Open Letter to Pope Francis I

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Open letter to Pope Francis I
from political prisoners in Camp Bagong Diwa
(10 January 2015)
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Your Holiness, Pope Francis,
Warm embraces!
Together with millions of the Filipino people, we, political prisoners, extend our warmest welcome to your five-day visit to our country, starting this coming January 15 up to January 19.
Your principal scheduled visit to that part of our country most devastated by the Supertyphoon Yolanda (“Haiyan”, by its international name) in November 2013, will indeed render much help, through expressing sympathy with, giving inspiration to and boosting the spirits of the millions of the victims there, not only of the recent natural disaster, but also of their continuing and further sufferings brought about, and that continue to be brought about, by gross government incompetence and corruption.
We also expect that in your visit to our country, you will find out a great deal about the more widespread sufferings of the greater mass of the oppressed, violated, deprived and impoverished people in our country, not much different from what you actually also saw in your own country, Argentina, and have been deeply concerned about.
We, political prisoners, are among those being made to suffer terribly in this country, in the same way that you actually also saw and have also been deeply concerned about in your own country, Argentina.
We are particularly being made to suffer reactionary state oppression by their jailing us, in order to separate us from the people and prevent us from immersing with the suffering mass of the people in our country, taking up with them their deep-seated socio-economic, political-cultural problems under the present rotten ruling system in our country, and being one with them in airing their problems and seeking substantive solutions to fundamentally resolve such deep-seated problems in our society and to work for a really free, just and more prosperous society.
We have been arbitrarily, unjustly and illegally imprisoned, heavily restricted and gravely repressed behind iron bars, just because we have been what you have been asking to come out boldly and in numbers from the people, its various sectors and your flock: as “street fighters for change” — as social cause activists against poverty, against corruption, against oppression, against human rignts violations, and against other basic ills in present society.
The ruling regimes — way back from the outrighly fascist Marcos martial law regime, up to the present — have consistently been trying to hide the fact of the existence of political prisoners in the country.
This, not only by outrightly and repeatedly denying that there actually are political prisoners, keeping us in jails among nonpolitical prisoners, and treating us without essential difference from them.
This, also by denying the application to us of the Hernandez Doctrine — a landmark 1956 jurisprudence that prohibits the arresting, jailing and charging with trumped-up criminalized charges of those whose conflict with the ruling state is based on “rebellion” or even just political opposition. Thus, we, political prisoners, have been arrested and swamped with multiple trumped-up criminalized charges just to keep us in jail, as much as possible indefinitely and separated from those in whose interests we are “street fighters for change”.
There are presently some 500 political prisoners in the country, whose cases have been individuallly documented. There are some 300 more whose cases still have to be individually documented.
Even if the visit of Your Holiness to our country would only be for a few days, we still hope that you would still be able to deepen factual and comprehensive knowledge about our actual oppressed existence and dire situation as political prisoners — subjected to arbitrary and illegal arrests; deprived of freedom, justice, political and human rights; swamped with trumped-up criminalized charges; made to undergo the most rotten and slowest crawl of justice in the world; and cruelly left to rot and suffer gross repressions, restrictions and deprivations for years, and even up to more than a decade already, in various jails throughout the country — not much different from what you have pathetically seen and have been very much concerned about in your home country, Argentina.
We, victims of political imprisonment in our country hope that Your Holiness may be able to help in pressing for the return of the lost freedom and other rights of political prisoners, and thus fully correcting such grave social and political ills that have long been pestering in our country, and have continued after outright martial law was replaced by a mere fascade of “democracy”.
We hope for the return of our lost freedom and other rights, as the the last two previous papal visits (by Pope John Paul II) in the country — in 1981 (during the height of the Marcos martial law years) and in 1995 (about 10 years after the fall of the Marcos martial law regime) — significantly helped in revealing the existence and dire situation of political prisoners then (despite malicious efforts to hide them), and in effecting the release of a great many of them. The political prisoners wrote to Pope John Paul II, and even had to engage in fasting and hunger strike, in order to call attention to their very existence, their concealed whereabouts and their dire situation.
Even if Pope John Paul II was not able to make a personal visit to the hidden political prisoners in 1981, and instead could only sent his representive (the then Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Agostino Casaroli) to look for them and visit them, still the Vatican was determined to and was able to actually apply in practice, in the case of the political prisoners, a verse from Matthew 25:36 (“I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me.”).
The Papacy’s direct expression of concern to the Marcos government and also to the world media about the existence and dire situation of political prisoners in the country significantly helped a lot. Very soon after, political prisoners in the country were released in large numbers.
In 1995, during Pope John Paul II’s second visit to the country, a new batch of post-martial law political prisoners again wrote a letter to the Pope about their situation and plea for their release, and also went on hunger strike.
The letter to Pope John Paul II and the protest action by the new batch of political prisoners were supported by the ongoing preparations then for peace talks between the National Democratic Front of the (NDFP) and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP/GPH). The release of all political prisoners was and continues to be one of the principal demands of the NDFP in the peace talks. In the face of all these, the mass release of political prisoners was immediately granted by the GRP, then under President Fidel Ramos.
Even as the present ruling regime of Benigno S. Aquino III has since been denying the existence at present of political prisoners in the country, this collective letter of ours, more collective letters by other political prisoners in other jails, and thousands more of individual letters by political prisoners, our loved ones, human rights advocates and our other supporters, all attest to our existence and dire plight as political prisoners, and are strongly and urgently pressing for the release of all political prisoners.
Aside from this letter to ask your Holiness to look into our situation and to support our particular pleas and struggles as political prisoners, we are also addressing our pleas and struggles to those pushing for the resumption of the peace talks between the NDFP and the GRP/GPH, with the hope that the resumption of the peace talks will oblige the GRP/GPH to release from prison, not only the still-detained NDFP peace consultants, but also all other political prisoners in the country.
In this regard, we take note of the fact that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), that has also long been engaged in peace talks with the GRP/GPH, has also asked your Holiness to help beef up the peace processes ongoing in the country, and in particular that between them and the GRP/GPH. In relation to this, it should be noted that, ironically despite the advances supposedly already gained in their peace talks with the GRP/GPH, some 50 MILF officers and forces have long remained under detention here in Camp Bagong Diwa and many more in other jails in the south.
We also take positive note of your Holiness’ significant positive role in helping bridge the already more-than-half-a-century emnity between the U.S.A. and Cuba, and initially the positive result of such in effecting the two countries’ recent mutual release of prisoners, whose long detention was caused by the long-standing emnity between the two countries.
Aside from these letters and other efforts, we are also putting the whole of ourselves in our plea for return of our freedom, application of justice and respect for human rights, that have been and continue to be deprived from us. Starting from today, January 10, up to your scheduled departure on January 19, we, political prisoners in Camp Bagong Diwa, will be going on fasting and hunger strike. While some of us will be going on hunger strike all the way from January 10 to 19, most of us will initially be going on fast from sunup to sundown from January 10 to 14 and total hunger strike from January 15 to 19. Other political prisoners in other jails, our loved ones, human rights advocates and our other supporters of cause will also be waging similar fasting, hunger strike and other sympathy protest actions at the same time.
While these protest actions of ours are centered on our demand for the return of the lost freedom, redress of injustices and respect of human rights denied us by the state’s powers that be, we are also protesting against the too many inhuman restrictions and violations of our rights (including violations of our rights to proper and healthy food rations and daily open air exercise, and harassments through too many abusive “search” operations) being committed against us by the jail authorities.
As we will not be getting our food rations for 10 days, we are asking the jail authorities to donate, in our behalf, the jail authorities’ savings in our food rations to the victims of disasters brought about by Supertyphoon Yolanda last year and Typhoon Senyang this year. We estimate such savings to amount to at least P10,000. We ask that the donation of such savings be coursed through the International Committee of the Red Cross.
We hope that, with your efforts and intercession and the efforts, too, of many others, our sacrifices will bear positive results, including the return of the lost freedom, redress of injustices and respect of human rights of political prisoners.
Fervently hoping for your valued support,
Political Prisoners in Camp Bagong Diwa
Tirso Alcantara
Emeterio Antalan
Leopoldo Caloza
Alan Jazmines
Loida Magpatoc
Jesus Abetria Jr.
Modesto Araza
Alex Arias
Gemma Carag
Eddie Cruz
Philip Enteria
Marissa Espedido
Voltaire Guray
Fidel Holanda
Edward Lanzanas
Pastora Latagan
Rolando Laylo
Evelyn Legaspi
Eliseo Lopez
Alberto Macasinag
Jared Morales
Denis Ortiz
Rhea Pareja
Miguela Piñero
Hermogenes Reyes Jr.
Andrea Rosal
Felicardo Salamat
Aristides Sarmiento
Antonio Satumba
Ma. Miradel Torres
Cirilo Verdan
cf: Archbishop Guiseppe Pinto, Papal Nuncio to the Philippines
   Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform
   Office of the President of the Philippines
   International Committee of the Red Cross
   National Democratic Front of the Philippines Peace Panel

