the safety from which they long’.  (Psalms 12.5)

We, the 42 participants Bishops, Priests, Pastors of the Regional Consolidation – Education of the Ecumenical Bishops Forum (EBF), gathered on July 16-18, 2007 at CONCORD Inc., Marfel, Subdivision, Barra, Opol, Misamis Oriental  to worship God, study and reflect on the implications of the Human Security Act otherwise known as the Anti-Terror Law on the political and economic situation in Mindanao,  we have discerned that:

Basilan today poses the biggest threat to the GRP-MILF ceasefire agreement since it was redeclared in July 2003.   The decapitation of the dead bodies of the Marines and an Imam last July 10 deserves the strongest condemnation of all peace loving peoples. The implications of even one such dastardly act spells the difference between war and peace not only in Basilan but all over Mindanao.

Aghast. This is the reaction of Gabriela to the news of City Prosecutor Trinidad dela Torre-Cardona that the case against the accused is “dismissed without prejudice.”

DAVAO CITY (Suara Bangsamoro/12 July) – This is in response to the article: Poverty may push Moro women to terrorism, page A6 of the PDI, July 12, 2007 issue. 

The Human Security Act (HSA) is based on the notion that “the State must be held above all else.  The State must wield absolute power, using everything to control the territory and population of a country.”  It must protect itself at all costs even at the cost of its own citizens.  Thus, anything and anyone, that threatens national interests in the eyes of the present dispensation is deemed as a foe, a terrorist, “an enemy of the state."

NO TO HUMAN SECURITY ACT!

Six years ago, in the name of annihilating the Abu Sayyaf group in Mindanao, the newly installed Arroyo administration ordered an “intensive military crackdown” in Basilan, and Zamboanga City.   Checkpoints were set-up, saturation drives were implemented in the communities, and more than a hundred Moro men were rounded up in Basilan. 

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines treats as a serious threat to press freedom and the people's right to know Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez' statement that under the Human Security Act he may recommend wiretapping journalists government believes to be "co-mingling" with terror suspects.

ON THE PROPOSED APPOINTMENT OF SENATOR JUN MAGSAYSAYSAY AS CHAIR OF THE GRP PEACE NEGOTIATING PANEL FOR TALKS WITH THE MILF

Senator Magsaysay is a wonderful person, a man of truth and proven integrity, which qualities are basic requirements in our people’s search for a just and durable peace in Southern Philippines.

June 21, 2007

HER EXCELLENCY GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO
President
Republic of the Philippines

AN APPEAL TO REINSTATE SECRETARY SILVESTRE AFABLE AS CHAIRMAN OF THE GOVERNMENT PEACE NEGOTIATING PANEL IN THE GRP-MILF PEACE TALKS

Dear Madame President:

Greetings of Peace!

We are writing to express our grave concern on the removal of Secretary Silvestre Afable as Chair of the government peace panel in the GRP-MILF peace process.  Although the ongoing Exploratory Talks still has to hurdle refinements in the ancestral domain agenda, the two panels have nonetheless managed to achieve consensus on issues previously thought to be insurmountable.

The Mindanao Peoples Caucus is gravely concerned over President Arroyo’s acceptance of the courtesy resignation of Secretary Silvestre Afable last Friday. Such acceptance is plain and simple dismissal of Afable who serves at the pleasure of the President.  As an active participant observer in the GRP-MILF peace talks, the question that boggles us is why? Why did President Arroyo fire Secretary Afable?

Election fever has died down.  Everything is over but the counting.  Now it's payback time.  Loyal allies must be rewarded and so former Congressman Romeo Jalosjos will be free in a few months time.  For child rights advocates who fought for his conviction for the rape of a then 11 year old girl, the commutation of life sentence of Jaloslos is a blatant disrespect to all Filipino children, by no less than the President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who brags to be a child friendly President.

