Political Prisoners’ Strong Condemnation of the Cruel Fascist Treatment against Hungry Farmers and Lumad Who Rallied Just to Ask for Rice

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We, detained peace consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and other political prisoners here in Camp Bagong Diwa, strongly condemn the brutal assaults, killings, other acts of violence and gross violations of human rights committed by reactionary police forces against the hungry peasants and lumad, who, since March 30, have massed at the Kidapawan City center in North Cotabato to seek urgent hunger and disaster relief.

The fascism that has just been taking place is no different from what had been taking place during the outright martial law of the Marcos regime.

Those hungry peasants and lumad are indeed victims of the long dry spell caused by the El Niño that dried up their farms. But they are are also victims of gross negligence of the ruling national government of Benigno S. Aquino III and the local government of North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza in even just monitoring the dire situation of the suffering peasants and lumad, much less looking after the victims, and rendering them immediate and long-term relief.

Those peasants and lumad, who have been suffering already about a billion pesos worth of destruction of their farms, are fully aware that many billions of pesos in the form of cash and in the form of stocked rice have long been in the hands of the ruling powers, supposedly for food security and support to victims of disasters and hunger as in the cases of those peasants and lumad.

Those peasants and lumad merely asked for immediate relief… at least for rice, so that they may have something to eat in the face of the disaster and their hunger.

But the ruling powers and their police forces unleashed on the rallying hungry peasants and lumad, bullets, beatings and deaths… instead of the rice these victims of disaster and hunger were rallying and asking for.

Two of the rallyists immediately died from gunshots, another died later, and 116 more have suffered bullet wounds, violent beatings and detention in the hands of the fascist police forces.

The rest had to seek safety in a nearby Methodist Church compound. Still, the fascist police forces continued with their hostile reaction by conducting saturation drives and continuing fascist harassment, even where the rallying peasants and lumad had sought immediate sanctuary from the fascist response to their pleas for food.

The violent fascist reaction against the rally of the peasants and lumads to merely ask for rice also affected journalists covering the event, as one news reporter was hit and wounded, while another was arrested — and only released after he was later confirmed to be a news reporter.

Instead of rectifying the fascist treatment rendered to the rallying hungry peasants and lumad, the reactionary national and local governments and their police forces have gone to the extent of distorting the reports and inventing ridiculous stories about the rallyists as being the ones who had guns and who had been shooting at the dispersal forces, and that it is actually the New People’s Army that was organizing the rally. The fascist police forces even absurdly brought to jail and charged with criminal cases a number of rallyists, including pregnant women and elderlies.

Even rice and other humanitarian assistance, immediately to be given to the rallyists, have been blocked by the fascist police forces.

The Filipino people know full well that the reactionary national and local governments and police forces have only been viciously seeking to shift to others the blame for their indifference and negligence in the face of the widespread disaster and hunger among the masses of peasants and lumad, and the blame for the violence that took place in the Kidapawan rally.

The fascist and violent treatment these suffering peasants and lumad have been undergoing are no different from the fascism and violence rendered to other lumad communities, including the killing of lumad educators and school personnel in the Alternative Learning Center for Livelihood and Development (ALCADEV) and harassment of surrounding lumad communities in Tandag City in September, 2015, and the eventual total burning down of the ALCADEV compound last November; the continued harassment of lumad refugees from Surigao del Sur who had to seek protection in the Haran compound of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) in Davao del Norte in March last year, and the continued application of fascist pressures early this year to force the lumad refugees to return to their harassed communities.

Many of the sympathetic people in our country are no longer waiting for the reactionary national and local governments to give support to the hungry peasants and lumads who rallied to ask for food. Aside from progressive mass organizations like Kilusang Mayo Uno, many workers’ unions and other people’s organizations, progressive legislators like Bayan Muna representative Neri Colmenares; and many sympathetic actors and actresses, like Robin Padilla, Anne Curtis, Jasmine Curtis, Angel Locsin, Daniel Padilla, Bianca Gonzales-Intal , the entire crew of “Radyo ni Juan”, and many residents in neigboring Davao have immediately sent truckloads of rice and generous amounts of cash in response to the cry for food by the hungry peasants and lumad in Kidapawan, and to make up for the mere excuses and actual lack of sympathy and response by the reactionary national and local governments.

More celebrities, including Nora Aunor, Aiza Seguerra, Liza Diño-Seguerra, Seb Castro and Binibining Pilipinas Beauty Queen Carlene Aguilar and the Browman Revival musicians also voiced out strong condemnations against the fascist cruelties applied against the hungry peasants and lumads who simply rallied to ask for food. “Bigas, hindi bala” has also now become a popular internet hash tag.

We, political prisoners, are also sending our support, not only in spirit, but also in material form — in the form of a part of the sale of our art works and handicrafts — for even a little such can contribute to help the suffering hungry peasants and lumads.