More Ironies and Torments as Another Sad and Oppressive Year Ends

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Indigenous People’s Coordinator of the Diocese of Infanta, Fr. Pete Montallana’s letter to the editor, titled “An Irony and Emotional Torment Many Times Over”, that came out in the December 15 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, voiced out his alarm over so many ongoing cases of the most vulnerable innocent poor people, including indigenous peoples, being victimized by arbitrary detention and other acts of violence by reactionary state forces, and for years not being able to attain justice.

One of many such cases we have with us at the Special Intensive Care Area (SICA) Jail, here in Camp Bagong Diwa, and many, many more in other jails in the country, is that of a native Dumagat, Eddie Cruz, whose family and fellow tribals have long been living in their ancestral domain around one of the mountain peaks overlooking the Wawa Dam.
Since 2005, Eddie Cruz has been an official employee of the Montalban Tourism Office under the Montalban Municipality, where he had been working as a regular tourist guide.

At 3 p.m. of June 10, 2010, led by a Lt. Lopez, a platoon of the Bravo Company of the 16th Infantry Battalion (16th IB) arrived at Sitio Tuay, Barangay San Rafael, Montalban, Rizal.

In implementation of and as usually practiced in their Oplan Bayanihan “counter-insurgency” program in the countryside, the government soldiers encamped in the two-hut residence there of Eddie Cruz’ family.
Obliged to give way to the government soldiers who took over their residence, the family had to send the children out of the area for their well-being and safety. Obliged to be the principal host as the family’s principal income-earner, Eddie Cruz had to remain in the hut where he resides, and, assisted by an uncle and a cousin of his, arrange for the accomodation of the government soldiers in the family’s two huts. After the government soldiers were fed the family’s supper, they divided their numbers with the intent of spending the night and the next several days in the two huts.

At 11 p.m., the government soldiers heard hollers, coming from the upward bend of the dirt road leading to the residence of his family. At once, the government soldiers suspected that those hollering were New People’s Army (NPA) fighters, apprehensively passed around the warning “May kaaway!” (“There are enemies!”), and immediately started firing in the direction of where the hollers came from. After an hour or so, and no shots were fired back at the government soldiers, they manuevered to search the area for the “kaaway.”

Finding none –as those who were fired at had scampered away — the returning government soldiers hog-tied, blindfolded, and beat up Eddie Cruz, insisting that he knows that those hollering are NPA forces and that they are hollering for him. His pockets were searched for whatever. All his money kept there, worth about P3,000, were “confiscated”. His identification cards, including that of his being a regular employee (as a tourist guide) of the Montalban Tourism Office, were also taken from his wallet and burned to ashes.

He was brought 30 minutes away, to the Wawa Dam mountain peak atop their residence, and then more brutally beaten up with fists and rifle butts, until he lost unconsciousness.

After having been held for three days where the government soldiers camped at the mountain peak, he was brought to the 16th IB camp in Baras, Rizal, and there detained for three days, all the time with his hands tied at his back. He was then brought to the Taytay Police Station for booking, and then to the Taytay Provincial Prosecutor for inquest. The arresting forces filed trumped-up charges of “illegal possession of firearms, ammunitions and explosives” against him (he was purportedly carrying an M16 armalite and also purportedly had a rifle grenade in his pocket when he was arrested). He was then returned to the 16th IB camp, held there for two more months, until he was transferred to Camp Capinpin in Brgy. Sampaloc, Tanay, Rizal, where he was detained for another three days. After the 16th IB finally, even if already much belatedly and illegally, had obtained an official court order for his detention, he was transferred to a regular jail — at the Montalban District Jail — where he was confined for nine days.

The Montalban District Jail authorities were concerned that too many — relatives, friends and co-employees at the Montalban Municipal Office — were visiting Eddie Cruz in jail every day, and that, moreover, he is personally acquianted with practically all the people living in the community around the Montalban District Jail. Thus, he was again transferred, on August 28, 2010, to a detention center for “high risk detainees” — at the Special Intensive Care Area (SICA) Jail, here in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City, where he has since been detained for more than four years now.

Initially, even while in jail, Eddie Cruz continued to receive his salary from the Montalban Municipality. But in March 2011, the head of the Montalban Tourism Office, Municipal Councillor Rolando Hernandez, attended a court hearing of Eddie Cruz to explain to the latter that, because he can no longer perform his tasks for the Montalban Tourism Office, the payment of his salary will temporarily be suspended, but, since he is indeed a regular employee of the office, will automatically be resumed as soon as he is freed and able to function again in his previous work as a regular tourist guide.

Following this, the Mayor, Vice-mayor and the entire Sangguniang Bayan of Montalban wrote an official attestation about Eddie Cruz’ being a regular employee in good standing in their municipality, and about their disbelief about the accusations his arrestors made against him. They send a copy of their letter to the Office of the President, which also made inquiries about Eddie Cruz’ case. None of these has yet received any reply.

Under detention, Eddie Cruz has been suffering not only the very, very slow crawl of justice, for which the Philippines is one of the most notorious — if not actually the worst — in the world. He has also been further suffering the many, many failures of the jail authorities to bring him to scheduled court hearings. Since court hearings in his trumped-up case started in July 14, 2010, jail authorities have not brought him to court for 15 scheduled court hearings. The failure to do so have all been intentional — with the jail authorities absurdly claiming that Eddie Cruz is a high risk political detainee, and that there is always the risk of his escaping en route to and from his court hearings.

Eddie Cruz is only one of presently some 500 national minorities — mostly Moros — at the SICA 1 and SICA 2 Jail here.