Because the public did not believe the lies and deceptions of the military under Brig. Gen. Carlos Holganza, chief of 101^st Infantry Brigade, that Grecil Buya was an NPA “child-soldier”, he is now resorting to fabrication of lies and more lies by claiming that Grecil was killed by bullets coming from New People’s Army (NPA). He cited a so-called “Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO)” report that the rebels who positioned at the lower ground started firing towards the soldiers and at the house were Grecil was staying while the rebels were retreating.

ON HIS WAY to Barangay Bulawan of Payao to say mass last Sunday, June 10, Fr. Giancarlo Bossi of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) was abducted in Barangay Silal by 10 armed men. A ranking military officials pointed his finger to the possible involvement of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) members in the region as witnesses alleged that one of the suspects was identified as the brother of Akiddin Abdusallam, also known as Kumander Kiddie, a self-styled Moro rebel leader.

The Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society, a network of Moro civil society organizations in Mindanao, laments the abduction of Fr. Giancarlo Bossi and condemned this dastardly act as against the morality of Islam and contrary to the norms of a civilized society.

Conrado Heredia Command
Front 20 Operations Command
New People's Army-Southern Mindanao

Press Statement
June 9, 2007

B/Gen. Holganza's Patented Lies Only Underscore Oplan Bantay Laya II Failures

The way B/Gen. Carlos Holganza of the 1001st Brigade-Philippine Army is fabricating a tale about last Thursday's ambush staged by the Front Guerrilla Unit (FGU) of the Conrado Heredia Command of the New People's Army against the 28th Infantry Battalion-AFP only shows that indeed, the AFP has  claimed a patent on lying.

The people of Mindanao deserve a peaceful and clean election. 

But, the massive cheating happening is as rampant as the violence that is transpiring in the most vote-rich island in the country.

Open Letter of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP-Davao City Chapter) during the ‘Solidarity Night for Press Freedom,’  World Press Freedom Day, Kanto Bar, MTS, May 3, 2007.

Tonight we gather in this place to band ourselves together- news persons from the print, radio, television, the online media, the academe, the legal profession and other allied sectors – in order to address  and confront what appears to be a hydra of threat  besetting our industry today;

Kaming  mga Peace and Development Advocates (PDAs) mula sa 100 Peace and Development Communities (PDCs) sa South Central Mindanao, ay nababahala sa hidwaang nangyayari sa Midsayap, Cotabato Province. 

PRESS STATEMENT
21 February 2007

ANTI-TERROR ACT FURTHER EMBOLDENS FORCES OF STATE TERRORISM
AND FURTHER DRIVES THE PEOPLE TO ARMED REVOLUTION

By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chief Political Consultant
National Democratic Front of the Philippines

Even without the Anti-Terror Act, euphemistically called the Human Security Act of 2007, the US-directed Arroyo regime has unleashed the counterrevolutionary military and police forces on the people and spurred them to commit all kinds of barbarities, including the massacre and massive displacement of people in the countryside and the extrajudicial killing, abduction and torture of so many unarmed legal activists. These atrocities are all in line with the Bush global war of terror and its Philippine puppet version called Oplan Bantay Laya I and II.
 

Republic of the Philippines
House of Representatives
Quezon City, Metro Manila

PRESS STATEMENT on the HUMAN SECURITY ACT (or ANTI-TERRORISM BILL)
Febuary 21, 2007

Now that the dreaded “Anti-terrorism Bill” has been approved, I maintain my assertion that such law will primarily affect the Muslims in the country, considering that even before its passage into law, there is great number of reported cases of torture and harassment against Muslims who are allegedly suspected terrorists. Thus, I stand still with my objection against the Anti-Terrorism Act, even in the guise of being called as the “Human Security Act of 2007”.

PRESS STATEMENT/18 January

COTABATO CITY (Suara Bangsamoro) — As the military in the Western Mindanao Command rejoices over their victory in killing Abu Sayyaf leaders, scores of members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front are the ones bearing the brunt of the military and police manhunt against bombing incidents in Central Mindanao supposedly attributed to the Abu Sayyaf group as retaliatory measures for the death of their high-profile officers