Detained NDFP Peace Consultants

Adelberto Silva
Alan Jazmines
Ernesto Lorenzo
Ma. Loida Magpatoc
Ruben Saluta
Tirso Alcantara

and other political prisoners
in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City

Alberto Macasinag
Alex Arias
Alex Birondo
Armand Matres
Cesar Balmaceda
Dennis Ortiz
Diony Borre
Eddie Cruz
Edward Lanzanas
Elmer Torres
Evelyn Legaspi
Gemma Carag
George Bruce
Hermogenes Reyes, Jr.
Isidro de Lima
Jake Calayag
Jared Morales
Jesus Abetria, Jr.
Joel Enano
Jose Nayve
Joseph Cuevas
Jovy Ortiz
Ma. Miradel Torres
Marissa Espedido
Miguela Pinero
Modesto Araza
Pastora Latagan
Pedro Camilita
Presentacion Estrada-Saluta
Rex Villaflor
Rhea Pareja
Rommel Nuñez
Ruben Rupido
Rene Nuyda
Senon Sambola
Sharon Cabusao
Voltaire Guray
Winona Oñate-Birondo

(April 8, 2016)

Parangal kay Ka Roger (Gregorio Rosal), mula sa mga Bilanggong Pulitikal sa Camp Bagong Diwa

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Mahal naming Ka Roger,

Maraming taon na mula nang nawala ang tinig mo sa radyo at mga balita sa mga pahayagan ukol sa mga tinatalakay mo… Nakaabot na lamang sa amin na yumao ka na, Ka Roger, ngunit nagduda at hindi ito makumpirma ng mga pwersa ng AFP at Pulisya, na walang tigil ang paghahanap sa iyo sa napakaraming sulok ng bansa. Sa katunayan, kung sa iyong bibig pa nga manggagaling ito, Ka Roger… “talagang bulag at bingi naman ang mga reaksyunaryong pwersa ng kaaway!”

Mula sa pagiging masipag na maglalako ng kulambo, napukaw ka sa seryosong pakikinig sa mga rali ng mga estudyante noon pang panahon ng pasistang rehimen ni Marcos, nagsuri ka at namulat, at tuluyang sumapi sa rebolusyonaryong kilusan, naging Pulang Mandirigma, at naging isang Kumander ng Bagong Hukbong Bayan — sa simula, sa hangganan ng Timog Katagalugan at Bicol.

Deka-dekada kang nag-organisa ng masa at nanguna sa kanilang pakikibaka habang nagsisilbing tagapagsalita ng Bagong Hukbong Bayan, ng Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas, ng pambansa-demokratikong rebolusyonaryong kilusan, at ng mamamayang Pilipino, mula Timog Katagalugan hanggang sa pambansang antas.

Noong pagbaling ng panahon mula dekada 80 tungong dekada 90, sa napakalupit na pagsisikap ng Southern Luzon Command na mapasuko ka, pwersahang kinuha nina Brig. Gen. Alexander Galido ang matanda nang ina mo at batang panganay mong si Andrea, at isinakay sila sa helicopter para piliting magsalita sa radyo sa Atimonan, Quezon at manawagan ng pagsuko mo. Ngunit, ang matapang kahit musmos na bata pa noong si Andrea ay nagpahayag lamang sa radyo ng galit sa ginawa sa kanila ng mga pasistang kumand at pwersa ng SOLCOM, at sa halip na manawagan ng pagsuko mo ay pinuri pa ang iyong ginagawa para sa sambayanan at hiniling na ipagpatuloy mo iyon alang-alang sa mamamayan, at sa iyo na ring kaligtasan.

Ang marami sa amin, laluna ang ilang nakasama mo sa kanayunan at sa iba’t ibang mga anyo at daluyan ng rebolusyunaryong pakikibaka, ay maraming masisiglang karanasang tuwirang nakasama ka, at direktang nasaksihan ang iyong rebolusyunaryong determinasyon, katapangan, kasiglahan at kasigasigan, ang higpit ng pagiging malapit mo sa mga kasama at sa masa, at ang iyong katangi-tanging husay pagsasatinig ng malinaw at matatag na tindig at paglaban ng rebolusyonaryong masa sa mga maiinit na isyu ng panahon.

Marami-rami ring mga gitnang pwersa at mga nakakaibigan sa iba’t ibang sektor ang sa matagal na panaho’y sumusubaybay sa mga pahayag mo sa radyo at may mataas ring pagtingin at paghanga sa iyo, Ka Roger, at sa kinatawan mong pambansa-demokratikong rebolusyonaryong kilusan.

Nawala ka man sa radyo at sa pahayagan dulot ng malubhang pagkakasakit mo na humantong sa pagkasawi mo mahigit limang taon na ang nakaraan, hindi ka nawala kahit saglit… at hindi ka kailanman mawawala sa isip at puso namin, at sa isip at puso ng milyun-milyong mamamayan.

Ngayon mang hayagan nang ililibing ang iyong bangkay na ilang taon nang hinahanap – ngunit hindi mahanap-hanap ng mga kaaway ng mamamayang Pilipino na mga pasistang pwersa ng umiiral na reaksyunaryong estado — mananatili kang laging buhay sa aming diwa at sa isip at puso ng mamamayang Pilipino.

Mabuhay at Pulang paalam, Ka Roger!