Eddie Cruz is only one of presently some 500 of us, documented political prisoners in the country, practically all of whom are similarly also victims of trumped-up criminalized charges, in violation of the landmark Hernandez Doctrine, to viciously justify their arbitrary and illegal arrest and continuing detention. (Still ongoing are the documentations of some 300 more presently detained at the SICA 2 Jail here — mostly also national minorities, who have been accused of taking part in the Zamboanga City stand-off of the Moro National Liberation Front — including about 70 innocent civilian community residents in the stand-off area.)

In the meantime, Eddie Cruz has unjustly and cruelly been suffering continuing arbitrary and illegal detention, and many other violations of his legal and human rights for four and a half years now… and counting.
The long-ongoing persecution of indigenous peoples in our country today parallels the evil persecution of innocent natives in the colonies of the Roman Empire some 2000 years ago. Today’s “Holy Innocents Day”, December 28, is a recollection of such evil persecution, victimizing especially the children of the natives in the Middle East.
Unless all the intentional evil wrongdoings of the present ruling state’s powers that be are not rectified soonest, for Eddie Cruz, and others like him wrongly arrested and detained indigenous peoples, and like the rest of us — about 800 other political prisoners in the country today — there will be no Happy New Year at all for all of us.

Alan Jazmines
Emeterio Antalan
Leopoldo Caloza
Loida Magpatoc
Tirso Alcantara
National Democratic Front of the Philippines peace consultants detained at Camp Bagong Diwa, Bicutan, Taguig City
(28 December 2014)

Second Open Letter to Pope Francis I

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Second Open Letter to Pope Francis I

from Philippine Political Prisoners

(17 December 2014)

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Your Holiness, Pope Francis,

Again, our warm embraces!

We send our joyous greets to you on your birthday, today!

We trust that you continue to be well, to have more birthdays to come, and to be able to strongly push your advocacies, including those that concern the freedom, rights and welfare of the mass of the people, especially the most deprived, hungry and oppressed — including those who have suffered and continue to suffer much from man-made as well as natural disasters.

We, political prisoners, continue to look forward to your visit to our country in mid-January next year.

We reiterate our hope that, aside from directly looking at the situation of the victims of Supertyphoon Yolanda, sympathizing with them, giving inspiration to them and valuably boosting their spirits in surviving and rising above the mire, you would also be able to visit us or, at least, that your office would be able to look into our unjustly repressed situation as prisoners of conscience — as those who have been repressed behind iron bars and continue to be repressed in our advocacy and fight for people’s causes and for fundamental political and social changes in the interest of freedom, justice, human rights and the qualitative betterment in the lives and conditions of the deprived, impoverished and oppressed mass of the people.

We continue to hope that, even in your short visit to our country, you would also see what can, in utmost, be advocated and done to effectively help in qualitatively resolving our situation. Such includes pressing for the return of our lost freedom as political prisoners, and for the redress of the injustices and other violations of our political and human rights, that we, victims of continuing arbitrary and unjust political imprisonment, have long been made to suffer in our country — much like what you have also seen and were pained about in your home country, Argentina.

We also hope a lot that in looking at the very reason why we were placed and continue to be confined behind iron bars, you will also be able to learn more deeply the dire situation of the deprived, impoverished and oppressed mass of the people — not only in the areas devastated by Supertyphoon Yolanda, but throughout the country — in whose interest we have been struggling for and continue to be devoted to for the attainment of fundamental political and social changes for the betterment of their lives and of the whole of our society.

We continue to fervently hope for your valued support and for, indeed, the great help of your intercession in our situation and in that of the suffering mass of our people.

Political Prisoners (in Metro Manila jails)

in Camp Crame

Benito Tiamson

Wilma Austria-Tiamson

Dionisio Almonte

Renante Gamara

Eduardo Serrano

Gloria Pitargue-Almonte

Ramon Argente

Joel E. Enano

Arlene Panea

Rex G. Villaflor

in Camp Bagong Diwa

Tirso Alcantara

Emeterio Antalan

Leopoldo Caloza

Alan Jazmines

Loida Magpatoc

Jesus Abetria Jr.

Modesto Araza

Alex Arias

Cesar Balmaceda

Gemma Carag

Eddie Cruz

Philip Enteria

Marissa Espedido

Voltaire Guray

Fidel Holanda

Edward Lanzanas

Pastora Latagan

Rolando Laylo

Evelyn Legaspi

Eliseo Lopez

Alberto Macasinag

Jared Morales

Denis Ortiz

Rhea Pareja

Miguela Piñero

Hermogenes Reyes Jr.

Andrea Rosal

Felicardo Salamat

Aristides Sarmiento

Antonio Satumba

Elmer Torres

Ma. Miradel Torres

Cirilo Verdan

in New Bilibid Prison

Eduardo Sarmiento

Alberto Acerben

Jesus Alegre

Rodel Caballero

Marcial Dosmanos

Sandino Esguerra

Arnilo Gaviola

Generoso Granado

Romeo Lareno

Sony Marbella

Alfredo Montajes

Arturo Pangilinan

Rolando Pañamogan

Gerardo dela Peña

Joel Ramada

Lamberto Santiago

Victor Segura

Ricardo Solangon

Danilo Soniscio

Francis Versora

Calixto Vistal

cf: Archbishop Guiseppe Pinto, Papal Nuncio to the Philippines

Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform

Office of the President of the Philippines

Camp Bagong Diwa Political Prisoners Join Nationwide Coordinated Fasting in Act of Protest During Human Rights Week

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We, political prisoners in Camp Bagong Diwa, are among some 500 presently documented political prisoners all over the country.

 

About half of these have been arrested and detained under the present ruling regime, while the other half have been arrested under previous ruling regimes and have remained behind iron bars for about or even more than a decade by now.

 

More than 40 are women, another 40 are elderlies, more than 50 are sickly, and six are minors.

 

We, political prisoners — who have been made victims of arbitrary and illegal arrest and detention; of torture; of trumped-up criminalized charges; of one of the world’s most rotten, sluggish and practically unmoving system of justice; of undue repressions, restrictions, abuses; of poor prison conditions; and of other violations of our political and human rights — stand in protest against all these.

 

We urgently demand the return of our freedom. We also urgently demand the redress of the injustices against us; of the violations of our rights and our work for the people; and of the undue sufferings that we, our loved ones, our supporters and constituencies, and the people we are devoted to serve but are separated from, are made to suffer for long as iron bars and prison walls cruelly stand in the way.

 

Miradel Torres, a fellow political prisoner here at Camp Bagong Diwa, who had been separated by iron bars from her first born, has again just given birth two weeks ago and needs to be long confined in a hospital with her newborn child, because of their continuing difficult and precarious conditions.

 

We ask, that she and her newborn whom she has to continue nursing, be among those who should urgently be given first priority to be freed and no longer made to continue suffering their present difficult conditions. We ask for this in the interest of justice and on humanitarian grounds.

 

At the same time, we urgently press for the release of all political prisoners. All the more so should all political prisoners be released soonest, if the Government of the Republic of the Philippines is really opting for progress in the peace process.

 

As a way of pressing our urgent demand for the return of our freedom and for the redress of the injustices and violations against us, and as a way of linking with and joining in the similar and related protest actions and struggles for the cause of political prisoners and also for the respect of human rights of advocates and fighters for political and social changes, as well as that of the mass of the impoverished, exploited and oppressed people, both in our country and abroad, we, political prisoners in Camp Bagong Diwa, together with other political prisoners all over the country, will be going through sunrise to sundown fasting on the occasion of this international human rights week, starting from today December 3, the International Day of Political Prisoners, up to December 10, the International Day of Respect for Human Rights.

