Task Force Detainees of the Philippines

A LETTER FROM PRISON

By: Temogen “Cocoy” Tulawie

December 9, 2012

Dear Fellow Human Rights Defenders, Peace Advocates and Friends of the Bangsamoro people,

Assalamu Alaikum Warrahmatullahi Wabarakatu!

I am writing from my prison here at the Davao City Jail where I had been confined for 332 days since my arrest last January 13, 2012. I join all of you in the observance of International Human Rights Day as we renew our universal commitment to respect, promote and defend human rights of all people everywhere in the world.

From the confines of my prison, my thoughts and prayers have never left my homeland in Sulu which is admittedly centuries-old behind from the significant gains of the human rights movement since the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. My current incarceration speaks eloquently of the human rights situation in my beloved homeland. If I come to think of it, I may even be more free inside my jail than my fellow brothers and sisters who could not speak up freely of what is really happening inside our tiny, embattled island. Like my imprisonment, my people are also living in a garrison controlled by warlords who are incidentally the government of the day. Sulu today is like a big prison where people could hardly speak up and criticize due to dire powerlessness amidst a culture of impunity.

It is a known fact that in Sulu, nobody will dare stand for human rights for fear that they will end up like Cocoy Tulawie, who is now languishing in jail, vanished and forgotten. Sige ka, magiging Cocoy ka, is the lesson that mothers are teaching their sons for fear that if young people will fight and stand for human rights, like Cocoy, they will also be punished and forgotten.

What is the message that my current imprisonment conveys to our people? That it is simply foolish to be a human rights defender in Morolandia. That after all, human rights is not universal as it could never apply to Sulu. That it is wiser to keep quiet and submit to the oppressor if only to stay alive. But even those who remain silent are not also spared. No one is spared from the violence, summary killings, mass arrests, indiscriminate bombings, kidnappings, and gang rapes. If you are lucky to survive it all, surely, a neighbour, a child, a sibling or a loved one will not be spared. One way or the other, we are all victims.

Rights groups commemorate Political Prisoners’ Day

Call on Government to stand by its commitment to look into the plight of Political Prisoners in the country

On the occasion of human rights week, rights group Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP) commemorates its annual Political Prisoners’ Day in December 7, 2012 at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa. Together with other human rights groups and 58 victims of political incarceration in NBP, they reiterate their call for President Benigno Aquino III to release all political prisoners.

According to Emmanuel Amistad, Executive Director of TFDP, the Aquino government has yet to prove its sincerity fifteen months after last year’s dialogue in response to the hunger strike undertaken by political prisoners.

“More than one year after the hunger strike for freedom and human rights, brought about by the death of Tatay Umbrero, the political prisoner who suffered and died in lung cancer, the government has not fulfilled any of its commitment,” Amistad lamented.

The political prisoners’ hunger strike that took place during President Aquino’s 2011 State of the Nation Address was lifted after almost two months when the Presidential Human Rights Committee (PHRC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) went into a dialogue with human rights groups.

DOJ committed to reactivate the Presidential Committee on Bail Recognizance and Parole (PCBREP), an interagency created during the former President Fidel V. Ramos term tasked to evaluate releases for alleged political offenders.

Former President Joseph Estrada continued its existence and it was again reactivated under former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo that eventually released eight political prisoners in her last term of office.

Secretary Leila De Lima assigned Usec. Francisco Baraan to lead PCBREP.

“We were informed that last October PCBREP recommended five political prisoners for release. Until now their papers are pending and we fear that it will be on hold especially with government’s attitude towards the issue. We are referring to Presidential Spokesperson Lacierda’s statement that there are no political prisoners in the country,” said Amistad.

“TFDP has documented more than 300 political prisoners and detainees languishing in jails nationwide.  We challenge PNoy and Secretary De Lima to stand by their commitment.  Release all victims of political incarceration,” Amistad concluded.

AMRSP statement on the Tampakan massacre

“Who has appointed you ruler and judge over us...? (Exodus 2:14)”

We, the Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines condemned the treacherous killing of Family members of a B’laan tribe leader opposed to the entry of Sagittarius Mines Incorporated (SMI) in their ancestral domain area during a raid conducted by the military at their farm house. Three (3) members of Capion family died while the youngest daughter was wounded. The massacre on October 18, 2012 at about 6:30 in the morning in Sitio Fayahlob, Barangay Datal Aliong, Kiblawan, Davao del Sur, is a manifestation of heartlessness and ruthlessness on the part of the perpetrators and criminals in uniform who were members of 27th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army.

AMRSP denounces this massacre for no one has the right to deprive anyone of the gift of life through an unjust and inhuman way. We demand justice for the members of Capion family who were brutally murdered. The voice of the woman victim who was pregnant and her children who were helplessly killed while still in bed shouted for justice to the heavens! We cannot simply be silent with this show of impunity for aside from the fact that the victims were defenseless; a mother and her children, their only sin is to stand for what they think is truthful and just!

GEN. NESTOR FAJURA

Chief, Human Rights Affairs Office

Philippine National Police

COL. ERICK PARAYNO

Chief, Human Rights Office,

Philippine Army

November 5, 2012

Sir,

Warm greetings.

With due respect to the Kiblawan Philippine National Police (PNP) Progress Spot Reports and the Press Release of the 10th Infantry Division (ID) of the Philippine Army (PA), the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA) would like to express its concern regarding the investigations and processes undertaken by both institutions.

PAHRA fears a possible suppression of data and glossing over of possible human rights violations and criminal liabilities by the 10th ID, PA and the Kiblawan PNP on what actually transpired in the Kiblawan Massacre last October 18, 2012 due to either lack of due diligence, thoroughness or transparency in their investigations and institutional procedures.

Comparing the results from the Fact-Finding Mission conducted by civil society and human rights defenders led by the Diocese of Marbel Social Action Center, the Kiblawan PNP Spot Reports and the 10th ID, PA Press Release, PAHRA’s analysis, among others, showed major discrepancies which could be vital to verifying what really happened in that bloody fateful day that killed Jordan and John Mark Capion y Malid and their mother, Juvy Capion y Malid, who was 2-3 months pregnant. These discrepancies were neither addressed in the PNP Progress Spot Reports nor in the Press Release.