Adelberto Silva
Alan Jazmines
Alberto Macasinag
Alex Arias
Alex Birondo
Arlene Panea
Armand Matres
Cesar Balmaceda
Dennis Ortiz
Diony Borre
Eddie Cruz
Edward Lanzanas
Eliseo Lopez
Elmer Torres
Ernesto Lorenzo
Evelyn Legaspi
Gemma Carag
George Bruce
Hermogenes Reyes, Jr.
Isidro de Lima
Jake Calayag
Jared Morales
Jesus Abetria, Jr.
Joel Enano
Jose Nayve
Joseph Cuevas
Jovy Ortiz
Ma. Loida Magpatoc
Ma. Miradel Torres
Marissa Espedido
Miguela Piñero
Modesto Araza
Pastora Latagan
Pedro Camilita
Presentacion Estrada-Saluta
Rex Villaflor
Rhea Pareja
Rommel Nuñez
Ruben Rupido
Ruben Saluta
Rene Nuyda
Senon Sambola
Sharon Cabusao-Silva
Tirso Alcantara
Voltaire Guray
Winona Oñate-Birondo

Mga bilanggong pulitikal sa Camp Bagong Diwa
Bicutan, Taguig City
29 Marso 2016

Jail Anomalies and Fascism against Prison Inmates

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We, political detainees at the Special Intensive Care Area (SICA1) Jail, watched with utter disgust, the last two days, repeated televised shots of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) forces’ brutal fascist reaction to the Makati City Jail inmates’ noise barrage. The noise barrage was in protest of, accordingly, the jail authorities’ role there as the ones principally responsible for the entry and proliferation of illegal drugs inside prison and for the poor food rations being given them by the jail authorities.

The jail anomalies being protested by the Makati City Jail inmates are not at all new to us.

We have long been raising the issue of proliferation of illegal drugs in prison, and also the tolerated continuing transactions between big-time drug suppliers even in jails and their pushers outside… all these, unfettered by the iron bars of prison.

We have also long been raising the issue of low budget allocation for food and very poor food rations in jails. The issue is practically a universal issue in all jails in the country.

Makati City Jail inmates’ food rations are supposed to be a lot better than what we are given as national jail inmates, and also what other inmates are being given in most other jails in the country. This is because Metro Manila city governments and other local governments in the country allocate a minimum of P20 up to P50 per inmate per day — in addition to the nationally allocated P50 per inmate per day — for the food budget in the jails within their jurisdiction. The Makati City Jail, thus, has a food budget double the P50 worth of food rations per inmate per day, that we are theoretically supposed to receive here at the SICA1 Jail. Yet, the Makati City Jail inmates are complaining about the poor food rations being given to them.

A unique stark contrast was the case of the Bataan Provincial Jail, where the Warden, Jail Inspector Angelina Bautista, took the side of the inmates, and raised the issue of the BJMP national leadership’s anomalies in regard to the BJMP’s food budget for the Bataan Provincial Jail inmates. This, as the BJMP was no longer allocating BJMP funds for it — and wanted the Bataan Provincial Jail to just use, instead, the allocation of the local government, even if the latter was meant only as an addition to the BJMP’s food budget for the inmates. Bataan Provincial Jail Warden Bautista filed before the Ombudsman an administrative case on the issue against the BJMP national leadership, then held by National Director Diony Mamaril.

We, political detainees at the SICA1 Jail, suffered much in sympathy as we saw on TV how the jail authorities continued to beat up the protesting inmates there, who then were already under control, were only squatting on the floor and were entirely defenseless. Some were crippled, and one of them even died, because of the beatings.

The Makati City Jail inmates have raised valid issues in their protest. But, instead of intently listening to and resolving those issues, the jail authorities there resorted to brutal fascist suppression of the noise barrage. They also resorted to the immediate transfer here, the SICA 1 Jail, of the suspected leaders of the protest by the Makati City Jail inmates.

The fascist reaction to the inmates’ valid complaints should be fully investigated, condemned and rectified, for being a brutal and callous effort to cover up the gross anomalies being exposed by the jail inmates.

It should be the anomalous and fascist jailors and their higher ups who should be punished for their criminal anomalies and fascist acts, and not the inmates — especially the innocent victims of trumped-up charges — who have only been asserting their legal and human rights.

National Democratic Front of the Philippines peace consultants

Adelberto Silva
Alan Jazmines
Ernesto Lorenzo
Ruben Saluta
Tirso Alcantara
and other political prisoners at the SICA1 Jail,
Camp Bagong Diwa, Bicutan,
Taguig City
(Match 11, 2016)

On Visits to Political Prisoners by Concerned Church Clergy and Leity

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[Interview with an National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant and member of the NDFP Peace Panel’s Socio-Economic Reforms Committee, Alan Jazmines, who is presently a political detainee at the Special Intensive Care Area 1 (SICA 1) Jail, Camp Bagong Diwa.]

Q1: What would you say about the recent visits to you, political prisoners, by Church people?

A1: Various concerned Church people have been visiting us, political prisoners, and we very much appreciate and find very heart-warming and fruitful their visits to us and our exchanges with them.