 

This collective protest action of ours is also in solidarity with mass protests and campaigns in the open against unresolved, continuing and further increasing violations of human rights, victimizing advocates and fighters for political and social changes and the mass of our long-suffering impoverished, exploited and oppressed people.

 

December 3, 2014

Political Prisoners in Camp Bagong Diwa,

Taguig City, Philippines

 

Jesus Abetria Jr.

Tirso Alcantara

Emeterio Antalan

Modesto Araza

Alex Arias

Cesar Balmaceda

Leopoldo Caloza

Gemma Carag

Eddie Cruz

Philip Enteria

Marissa Espedido

Voltaire Guray

Fidel Holanda

Alan Jazmines

Pastora Latagan

Edward Lanzanas

Rolando Laylo

Evelyn Legaspi

Eliseo Lopez

Alberto Macasinag

Loida Magpatoc

Jared Morales

Denis Ortiz

Rhea Pareja

Miguela Piñero

Hermogenes Reyes Jr

Andrea Rosal

Felicardo Salamat

Aristides Sarmiento

Antonio Satumba

Elmer Torres

Ma. Miradel Torres

Open Letter to Pope Francis I

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Open Letter to Pope Francis I

from Philippine Political Prisoners

(30 November 2014)

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Your Holiness, Pope Francis,

Warm embraces!

Like many, many others among our people, we, political prisoners, look forward to your projected visit to our country in mid-January next year. We hope that, aside from your scheduled visit to personally look at the extent of damage and sufferings wrought upon millions of victims in that part of our country most devastated by the Supertyphoon Yolanda (“Haiyan”, by its international name) in early November last year, and to render help through expressing sympathy, giving inspiration to and boosting the spirits of the victims, you would be able to also visit us and examine our cruelly and unjustly repressed situation as prisoners of conscience, and also see what can be done to effectively help in qualitatively alleviating our situation.

We, victims of political imprisonment, have been enthused to write such to you, as other victims, families and supporters of victims of natural and man-made disasters have also been writing you and asking for your attention and help, especially in regard to their calls for justice and respect of human rights. Among those who have done so, and have thus encouraged us to write to you and also ask your attention and help, have been the victims and families and supporters of victims of the Supertyphoon Yolanda, the families and supporters of the Desaparecidos (victims of fascist involuntary disappearances, since the Martial Law years up to the present), and the families and supporters of the Ampatuan massacre.

Given the very short duration and already previously fixed itinerary of your visit to our country, we ask for, at least, your office’s serious look into and investigation of our actual oppressed existence and dire situation as political prisoners — subjected to arbitrary and illegal arrests; deprived of freedom, justice, political and human rights; swamped with trumped-up criminalized charges; made to undergo one of the most rotten and slowest crawl of justice in the world; and cruelly left to rot and suffer gross repressions, restrictions and deprivations for years, and even up to more than a decade already, in various jails throughout the country — not much different from what you have pathetically seen and became very much concerned about in your home country, Argentina.

We ask this, as the concern and positive actions by the Vatican in two previous papal visits in the country — one during and another one after the martial law years — significantly helped in feretting out the truth about the existence and dire situation of poltical prisoners, and in quite effectively supporting the fight for freedom, justice and human rights of a great many of the country’s political prisoners then.

Way before Pope John Paul II made a visit to the Philippines in 1981, the fascist dictatorship of the Marcos martial law regime had already viciously tried to hide the existence of political prisoners in Camp Bagong Diwa — where bulk of them were then confined in Metro Manila — by transferring all of them to a secluded part of the National Penitentiary. The political prisoners, who were hidden in a nook of the National Penitentiary, wrote to Pope John Paul II a letter sharing with him about their existence and situation, and asking him to visit them and to take a look at their situation. As an expression of protest at their situation, they also engaged in fasting during the visit.

The Vatican, thus, learned about and at once raised directly with the Marcos government the issue in regard to the existence and situation of political prisoners in the Philipines. The Vatican had wanted to apply then in practice, in the case of the political prisoners, a verse from Matthew 25:36 (“I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me.”).

The Marcos martial law regime, however, kept hiding the truth and maintaining its total denial about the existence then of political prisoners in the country. Pope John Paul II was, thus, prevented from personally meeting with them and seeing their situation during his visit to the country. But when the Vatican learned about the malicious transfer of political prisoners to the National Penitentiary just to hide them from the Pope, it sent the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, to personally visit the political prisoners there and investigate their situation. The Papacy then expressed concern to the Marcos government and also to the world media about the existence and situation of political prisoners in the country. This helped a lot in the push for the mass release, very soon after, of political prisoners.

When in 1995, Pope John Paul II made a second visit to the Philippines, a new batch (of post-martial law) political prisoners in the country again wrote him a letter about their situation and, to further highlight their plight and demand for their release, went on hunger strike. Peace talks between the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP/GPH) were then progressing, and the release of all political prisoners was one of the principal demands of the NDFP in the peace talks. In the face of all these, the ruling GRP/GPH regime (which was then headed by President Fidel Ramos) was thus pushed to grant the mass release then of political prisoners.

Even as the present ruling regime of Benigno S. Aquino III now keeps on mouthing the very same line that the fascist dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos also kept on deviously mouthing during the martial law days — that there is not a single political prisoner existing in the country — you will definitely find out in your visit or through a serious investigation by your office, that, on the contrary, there have long been and indeed continue to be a great many of us, political prisoners, in the country — some 500 of us, about half of whom have been arrested and detained by the present ruling regime. Among the political prisoners at present in the country are more than 40 women, six minors and about 100 sickly/elderlies at present. Not yet included among these are more women, minors and sickly/elderlies and other innocent local community folk arrested with some Moro National Liberation Front fighters in the aftermath of the latter’s stand-off last year in a section of Zamboanga City.

In Metro Manila, in particular, there are presently several scores of us, political prisoners, who have been confined in Camp Bagong Diwa, in Camp Crame, and in the National Penitentiary.

Via an actual visit of your holiness or a deep investigation by your office, you will find out how very much repressive, restrictive and deprived are our situations as political prisoners, and how the ruling reactionary state and jail authorities institute systems and do what they can to prevent or even just stifle us from continuing to effectively fight for people’s causes and for fundamental social changes in the interest of qualitative betterment in the lives and conditions of the mass of the people — most especially the oppressed, deprived and impoverished — and towards the attainment of true and lasting peace in the country.

You will also find out that arbitrary arrests, torture, political detention, swamping with trumped-up criminalized charges, and other acts of fascist state violence and repression, including extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances against political/social cause-oriented activists and freedom fighters, and also against peace talks participants and consultants, as well as against many, many innocent struggling people in our country, constitute and further keep exacerbating gross violations of the people’s freedom, justice and human rights, as well as of long-standing peace agreements in our country. These have practically been no different from what you have seen and have been pained about in your home country, Argentina.

Together with human rights and other social cause-oriented forces, peace process advocates and various concerned religious organizations, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and its peace panel have been pressing for the rectification of these, including at the very least the release of all political prisoners, as well as the still-detained NDFP peace talks participants and consultants, and the ruling state’s accounting of the victims of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances among NDFP peace talks participants and consultants and among political prisoners.

The help of your office in taking these up with the GRP/GPH would be of much help to the peace process.

In this regard, we appreciate, too, that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) leadership, that has also long been engaged in peace talks with the GRP/GPH, has also written your holiness to help in beefing up the peace process ongoing in the country, and in particular that between them and the GRP/GPH. In relation to this, it should be noted that, among political prisoners who have been long been confined in Camp Bagong Diwa, are about 50 MILF officers and forces. And there are many more of them in other jails in the south. This, ironically despite the advances supposedly already gained in their peace talks with the GRP/GPH.

We hope that your visit, at the very least, will see the actual dire situation, touch the relevant issues, help in examining the roots of such gross fascist sins against the people and against prospects for peace, and in beefing up efforts to alleviate the situation, including our situation as political prisoners, who are among those made to continue suffering under such prevailing rule and system.

We hope that your intercession in our situation may be of great help.

Fervently hoping for your valued support,

Political Prisoners (in Metro Manila jails)

in Camp Crame

Benito Tiamson

Wilma Austria-Tiamson

Dionisio Almonte

Renante Gamara

Eduardo Serrano

Gloria Pitargue-Almonte

Ramon Argente

Joel E. Enano

Arlene Panea

Rex G. Villaflor

in Camp Bagong Diwa

Tirso Alcantara

Emeterio Antalan

Leopoldo Caloza

Alan Jazmines

Loida Magpatoc

Jesus Abetria Jr.

Modesto Araza

Alex Arias

Cesar Balmaceda

Gemma Carag

Eddie Cruz

Philip Enteria

Marissa Espedido

Voltaire Guray

Fidel Holanda

Eduard Lansana

Pastora Latagan

Rolando Laylo

Evelyn Legaspi

Eliseo Lopez

Alberto Macasinag

Jared Morales

Denis Ortiz

Rhea Pareja

Miguela Piñero

Hermogenes Reyes Jr.

Andrea Rosal

Felicardo Salamat

Aristides Sarmiento

Antonio Satumba

Elmer Torres

Ma. Miradel Torres

Cirilo Verdan

in New Bilibid Prison

Eduardo Sarmiento

Alberto Acerben

Jesus Alegre

Rodel Caballero

Marcial Dosmanos

Sandino Esguerra

Arnilo Gaviola

Generoso Granado

Romeo Lareno

Sony Marbella

Alfredo Montajes

Arturo Pangilinan

Rolando Pañamogan

Gerardo dela Peña

Joel Ramada

Lamberto Santiago

Victor Segura

Ricardo Solangon

Danilo Soniscio

Francis Versora

Calixto Vistal

cf: Archbishop Guiseppe Pinto, Papal Nuncio to the Philippines

Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform

Office of the President of the Philippines

National Democratic Front of the Philippines Peace Panel

Statement of NDFP Consultant Roy Erecre on the 5th SONA of Pres. BS Aquino III Delivered on July 28, 2014

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Roy Erecre

29 July 2014

The vast majority of the Filipino people suffer from chronic poverty and destitution while high officials of the Aquino regime are living in luxury by plundering government funds and financially gaining from favors given to big businesses, big landlords and foreign investors.

The plunder of government funds through the pork barrel system has become worse than in the past. Zero implementation of projects has become the norm so that BS Aquino and his cohorts can acquire more funds for themselves. The present administration violated the constitution and created different forms of pork barrel funds the biggest of which is the DAP (Disbursement Acceleration Program) that nearly amounts to P200 billion. Disbursement of funds under the DAP is solely under the president’s power and discretion. Because of this brazen act of corruption, huge protest actions are launched by different concerned groups, the largest of which comes from the national democratic mass movement. During BS Aquino’s 5th SONA yesterday, the composition of class and sectors who took to the streets to protest and call for the total abolition of the pork barrel system and the impeachment of the president, was broader and bigger not only in Manila but in the Visayas and Mindanao as well. They criticized the president for refusing to adhere to the Supreme Court’s decision declaring the DAP as unconstitutional.

Because of the crisis of the semi-feudal and semi-colonial Philippine society which is aggravated by the world capitalist system, natural and financial resources that the various factions of the local ruling class used to divide up among themselves have become scarce. Whatever profit the foreign investments have produced in the Philippines are repatriated to their mother country. The scarcity of resources in the Philippines resulted to sharp political contradictions. The BS Aquino faction of the ruling class wants to control the whole system through a dictatorship and one manifestation of this is the DAP.

Ninoy Aquino fought against the Marcos dictatorship but his son, BS Aquino the present president of the country, has become a dictator. Cory Aquino, freed political prisoners despite her bloody counter-insurgency program, but her son BS Aquino, has not freed even one. Instead, the president keeps on adding up the number of political prisoners that includes NDF peace consultants who are supposed to be protected under the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) signed by both GPH and NDF.

The GDP increase and purported development projects bragged about by the president in his SONA yesterday were not felt by the Filipino people especially among the ranks of the workers and farmers. In fact, victims of typhoon Yolanda in Leyte interviewed by the media said that they did not believe what the president claimed in his SONA about the giving of aid and relief goods for the calamity victims because they did not receive any.

It was outrageous seeing BS Aquino mount a drama by crying and saying that he was hopeful the next president would continue what he started. What meaningful progress has he initiated that needs to be continued? The unemployment rate in the country is still high. Worker’s wages and the people’s income in general, remain very low and insufficient to provide for their daily needs. The situation is exacerbated by the non-stop price increase of basic commodities including rice and even garlic. There is no genuine social progress instead, the number of odd-jobbers increased. There is no genuine land reform under the extended bogus CARP and no national industrialization that form the foundation for nationalist development.

On the other hand, the “Asean Regional Economic Integration” under the trade liberalization concept is set to be implemented on 2015. There will no longer be tariffs for foreign products pouring in our country. Foreign investors will already be allowed to acquire 100% ownership of businesses in the Philippines. Definitely, our backward local products cannot compete with the quality of foreign finished products. Yet again, the profits obtained by foreign investors here, will be repatriated to their mother countries. Poverty will become more widespread.

In that situation, another period of crisis will again occur. Certainly, the various forms of protests and revolutionary struggle against the oppressive and exploitative social system will reach newer height and strength and eventually, will put an end to the semi-feudal and semi-colonial Philippine society.