The last three months, three groups of Church people came in succession to visit us, political prisoners, here at the SICA 1 Jail . (The SICA 1 Jail is the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology jail facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City, Metro Manila, maintained at the national level for the confinement of supposedly “high risk” detainees, mostly transferred from jail facilities in far-flung provinces. It is here where presently the biggest number of political prisoners in the country are confined.)

Last December 16, accompanied by Filipino officials, pastors, staffs and youth activists of the Promotion of Church People’s Response (PCPR), a delegation of Catholic priests, school officials and students of St. Columba’s College (based in Melbourne, Australia) came to visit and immerse with us, political prisoners.

The delegation of Australians came to the country to engage in an immersion program among the deprived and oppressed sectors of Philippine society, including political prisoners.

Their visit and immersion program is part of their Church, school and teachers’ effort to widen and deepen the exposure of the students in the school to the situation and conditions of various grossly deprived and oppressed sectors of society, especially in more backward countries, where the people are suffering much more than those students have been seeing in their home country, Australia. Aside from immersing with us, political prisoners, they also immersed beforehand or were scheduled to immerse afterwards with other grossly deprived and oppressed sectors in our country, including the urban poor, workers, peasants, fishers, and indigenous peoples.

Last February 5, Bishop Jay Magness, Canon Peter Ng and Fr. Fred Vergara of the Episcopal Church, U.S.A., and Fr. Ramil Aguilar of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) Workers Assistance Program, came with elements of the IFI Workers Assistance Program, Defend Jobs, All Workers Unity, Kadamay (an organization of the urban poor) and IFI youth activists to also visit us, political prisoners at the SICA 1 Jail, to learn about our situation, and to see what they can do to help in our situation.

And more recently, last February 20, accompanied by their professor and staunch advocate of indigenous people’s rights, Fr. Edprim Gaza, 20 seminarians at the St. Vincentian Seminary came to visit us and to find out why and how we have become political prisoners, what our problems are and how they can help.

Q2: What have these political prisoners been when they were arrested and detained?

A2: Among the political prisoners in SICA 1 Jail are five of the 18 peace talks consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), who are presently detained in various jails in the country.

The NDFP peace consultants shared the problem of their having been surveilled, arrested, swamped with trumped-up charges, made to undergo one of the world’s slowest crawl of justice and suffer prolonged detention. All these in blatant disregard and gross violation of their long-standing protection — from such and other violent acts that would deter their effective work in the peace process — as supposedly guaranteed in the February 24, 1995 Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) between the NDFP and the Government of the Republic of the Phiippines (GRP/GPH).

The largest bulk of the other political prisoners here have come from the rural areas, mostly peasants and fighters for the rights and interests of the lowly peasants and other oppressed and exploited sectors of our society. There are also some workers and labor organizers, and some students, who, when arrested were immersed in organizing work among the masses.They were transferred here to the SICA 1 Jail as they are considered “high risk” detainees.

Q3: What problems of political prisoners, in particular, did you share with the visiting Church officials, staffers and students?

A3: In these visits, we, some 30 political prisoners — related to the NDFP — here at the SICA 1 Jail, shared with the visiting Church and school officials and students the many problems that we have undergone and continue to undergo: arbitrary and illegal arrests, torture and other acts of violence by arresting forces, trumped-up charges (some even under different names or even just under certain aliases), hardly moving crawl of justice (in many cases, not moving at all for years — some for more than a decade already — and also hardly being brought to court hearings in far away provinces where most of us have been transferred from), very poor and highly restrictive prison conditions (with our many rights and basic needs of prisoners being deprived of us).

The transfer of a big bulk of these political prisoners to a jail quite distant from where they came from or have been immersed in, has been creating many problems for them, the course of justice in their cases, and their relations: One is the perrenial problem of their very seldom or not at all being brought to hearings in distant courts, because jail authorities avoid the costs and purported “risks” involved. Another is the great difficulty of their being visited and assisted by their relations and supporters.

Aside from us, NDFP-related political prisoners, and separated from us here at the SICA 1 Jail, are some 50 officers and members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) who continue to remain under detention — no matter that the GRP/GPH and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) had already completed their peace agreement and had only been waiting for legislative approval of the agreement reached — about half a dozen members of Suara Bangsamoro, Sulong- Katribo, and Bayan Muna, and about 150 other Moro detainees, who are mostly innocent civilian victims of successive GRP/GPH regime’s “all-out war” operations in their villages.

At the neighboring SICA 2 Jail are some 200 more Moro detainees — a number of whom are members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), and most others also innocent civilians — arrested in the wake of the Zamboanga City seige by the MNLF in September 2013.

Q4. What messages were imparted by you, poilitical prisoners, to the visiting Church people?

A united message of the political prisoners to the visiting Church people was for them to join the calls for the release of all political prisoners in the country

The detained NDFP peace consultants among us also underlined that their organization and peace panel have constantly been asking the prevailing regime, as well as the past regimes, for the release not only of all NDFP peace consultants — who have been foully arrested and imprisoned, in violation of their long-standing protection, as supposedly guaranteed by the JASIG — but also of all other political prisoners (more than 500 of them at present), who also have been foully arrested and continue to suffer prolonged detention on the basis of trumped-up criminaized charges in violation of the 1956 Hernandez Doctrine, that de-criminalizes political opposition and dissent.