Mensahe sa Pagtitipon ng mga Makabayang Kabataan sa Ika-45 Anibersaryo ng BHB

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Pahayag sa pagtitipon sa Unibersidad ng Pilipinas
March 29, 2014
Benito Tiamzon
Senior CPP members
Communist Party of the Philippines
Ako at ang aking kabiyak ay labis na nagagalak na magbigay ng pagbati at kaunting ambag sa palitang kuro at paggunitang isinasagawa ng mga makabayang kabataan sa okasyong ito ng ika-45 taong anibersaryo ng pagkakatatag ng Bagong Hukbong Bayan (BHB).
Dapat unawain at tamang pahalagahan ng mga makabayang kabataan ang kritikal na usapin ng digmang magsasaka. Kung wala nito, hindi maiintindihan ang maiinit na usapin sa peace talks, sa katayuan at prospects nito. Hindi maiintindihan ang kabuuang tinatahak at patutunguhan ng pakikibakang bayan tungo sa tunay na demokrasya at pambansang kalayaan, at sa gayon tungo sa tunay, makatarungan at matagalang kapayapaan.
Ang kapayapaan salungat sa pinalalabas ng rehimen at mga tagatambol nito ay hindi lamang sentimiento, kundi at ibayong higit, istrukturang sosyo-pulitikal na lulutas sa mga pundamental na suliranin ng lipunan. Naririyan ang tunay na pundasyon at nilalaman ng anumang negosasyon at kasunduang pangkapayapaan. Dito dapat sukatin ang ipinagmamalaking pinakahuling pinal na kasunduan sa gerang Moro. Dito rin dapat sukatin ang magkasalungat na tindig ng Goverment of the Philippines (GPH) at National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) tungkol sa peace talks. SA aming tingin, pundamental na kabuktutan ang kagustuhan ng naghaharing gobyerno na dapat tumigil sa pakikibakang bayan ang mga kalahok sa prosesong pangkapayapaan. Natural na gawi ng isang rebolusyonaryong kilusang pumasok sa negosasyong pangkapayapaan ang lumalaban habang nakikipag-usap. Ang paglaban at pakikipagnegosasyon ay maigkaiba ngunit parehong paraan lamang tungo sa paglutas sa mga ugat ng labanan.
Labis-labis ang kahirapan, pagsasamantala at pangaaping tinitiis ng masang magsasaka at ipa pang maralita sa nayon at lungsod na bumubuo ng malaking mayorya ng sambayanan. Ang mga panginoong maylupa, malalaking kumprador-burgis at mga monopolyong dayuhan ay hindi naglulubay sa sagad-sa-butong pagpiga sa lakas-paggawa at likas na yaman ng bansa. Kaya naman wala ring sawa ang mga rebolusyonaryong pwersa at mamamayan sa paglaban.
Marubdob naming hangad na ubos-kayang gagampanan ng mga makabayang kabataan ang pagpapanday ng walang patid na hanay ng makabayang pwersang magsusulong ng sulo ng pakikibaka mula isang yugto tungo sa susunod na mas mataas na yugto, mula isang henerasyon tungo sa susunod hanggang maging ganap ang paglaya ng bayan.
Mabuhay ang masang Pilipino!
Mapulang pagsaludo sa Bagong Hukbong Bayan sa Anibersaryo nito!

Mga Pahayag ng Political Detainees Benito Tiamzon at Wilma Austria

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Pahayag kaugnay ng pagdalaw ng Commission on Human Rights
Inilabas noong Marso 25, 2014
Nagpapasalamat kami sa pagdalaw ni Chairperson Etta Rosales at dalawang komisyuner ng CHR (Commision on Human Rights) nitong 25 Marso upang alamin kung iginalang ang aming mga human rights sa pag-aresto sa amin.
Binigyan-diin namin sa mga komisyuner ng CHR  na ang pinakaimportante at pinakamahigpit na usapin sa aming human rights ay ang pag frame-up sa amin, pagsasampa ng PNP sa gawa-gawang kaso ng illegal possession of firearms at explosives at pagtatanim ng ebidensya para bigyang-matwid ang iligal na pag-aresto at pagbilanggo sa amin at limang kasama namin sa bahay.
Ang ganitong gross violation ng human rights ay kumpletong nagne-negate sa anumang pagsisikap ng CHR na itulak ang pagrespeto sa human rights sa loob ng PNP at AFP. Nawawalang katuturan ang mumunti at pauntol-untol na mga hakbang para pairalin sa PNP at AFP ang pagrespeto sa HR kung ang mas pundamental na karapatan laban sa iligal na pag-aresto ay walang pakundangang ginagawa mismo ng buong institusyon at estado. Lumilikha ito ng matinding sinisismo hindi lamang sa mga biktima kundi maging sa hanay ng mga pulis at sundalo.
Ang tunay at seryosong pagsusulong ng pagrespeto sa HR ay bagay na nasa kabutihan at masidhing inaasam ng mamamayan, kaya iniengganyo namin ang CHR na magsagawa ng totohanang kampanya laban sa paglapastangan ng PNP, AFP at naghaharing estado sa human rights. ###
Sagot kay Mr. Alex Padilla, at hinggil sa paglabag sa JASIG (Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees)
Inilabas noong Marso 24, 2014
Inuulit namin ang pagkondena sa tahasang paglabag sa Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) na nagbibigay sa amin ng immunity bilang National Democratic Front of the Philippines’ national consultants na may NDFID No. 978226 (Wilma) at NDFID No. 978227 (Benito sa ngalan Crising Banaag).
Baluktot na kasinungalingan ang claim ni Mr. Alex Padilla, head ng GPH peace panel, na hindi kami saklaw ng JASIG. Si Wilma ay openly confirmed ng noo’y GRP peace panel head Amb. Howard Dee bilang NDFP national consultant, gayundin ni Pres. Ramos noong iutos niya na palayain si Wilma Austria noong 1994 bilang confidence at goodwill building measure. Si Benito naman ay isa sa mga pinakaunang pinagkalooban ng NDFP Document of Identification at JASIG immunity, bagay na dapat lang asahan at hindi dapat pagtakhan. Ano man ang ginagawang palusot ng GPH panel, lubos na katawa-tawa ang claim na wala siyang papel sa peace process at hindi saklaw ng JASIG.
Ang NDF consultants na katulad namin ay pwedeng tumupad ng importanteng papel sa prosesong pangkapayapaan dahil importante ang papel namin sa pakikibaka. Ang papel namin sa pakikibaka ay rekisito para sa papel namin sa prosesong pangkapayapaan. Ito ay likas sa prosesong pangkapayapaan na kalahok ang kilusan kaya hindi makatwiran at hindi makakatulong ang gusto ng ilan na tumigil muna kami sa pakikibaka bago makalahok sa prosesong pangkapayapaan. Sa tingin namin, ang ubos-kayang pagsusulong ng pakikibaka ay hindi salungat kundi kaisa at katugon ng prosesong pangkapayapaan para sa tunay, matagalan at makatarungang kapayapaan. ###
Hinggil sa paratang ng AFP na utak sina Benito Tiamzon at Wilma Austria ng “anti-infiltration hysteria”
Inilabas noong Marso 24, 2014
Puro kasinungalingan at gawa-gawa ang paratang ni (PNP officer na nagpahayag pagkatapos ng statement namin na binasa) na utak sina Benito at Wilma Tiamzon sa anti-infiltration hysteria sa kahos. Kabaligtaran ito ng katotohanan.
Ang kahos ay lokal na kampanyang plinano at inumpisahan sa ilang parte ng Mindanao noong 1984, panahong nasa Luzon sina Benito at Wilma at walang direktang responsibilidad sa kilusan sa Mindanao.
Nang matanggap ang atrasadong ulat tungkol sa Kahos, agad iyong pinatigil, ipinasiyasat at puspusang ipinatuwid ang mga pagkakamali.
Sina Benito at Wilma ay gumanap ng krusyal na papel sa pamumuno sa pagsisiyasat at pagtutuwid, gayundin sa pagbalangkas, pag-apruba at pagpapalaganap ng malinaw at mahigpit na tuntunin sa pagsisiyasat, paglilitis at paghuhusga.
Ang Kilusan ay may malinaw at mahigpit na mga patakaran at tuntunin sa pagrespeto sa mga Human Rights at democratic rights ng mga kasapi at mamamayan. Sistematiko at tuluy-tuloy na ipinalaganap ang mga ito.
Ang CARHRIHL na pinirmahan ng NDFP at GPH ay sumasalamin sa paninindigan at patakaran ng Partido at kilusan para sa pagrespeto sa human rights at demokratikong karapatan at makataong kondukta ng armadong tunggalian.
Sa kabilang banda, higit pang lumalawak at lumulubha ang mga pag-abuso ng GPH at mga armadong pwersa nito sa human rights. Tuluy-tuloy ang mga extra-judicial killings na todong ipinalaganap ni Palparan, ang mga masaker gaya ng walang-awang maramihang pagpatay ng mga magsasaka sa Palo, Leyte. Laganap ang militarisasyon laluna sa kanayunan at lahat ng kasamaan at pag-abusong kalakip nito gaya ng ilegal na pag-aresto, tortyur, pamamaslang at dislokasyon ng buu-buong mga baranggay at komunidad. ###