As against the repeated statements of the current GRP/GPH regime and its peace panel that the NDFP has been making as a precondition for the peace talks the release of all NDFP peace consultants and of all other political prisoners, the detained NDFP peace consultants pointed out that the immediate release of all NDFP peace consultants and of all other political prisoners is an obligation of the GRP/GPH, as the arrest and continued detention of NDFP peace consultants and other political prisoners have all been in violation of standing peace agreements and of law.

The detained NDFP peace consultants pointed out that the NDFP remains always open to peace talks whenever realistically possible, with whatever ruling regime of the GRP/GPH is interested enough in the pursuit of peace, and that the NDFP and supportive elements, including in the Church sector (such as the Pilgrims for Peace) have long been exhausting a lot of effort for the advance of the NDFP-GPH peace talks. Sadly, however, while they have been quite fruitful in the past, the said efforts have recently not been resulting in much progress.

To the visiting Church people and others, in the country and abroad, dedicated to the pursuit of respect for human rights, social justice, lasting peace and substantive progress in the country, the detained NDFP peace consultants and other political prisoners expressed their call for solidarity and support in the efforts towards these goals.

Political inmates want visitation rights back

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Kristine Felisse Mangunay | Inquirer

Five of the 37 political prisoners who staged a hunger strike during Pope Francis’ recent visit to the country have gone to court to stop what they said was the ongoing violation of their human rights by the jail warden.

In separate manifestations with urgent motions filed in the Taguig Regional Trial Court where they are facing criminal charges, Tirso Alcantara and the group of Alan Jazmines, Rolando Laylo, Edward Lanzanas and Alex Arias asked Branches 271 and 266, respectively, to “require warden Michelle Ng Bonto to refrain” from violating their rights, particularly their “basic right to be visited by [their] family or relatives, counsel and chosen doctor.”

The filing of the cases on Jan. 28 through human rights group Karapatan was prompted by Bonto’s continued refusal to let them receive visitors at the Special Intensive Care Area (Sica) 1 in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City, where they are detained in spite of Republic Act No. 7438, they said.

According to RA No. 7438, “any person arrested or detained or under custodial investigation shall be allowed visits by or conferences with any member of his immediate family or any medical doctor or priest,” the petitioners added.

They said that Bonto violated their rights on Jan. 13, 14 and 15 when she refused entry to several individuals, including Dr. Julie Caguiat; Bernard Zamora, a Karapatan paralegal staffer; Julian Oliva Jr. of the National Union of People’s Lawyers who is their counsel; Bagong Alyansang Makabayan Chair Carol Araullo; and former Gabriela Rep. Liza Maza.

These visitors, they added, went to Sica 1 to “look into the reported deteriorating physical condition” of several of the 37 inmates who went on a hunger strike starting on Jan. 10.

The mass action was aimed at drawing the Pope’s attention to their plight. Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said the hunger strike ended on Jan. 19, the day Pope Francis left the country.

“Hence, [we] respectfully [ask] the honorable court to immediately order [Bonto] to explain the reported violations of [our] rights and those of [our] fellow political prisoners and to desist from committing further violations of [our] rights,” they said.

“She must be reminded of the rights of detained persons and to accord herein [to us] and [our] fellow political prisoners full respect… at all times,” they added.

All the political prisoners, including the five petitioners, told the court that they were “consultants” in the peace process between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.

They said that the cases filed against them in different courts by the government, which has accused them of being members of the Communist Party of the Philippines, were based on “false and trumped-up charges.”

Earlier, the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) defended its actions, saying that its visitation policy —which requires visitors to present a clearance from the National Bureau of Investigation and papers from the Securities and Exchange Commission proving the legitimacy of their organizations—allowed jail officials to determine if the visitors were reputable.

Determining the legitimacy of visitors was based on the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners adopted by the 1955 First UN Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders in Geneva, Switzerland, it added.

Insp. Aris Villaester, BJMP National Capital Region spokesperson, also said that the visitation policy was for the inmates’ own security, adding that they were just “trying to prevent [anything bad] from happening to them.”

Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/669962/political-inmates-want-visitation-rights-back#ixzz3Qq98xf9z

On the Fifth Anniversary of “Black Valentine’s Day”

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February 14, this year, is the fifth anniversary of “Black Valentine’s Day”, that showed and continues to show how actually uninterested, heartless — actually spiteful — the ruling Benigno S. Aquino III regime has been in regard to justice and freedom in the case of political prisoners, in regard to peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), and in regard to the advocacies of these for fundamental socio-economic, cultural and political changes in the interest of the country, especially the suffering oppressed and exploited mass of our people.

In practically the full term of the present ruling regime, the environment of the peace talks between the NDFP and the GRP/GPH has been fraught with gross insincerities, treacheries and violations on the part of the ruling regime.

A few hours before the resumption, in February 14, 2011, of the long-stalled peace talks between the NDFP and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines, Malacañang gave the military and police leadership under its command the order for their arrest of an NDFP peace consultant with long-standing and immediate work directly related to comprehensive socio-economic reforms — the already long-delayed next substantive agenda in the peace talks.