Statements of Political Detainees Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria

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Statement regarding the visit of the Commission on Human Rights
We thank Chairperson Etta Rosales and two other Commissioners of the CHR (Commission on Human Rights) for the visit on 25 March to find out if our human rights were respected during our arrest.
We emphasized to the CHR commissioners that the most important and serious issues relative to our human rights are our being framed-up, accused of fabricated charge of illegal possession of firearms and explosives and the planting of evidence to justify our illegal arrest and detention and that of our five companions in the house.
This gross violation of human rights completely negates all the efforts of CHR to initiate in the PNP and AFP the respect for human rights.  The few and trickled measures to effect in the PNP and AFP the respect for human rights are rendered inutile if the more fundamental right against illegal arrest is wantonly practiced by the whole institution and the State. This creates intense cynicism not only among the victims but also in the ranks of the police and soldiers.
The true and serious promotion of the respect for human rights is towards the welfare and aspirations of the people.  In view of this, we urge the CHR to launch an earnest campaign against the contempt for human rights of the PNP, AFP and the ruling State. ###
Reply to Mr. Alex Padilla, and with regards to the violation of the JASIG (Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees)
Released on March 24, 2014
We reiterate our condemnation of our arrest as an outright violation of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) that gives us immunity as national consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines with NDFID No. 978226 (Wilma Austria) and NDFID No. 978227 (Benito with the name Crising Banaag).
The claim of the head of the GPH peace panel, Alex Padilla, that we are not covered by the JASIG is a warped lie.  Wilma was openly confirmed as NDFP national consultant by former GRP peace panel head Ambassador Howard Dee, as well as by Pres. Ramos when he ordered the release of Wilma Austria in 1994 as a confidence and goodwill building measure.  Meanwhile, Benito was among the original recipients of the NDFP Document of Identification and JASIG immunity, a thing that was expected and indubitable.  Whatever pretexts the GPH panel will come up with, its claim that Benito has no role in the peace process and is not covered by the JASIG is utterly farcical.
NDF consultants, like us, can significantly contribute to the peace process because of our crucial role in the struggle.  Our role in the struggle is a requisite to our role in the peace process. The involvement of the movement is inherent in a peace process; hence, the position of a few that the struggle must cease first before we participate in the peace process is unreasonable and will not help.  We believe that for the realization of a true, lasting and just peace, the pursuit of the struggle with all our might is not contrary but rather in unity with and corresponds to the peace process. ###
With regards to the allegation of the AFP that Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria are the brains behind the “anti-infiltration hysteria”                
Released on March 24, 2014
The allegation made by the PNP officer (after our statement was read) that the brains behind the anti-infiltration hysteria “kahos” were Benito and Wilma Tiamzon is a stark lie and fabrication.  This is contrary to the truth.
The “kahos” was a local campaign which was planned and started in some parts of Mindanao in 1984, at the time that Benito and Wilma were in Luzon and had no direct responsibility of the movement in Mindanao.
When the belated report on the “kahos” was received, this was immediately stopped, investigated and the error, fully rectified.
Benito and Wilma played a crucial role in leading the investigation and rectification, as well as in formulating, approving and disseminating clear and stricter rules on the investigation, trial and judgment.
The movement has a clear and strict policies and rules on the respect for human rights and democratic rights of its members and the people.  These are systematically and continuously disseminated to all.
The CARHRIHL that was signed by the NDFP and GPH reflects the stand and policies of the Party and the movement on the respect for human rights and democratic rights and the humane conduct of the armed struggle.
On the other hand, the human rights abuses of the GPH and its armed forces all the more increased and intensified.  Extrajudicial killings, which Palparan grossly propagated, massacres such as the ruthless mass killing of the peasants in Palo, Leyte continue.  Militarization, especially in the rural areas, and all the turpitude and abuses linked to it, such as illegal arrest, torture, killing, and dislocation of whole barangays and communities are widespread. ###

“Black Valentine’s Day’s” Third Anniversary

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February 14 this year is the third anniversary of “Black Valentine’s Day”, when the long-stalled formal peace talks between the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GPH) were resumed and were supposed to proceed, but actually proceeded nowhere and were again stalled.

No matter how open and eager the NDFP was with the resumption of the peace talks and had hoped, prepared and worked for a great many prospects for the talks beforehand, the talks were unfortunately bound to fail as they were fraught with treacheries and violations on the part of the Benigno S. Aquino III regime and its peace panel.

An immediate one of such treacheries and violations was my arrest at about 6 p.m. of February 14, Manila time, just before the resumption of the peace talks in Oslo, Norway.

The arrest was in arrogant mockery and violation of the NDFP-GPH Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), as I have long been (since the 1990s) a peace consultant of the NDFP and was actually involved — even if by long-distance — in the about-to-resume NDFP-GPH peace talks, especially in regard to the next immediate agenda, i.e., socio-economic reforms, and thus needed to be protected from surveillance, arrest, detention, court charges and other antagonistic acts that would only serve to deter our effective participation and work as negotiators, consultants and other involvements in the peace process.

In fact, the arrest, the scheming and execution of it, including the intensified surveillance just about a week before the resumption of the peace talks, all of which the government’s top military, peace process and overall leadership had previous and up-to-date intimate knowledge, decisive say and final go-signal, were all made from the very start to arrogantly mock the peace process and to tie the hands of those at the opposite end of the negotiation table.

As I was being booked right after my arrest, I expressed to the arresting officer my objection to the arrest, since I am a JASIG-protected peace consultant and a participantin the NDFP-GPH peace talks that were to start shortly. I said that the NDFP leadership and peace panel would definitely object to my arrest and the violation of the JASIG. I also asked for my right to immediately communicate and consult directly with my legal counsel — which is also the legal counsel of the NDFP peace panel — the People’s Interest Law Center (PILC) and its head then, Atty. Romeo Capulong — even as I knew, and the arresting officer also confirmed, that they then were already in Oslo, Norway to participate in the peace talks.

The arresting officer thereupon left. He returned after some two hours to inform me that they brought up before their higher ups my insistence that I should not have been arrested since I am JASIG-protected and have work related to the about-to-resume peace talks. He said that, after deliberations their higher ups insisted on the arrest — no matter the JASIG, and no matter the peace talks. The arresting officer added that my objections to the arrest, the matter of the JASIG and other matters, including my demand to consult with my legal counsel, would all be taken up with and responded to by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP).