The one particularly assigned by Malacañang, as over-all in command over the joint military and police arrest operations to implement the “Black Valentine’s Day” arrest — then Philippine Army Chief, Lt. Gen. Arturo Ortiz — arrogantly declared right after the arrest that they will keep arresting NDFP peace consultants — “No matter the JASIG!” (The JASIG, or Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees, is one of the comprehensive peace agreements, mutually signed way back in February 24, 1995, for the protection of the freedom and rights of negotiators, consultants, staffers, security and other personnel, so that they may be able to effectively participate in their respective work in the peace process.)

The arrest was ordered “No matter … anything”. No matter how open and welcoming the NDFP has been for the resumption of the peace talks. No matter that the NDFP has prepared, worked and hoped for a great many prospects in the talks beforehand. No matter that the one ordered to be immediately arrested has long been among the NDFP peace talks consultants, has continuing and urgent work related to his specific tasks, including the scheduled substantive agenda in the supposedly immediately-to-resume peace talks, and is supposed to be protected from surveillance, arrest, detention and other acts of violence that would deter his effective participation in the peace process. No matter that the resumption of the long-stalled peace talks was to start in a couple of hours in Oslo, Norway, but would be very much frustrated, with the recent and continuing, as well as past, arrests and imprisonments of NDFP peace consultants and staffers supposedly protected from such and other acts of violence.

As the one so arrested, I informed the arresting officer about my being an NDFP peace consultant, about my JASIG protection and about my objection to my arrest as violative of peace agreements, more immediately so as I was supposed to be involved in the then just about to resume peace talks.

I stated that the NDFP leadership and peace panel would definitely vehemently object to my arrest as blatantly violative of the JASIG. I also asked to be able to immediately communicate and consult directly with the NDFP peace panel’s legal counsel, that is also the legal counsel of NDFP peace consultants — 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.

After some two hours of consultations with their higher ups, the arresting officer informed me that they brought up before their higher ups the objections that I have raised against my arrest and their violations of the JASIG and my other rights as an NDFP peace consultant and participant in the about-to-resume peace talks. He simply said that 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 my arrest, the matter of the JASIG and other matters, including my demand to be able to consult with the NDFP peace panel’s legal counsel, would all be taken up with and responded to later by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), and that in the meantime I would be detained.

The hurriedly implemented arrest was also patently illegal — as it was made without a warrant of arrest and I was ill!egally served a “warrant of arrest” only the next day. I was later swamped with trumped-up criminalized charges for “13 counts of murder” — supposedly committed by a certain “Ka Dexter” (who I never was) against government soldiers ambushed by the New People’s Army (NPA) in various places (where I actually have never been to) some 27 years ago (at a time when I was based in Metro Manila and was then working in the open, legal political struggle).

Those trumped-up criminalized charges are also in recalcitrant violation of the landmark Hernandez Doctrine — a historical Philippine jurisprudence that prohibits the criminalization of “political offenses” and requires the consolidation of all “political offenses” under a single bailable case of “rebellion”. (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 deprived of the right to bail, so that they are thus kept practically indefinitely detained, especially as the crawl of justice in the country is one of the slowest, as well as one of the most rotten, in the world.)

The ruling regime and its shadow fascist apparatus have also been dictating on the prosecution — and even the judges — to do what they can to see to it that, as much as possible, the detained NDFP consultants be kept in jail indefinitely. This, if not yet to fast-tract and spuriously cook-up their convictions — as they had done so in the cases of fellow NDFP peace consultants Eduardo Sarmiento, Emeterio Antalan and Leopoldo Caloza. Previously, practically all the trumped-up charges against these NDFP peace consultants have been dismissed, but, under heavy pressure from the ruling regime and its shadow fascist apparatus, the courts hearing the last cases of these imprisoned fellow NDFP peace consultants spuriously cooked-up their convictions, just to prevent them from gaining freedom.

The fifth anniversary of “Black Valentine’s Day” is marked by even more dire prospects as the current Benigno S. Aquino III regime has already hauled into prison more NDFP peace consultants and an additional 300 or so more socio-economic-cultural and political cause advocates, and continues to haul more of these into its jails, has refused to discuss substantive agenda for socio-economic-cultural and political reforms for the strategic upliftment of the oppressed and exploited suffering mass of our people,
in line with the previously agreed upon Hague Declaration, has instead been insisting on putting in the agenda only petty, ephemeral “doables”, and has thus actually been refusing to be open with any seriousness to substantive peace talks with the NDFP.

In the meantime, but for a mere handful who have been able to win their freedom through exceptional court victories that have slipped through reactionary pressures and dirty manueverings, all of us (about a score of detained NDFP peace consultants and staffers, and more than 500 other political prisoners) continue to suffer grave injustice and overly slow and rotten court processes, excessive restrictions and deprivations, poor prison conditions, and numerous other human rights violations. More than half of the present political prisoners have already been detained for about or more than a decade already, with their cases in court hardly moving at all. And some — like our fellow NDFP peace consultant, Eduardo “Ka Eddik” Serrano, who was wrongly charged as a different person and made to suffer more than 11 years of unjust imprisonment — have already died in prison, due to these problems and the utter nonchalance to these of the ruling state and jail authorities.

The ruling regime has shown itself to be totally deaf and blind to calls for justice, respect for human rights, fundamental political and socio-economic changes, and related efforts for the attainment of peace. It continues to refuse to abide by, or even take cognizance of standing peace agreements with the NDFP. Worse, it has even gone much further in violating, and even mocking and spitting at those agreements and related efforts.

In the same way, with its “daang matuwid” (“straight road”) as a mere facade of a slogan without anything real and solid in substance, the ruling regime has only been mocking and spitting at the suffering oppressed and exploited mass of our people.

ALAN JAZMINES
NDFP peace consultant and member of the NDFP Committee on Socio-Economic Reforms,

detained at the SICA 1 Jail, Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City
14 February 2016

Our 10 Days of Fasting/Hunger Strike Before and During the Visit of Pope Francis I to Our Country

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Starting five days before the January 15 arrival of Pope Francis I in our country, we, political prisoners in Camp Bagong Diwa, went on fasting/hunger strike. And during the five days of his actual visit to our country bringing along “mercy and compassion”, we proceeded to go on hunger strike.

All such act of self-sacrifice, to make loud our calls for our freedom, for justice, for real solutions to social ills, for serious efforts towards peace in our country.

These calls emphasize our dire situation as political prisoners — imprisoned because of our struggles for political and social changes in the interest of the people; subjected to severe repressions, reprisals, abuses, deprivations, and other fascist acts by state and jail authorities; made to suffer and one of the most rotten and slowest crawl of justice in the world, and frustrated with the long lack of progress in the peace process.

We went through such act, with a significantly highly raised level of unity of forces, will to fight and resistance to repressions, and were able to proceed steadfast and advance in our act of self-sacrifice for our calls. This, in the face of foul and fascist reactions to our act, and in the face of violations of our rights to the extent of disregarding international protocols on respect for human rights, the United Nation’s norms on the treatment of prisoners, as well as the prevailing state’s own laws — particularly here at the Special Intensive Care Area1(SICA1) Jail in Camp Bagong Diwa.

From the very start, our doctors were totally barred from visiting us and checking on our medical conditions. There were instances, when even our lawyers and some of our loved ones were also barred. Many, many visitors from human rights organizations, and many more other supporters were also cruelly barred.

Worse, prison authorities here at the SICA1 Jail, even cooked up and unleased malicious and vicious schemes to isolate us, political prisoners, and induce, from other inmates under the hands of leaders of a lumpen prison gang and of those accused by the government as terrorists, intensified antagonisms and orchestrated threats of violence against us. This, by also barring the visitors of all other inmates and casting the blame for such on the “foolish” (“kalokohan”) hunger strike of political prisoners.

This, even as, among their ranks, we have many friends and sympathizers, whom we have been in touch with and even wrote to about the noble objectives of our act, in order to gain their unity with us, even as they are being prevented from doing so by threats against them.

We also have taken, and continue to take, appropriate steps direct to the public and also via the courts and other institutions, in effort to put in place and counter such foul and fascist acts of the jail authorities against our loved ones, and against others caring about and supporting us.

In the midst of all these, we have remained solid and in peace, and have maintained our steadfastness in our act, well up to its successful conclusion and its aftermath.

With the help of those outside with means and opportunities at linking with the visiting Pope, with those in sympathy with us and supporting us in various ways in our struggles, with the general public, and with other relevant forces, we are grateful that our letters and calls have reached those concerned and have been raised loud enough to be amplified further, especially our calls for the return of our lost freedom, for the redress of the injustices committed against us and the people we have been struggling and imprisoned for, and for serious efforts towards peace.

In the meantime, for as long as we remain under threats of reprisals, foul deeds and violence against us in jail, we are determined to keep raising the issues we have been raising–our call for freedom, justice, for real solutions to social ills, for serious efforts towards peace in this country.

Political prisoners at the SICA1 Jail,
Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City
(31 January 2015)

Tirso Alcantara
Emeterio Antalan
Cesar Balmaceda
Leopoldo Caloza
Alan Jazmines
Jesus Abetria Jr.
Modesto Araza
Alex Arias
Eddie Cruz
Philip Enteria
Voltaire Guray
Fidel Holanda
Edward Lanzanas
Rolando Laylo
Eliseo Lopez
Alberto Macasinag
Jared Morales
Denis Ortiz
Hermogenes Reyes Jr.
Felicardo Salamat
Aristides Sarmiento
Cirilo Verdan
Elmer Torres

Re 6 Dec. 2015 visit of RNG ambassadors supporting the NDFP-GRP/GPH peace talks

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We, NDFP peace consultants detained in Camp Bagong Diwa (Adelberto Silva, Alan Jazmines, Eduardo Serrano, Ruben Saluta, Tirso Alcantara, Ernesto Lorenzo and Loida Magpatoc) appreciated much the 6 Dec. visit and meeting with us of two RNG ambassadors (Elizabeth Slattum, Special Envoy of the RNG, and Kristian Netland, 1st Secretary of the RNG embassy). Read more

DECLARATION OF CEASEFIRE FROM 23 DECEMBER 2015 TO 03 JANUARY 2016

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CENTRAL COMMITTEE
COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE PHILIPPINES

15 December 2015

Upon the recommendation of the Negotiating Panel of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines hereby declares to all commands and units of the New People’s Army (NPA) and the people’s militias a ceasefire order that will take effect from 00:01H of 23 December 2015 to 23:59 H of 03 January 2016.