In arrogant reaction to criticisms about my arrest and the arrest of other NDFP peace consultants and staff involved in the peace process, then Philippine Army Chief, Lt. Gen. Arturo Ortiz, who was the one assigned by their higher-ups as over-all in command over the joint military and police arrest operations, declared that they will keep arresting NDFP peace consultants — “And to hell with the JASIG!”

My arrest was also in violation of the ruling state’s own laws, as there was no warrant of arrest produced and legally served by the arresting forces at the time of arrest. It was only the next day when an illegal after-the-fact “warrant of arrest” (for “rebellion”) was produced by the arresting forces, and only then were they able to turn me over to a regular detention center (i.e., the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame).

I was later swamped with trumped-up criminalized charges for “murder” — attributed to a certain “Ka Dexter” (who I never was) and supposedly committed some 25 years ago against government soldiers ambushed by the New People’s Army (NPA) in various places (where I have never been to) in Southern Quezon.

Those trumped-up charges are in recalcitrant violations of the landmark Hernandez Doctrine — a historical Philippine jurisprudence that prohibits the criminalization of “political offenses“. (Actually, the main purpose of the swamping of political prisoners with numerous trumped-up criminalized charges — most especially with non-bailable charges, at that – no matter the utter falsity of the charges, is to ensure that political prisoners are as much as possible bogged down with court cases and thus kept practically indefinitely detained, especially as the crawl of justice in the country is one of the slowest, as well as the most rotten, in the world.)

Our legal counsel filed with the Supreme Court and the local courts objections to the swamping against us of separate trumped-up criminalized charges outside of “rebellion”, as violative of the Hernandez Doctrine.

A local court (in Taguig City) has, however, just recently (this January 8) denied the motion,submitted by our legal counsel more than two years ago, for the consolidation under “rebellion” of the “murder” charges against me and my co-accused. The court’s denial was based on a naïve comment that the burden of proving that the NPA ambush mentioned in the case — that we were presumed to have participated in and that resulted inthe death of government soldiers — was actually made in furtherance of rebellion “falls on the defense.”

In the cases of other NDFP peace consultants as well, the ruling regime has obviously also been dictating on the prosecution and even the judges to do what they can to see to it that the detained NDFP consultants continue to be kept in jail. The latest has been Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Judge Myra Quiambao’s spurious verdict of “guilty” with a 20-40 years sentence rendered last December 11 against fellow NDFP peace consultant Eduardo Sarmiento for supposed ‘illegal possession of explosives” — although clearly based on planted evidences (which also went through questionable changes of custody). The said verdict was a last resort to keep Sarmiento in jail, as all the other trumped-up charges against him had earlier already been dismissed for having no real basis.

The years of our unjust, arbitrary and illegal imprisonment, that have taken place and continue to take place, have been full of prison struggles against injustice, undue restrictions, cruelties, human rights violations and whatever reprisals that the ruling state and jail authorities could wield against me and my fellow detained NDFP peace consultants and political prisoners.

Among such reprisals were the several efforts to force my transfer from the already restrictive PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame to the even more restrictive jail here at the “Special Intensive Care Area” (SICA) in Camp Bagong Diwa. The fourth move which they finally succeeded in forcing through in June 29, 2012 (after three failed attempts due to our strong resistance and support) was in immediate fierce reprisal — under direct orders all the way from Malacañang — for the exposé that came out a week earlier in the mass media, based on the study, documentation and critique tha twe, political prisoners in Camp Crame, made about the gross injustice, undue restrictions and many human rights violations that were being committed against us, political prisoners in Camp Crame, most especially the intensive intrusions persistently being done by U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (U.S. FBI) operatives in the cases of political prisoners there right inside the detention area (in a secret U.S. FBI room) and the imprisonment there — Guantanamo-style — of foreign victims of U.S. rendition smuggled into the country, jailed and charged with trumped-up cases as “Filipinos”.

More intensive reprisals, including threats of isolation and even threats to life, have on and off often been wielded by jail authorities against me and other detained NDFP peace consultants and other political prisoners, in continuing efforts to subdue and silence us, especially everytime we make serious complaints against undue restrictions and abuses and wage militant struggles for freedom, justice and human rights.

But we are not deterred by those threats. Further threats even goad us all the more to raise our voices and wield struggles against continuing and further deprivation of freedom, justice and human rights in our cases.

In the meantime, except for a very few who have managed to win their freedom through court victories, all of us (more than a dozen detained NDFP peace consultants and some 450 other political prisoners) continue to suffer grave injustice and overly slow and rotten court processes, poor prison conditions, excessive restrictions and deprivations, and numerous human rights violations. About half of the present political prisoners have already been detained for about or even more than a decade already, with their cases in court hardly moving at all. A number have become very sickly because of the poor prison conditions — and some have already died in prison due to lack of medical attention and support and the utter indifference of ruling state and jail authorities.

A big problem with the present Aquino regime is its stubborn refusal to abide by standing agreements in the NDFP-GPH peace talks, that at least previous post-martial law regimes acknowledged, even if only formally, and did their part in implementing, even if major failings still continued.

These agreements include the Hague Declaration (which contains the very framework, agenda and sequence of the agenda in the peace talks), the JASIG and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), which includes cognizance and implementation of the Hernandez Doctrine.

The previous Gloria Arroyo regime was one of the worst as it indefinitely suspended the JASIG, in line with its all-out war against the revolutionary movement and had a number of NDFP peace consultants, including their staffs and families, victimized by involuntary disappearances and extrajudicial killings.

At any rate, it still had earlier agreed with the NDFP to review the cases of all political prisoners then (there were about 300 of them then, as documented by KARAPATAN), and to immediately release all those found to have been arrested, detained, charged or even convicted of what were made to appear as common crimes, even as they were in fact waging political battles in line with their socio-economic-political advocacies, and thus their imprisonment had been in violation of the Hernandez Doctrine. There was also a special agreement to even more immediately release 32 specifically identified political prisoners, consisting of women, minors, the sick and the elderlies.

While the actual implementation of such agreements had not actually been implemented by the Arroyo regime, still the GPH (including the successor Benigno S. Aquino II regime) remains obliged to implement those agreements.

Instead, however, the current Aquino regime has shown itself to be totally deaf and blind,and continues to refuse to abide by, or even take cognizance of, standing NDFP-GPH agreements. Worse, it has even gone much further in violating, and even mocking and spitting at those agreements.

Given such stubborn arrogance and absence of real interest of the current Aquino regime as far as the peace process is concerned, although we still maintainan iota of hope,in reality there really seems practically nothing left to hope for in terms of any further prospect and progress in the NDFP-GPH peace talks under the current Aquino regime.

The third anniversary of “Black Valentine’s Day” is marked by even more dire prospects as the current Aquino regime has hauled into prison more NDFP peace consultants and an additional 150 or so more political and socio-economic-cultural cause advocates into jail, has been continuing to refuse to discuss substantive agenda for socio-economic-cultural and political reforms in line with the Hague Declaration, and in sum has been refusing to take with any seriousness the peace talks with the NDFP.

ALAN JAZMINES
NDFP Peace Consultant
and Member of the
NDFP Commitee on
Socio-Economic Reforms,
detained at the SICA,
Camp Bagong Diwa

14 February 2014