This ceasefire order is being issued in solidarity with the Filipino people’s traditional celebrations of Christmas and New Year holidays. This will also enable the revolutionary forces to carry out mass assemblies and public demonstrations to mark the 47th anniversary of the CPP and celebrate revolutionary victories of the past year.

This ceasefire order is also being issued in support of efforts of peace advocates to foster the resumption of GPH-NDFP peace negotiations on the basis of The Hague Joint Declaration, the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL). The revolutionary movement calls for the release of all political prisoners including 17 NDFP consultants in accordance with the CARHRIHL and the JASIG.

During the ceasefire period, all NPA units and people’s militias shall cease and desist from carrying out offensive military operations against the armed units and personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Philippine National Police (PNP) and other paramilitary and armed groups attached to the Government of the Republic of the Philippines.

Personnel of the AFP and PNP who have no serious liabilities other than their membership in their armed units shall not be subjected to arrest or punitive actions. They may be allowed individually to enter the territory of the people’s democratic government to make personal visits to relatives and friends.

While all units of the NPA and the people’s militias shall be on defensive mode at both the strategic and tactical levels, they shall nonetheless maintain a high degree of militancy and vigilance against any hostile actions or movements of the enemy armed forces including encroachment on the territory of the people’s democratic government, surveillance and other offensive operations including so-called “peace and development”, “civil-military” or “peace and order” operations. Active-defense operations shall be undertaken only in the face of clear and imminent danger and actual armed attack by the enemy forces.

All branches and committees of the CPP, units of the NPA and people’s militias and revolutionary mass organizations should closely monitor any hostile actions being carried out by the enemy armed forces. Such information should be reported to the concerned commands of the New People’s Army and leadership of the Communist Party of the Philippines. #

Authenticated by: Luis G. Jalandoni
Chairperson, Negotiating Panel
National Democratic Front of the Philippines

THE BSAQUINO EFFIGY ON INTL HR DAY 2015

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Free All Political Prisoners! Persist in the Struggle for Justice, Human Rights, Social Progress, Peace and Freedom!

(Statement of NDFP Peace Consultants and Other Political Prisoners Detained in Camp Bagong Diwa on the International Day of Solidarity for Political Prisoners, December 3, 2015)

On the occason of the International Day of Solidarity for Political Prisoners, we, National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultants and other political prisoners detained in Camp Bagong Diwa, express our warmest solidarity with all political prisoners in the country and the world, with whom we raise high our urgent calls for justice, human rights, political and socio-economic reforms, peace and freedom.

We thank the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) for its significant role in designating this particular day of solidarity for political prisoners of all nations, expressing concern for the dire conditions of political prisoners, and vigorously supporting the struggle of political prisoners.

Here in the Philippines, despite the denial of the ruling regime that there are political prisoners in the country, the contrary fact is that there are more than 500 Filipino political prisoners, who have long been suffering inhumane and fascist conditions; trumped-up criminalized charges to hide the political nature of our struggles; very slow and hardly moving crawl of justice; and overly prolonged foul and unjust detention.

Unjust imprisonment, fascist repression and other antagonistic acts have not at all subdued and silenced us, political prisoners. On the contrary, such have even pushed us to further press our calls and struggles, resist repressive treatment, survive our sufferings, and win victories — within as well as beyond prison bars.

A big number — more than 17 — of us, political prisoners at present, are also NDFP peace consultants and staff workers, who, according to a long-standing Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) between the NDFP and the ruling state, are supposed to be protected from surveillance, arrest, imprisonment, torture and other human rights violations, trumped-up court charges, and other acts that would deter our effective participation and work in the peace process.

Other standing peace agreements between the NDFP and the ruling state, such as the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), are supposed to protect the people, including activists, fighters for change, and political prisoners from violations of their human rights.

Yet reactionary ruling regimes, in succession, have grossly been violating those agreements and, up to the present regime, have been refusing to rectify their gross violations of those agreements, and release the foully detained NDFP Peace Consultants and other political prisoners in the country.

We, detained NDFP Peace Consultants and other political prisoners, who have long been made to suffer as victims of violations of our rights and those of the people, reiterate our still-urgent, long-standing demand for the respect of our rights and freedom, and those of our suffering exploited and oppressed people, including our human rights, our rights against repression and suppression, and our rights and freedom to pursue long-sought for socio-economic and political changes for the better, and relatedly for a just and lasting peace, in the interest of the mass of our people and society.

NDFP Peace Consultants
NDFP Consultants in Camp Bagong Diwa:

Adelberto Silva
Alan Jazmines
Ernesto Lorenzo
Eduardo Serrano
Tirso Alcantara
Ruben Saluta
Loida Magpatoc
and other political prisoners detained in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City