PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Yoko Liriano
NY Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (NYCHRP)
Email: nychrp@gmail.com

NEW YORK– Nearly 100 concerned New Yorkers gathered at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Labor Center this past Saturday to listen to Melissa Roxas, the first US citizen under the Obama administration to be subjected to a gross human rights violation in the Philippines, and veteran Philippine human rights activist Marie Hilao-Enriquez, speak about the worsening human rights situation in the Philippines under the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration.

Marie Hilao-Enriquez and Melissa Roxas

Both Roxas and Enriquez were guest speakers at the second annual Pagpupugay (Tribute), an event honoring anti-martial law activists and human rights defenders sponsored by the New York Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (NYCHRP). This year’s event was also co-sponsored by SEIU/Local 1199 United Healthworkers East.

Melissa Roxas

Re-living Torture

Still fighting back tears, Roxas shared her story of abduction at gunpoint followed by six days of torture before surfacing in Quezon City last May 25th, while conducting community surveys in preparation for a volunteer medical mission in a rural town in La Paz, Tarlac.

Roxas, who is based in Los Angeles, is a founding member of the national Filipino-American alliance known as BAYAN USA.

“It is very hard for survivors to speak out in the Philippines because most are still harassed and threatened by the Philippine military and police and threatened with death and harm to themselves and their families,” Roxas explained. “Torture survivors, like myself, also find it very hard because every time I talk about the experience its like re-living it again. But because many more have been silenced and because one of the main objectives of torture is to silence and create fear, and to debilitate people, it is important to speak about it.”

Roxas pointed directly to the culpability of the 7th Infantry Division of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in perpetrating her abduction and torture. Last year, the Philippine Supreme Court granted a writ of amparo (protection) to Roxas and validated her claim of abduction and torture, despite attacks from former military generals that Roxas’ ordeal was “stage-managed”. However, the same high court ruling denied the request for an investigation of Fort Magsaysay, the alleged military camp where Roxas was detained.

Attorney Leonard Weinglass

International human rights lawyer Leonard Weinglass, a member of Roxas’ legal team, presented on Roxas’ pursuit of justice in the international courts, filing complaints with the US State Department and United Nations last year.

Counter-Insurgency Campaign

Enriquez, Chairperson of the Philippine national human rights organization Karapatan, presented Karapatan’s most current human rights report which identifies the Arroyo government’s national counter-insurgency program, Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL), as the framework for a “reign of terror” in the Philippines.

“Oplan Bantay Laya is by far the bloodiest and most brutal counter-insurgency campaign unleashed on the Filipino people by any Philippine president,” Enriquez stated.

According to Karapatan, OBL’s objective of annihilating the ongoing armed insurgency in the Philippine countryside is being pursued by targeting legal, aboveground civilians critical of the policies of the Arroyo government. This has resulted in the politically-motivated killings of over 1000 government critics since Arroyo assumed power in 2001.

“The three tiers of opposition to the Philippine government–the armed rebellion in the countryside, the unarmed civil society groups, and the progressive block in the Philippine Congress–are all lumped into one target for Philippine state security forces to go after,” Enriquez explained.

Enriquez also reported that extrajudicial killings in 2009 surpassed the previous annual totals since the Arroyo government assumed power in 2001 due especially to the shocking, “unparalleled” massacre in Maguindanao which claimed 58 lives last November 23rd. The November massacre also serves as a gruesome salvo to election-related violence in the Philippines with the upcoming national elections this May. Meanwhile, the Arroyo government set a target deadline for the second stage of OBL by June 2010.

Funding State Terrorism in the Philippines

Both Roxas and Enriquez addressed the role of US military aid to the Philippines in funding Philippine counter-insurgency operations, such as Oplan Bantay Laya.

“It is disturbing to me that the White House has been quiet about the human rights situation in the Philippines,” Roxas stated. “And Mrs. Clinton’s recent visit to the Philippines did not really address the current human rights violation and instead she expressed her solid support for the Philippine government and the military.”

Both made strong statements for the cutting of further US military aid to the Arroyo government for its ties to the Philippine military’s perpetration of gross human rights violations, as examined in a 2007 US Senate hearing on the Philippines.

Audience members in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Labor Center

“For us who live here in the United States, the issue of torture and our own government’s involvement in torture, whether directly in places like Guantanamo, or indirectly through the funding and training of the military in countries that are guilty of human rights violations, like the Philippines, is a reality we can no longer continue to deny, be ignorant, and choose to be indifferent,” stated Roxas.

While in New York City, NYCHRP arranged for Roxas and Enriquez to meet with several human rights lawyers as well as a courtesy visit to the office of United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings Philip Alston, who reported on the Philippine military’s involvement in human rights violations when he visited the country back in 2007.

Anticipating the escalation of election-related violence and electoral fraud in the Philippines this year, the local human rights advocacy organization is also promoting an international election-monitoring mission to the Philippines this May 2010 known as the People’s International Observers Mission (PIOM). For more information on how to join the PIOM or about NYCHRP, email nychrp@gmail.com.

PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Yoko Liriano
NY Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (NYCHRP)
Email: nychrp@gmail.com

NEW YORK–The first US citizen under the Obama administration to be subjected to abduction and torture in the Philippines will be speaking in Manhattan this weekend to tell her story and help raise funds for and awareness on the plight of victims of gross human rights abuses under the administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Melissa Roxas, 32, of Los Angeles, is headlining Pagpupugay 2, the second annual tribute to anti-martial law activists and human rights defenders sponsored by the New York Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (NYCHRP) this Saturday, January 30th, 1 PM at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Labor Center, located at 310 West 43rd Street between 8th and 9th Avenues in midtown Manhattan.

The location also serves as the headquarters of SEIU/Local 1199 United Healthworkers East, the largest local union in the United States and official co-sponsor of the event.

“Melissa is a hero. We draw inspiration from her strength and courage to speak the truth about what is happening in the Philippines, even if it entails relentless McCarthyist red-baiting attacks against her character launched by those seeking to cover it up,” states NYCHRP member Gary Labao.

Roxas, who has filed official complaints with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and US State Department, will join Marie Hilao-Enriquez, Chairperson of Karapatan, the largest human rights organization in the Philippines at this year’s Pagpupugay. After surfacing in Quezon City following six days of forced captivity and subjugation to physical and psychological torture by her captors last May, Roxas, who still suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, was able to receive the physical and psychological help she needed with Karapatan’s assistance.

“I am grateful to Karapatan for not only helping me, but for helping thousands of others in the Philippines who have suffered the brunt of the Arroyo government’s military counter-insurgency program Oplan Bantay Laya 2 (OBL2).” Roxas, a founding member of the national Filipino-American alliance, BAYAN USA, shared. “My story is not mine alone, it is shared by countless others and with loved ones of those who have been killed or have never been found.”

Various international bodies, including the United Nations, have denounced OBL2 and supported Karapatan’s demand for its withdrawal on the basis that it has led to the perpetration of an acute human rights crisis in the Philippines that in many ways has surpassed the atrocities committed under the Marcos dictatorship.

In his 2007 report on the Philippines, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings Philip Alston pointed to the culpability of the Philippine military in committing a range of human rights abuses against unarmed civilians, including politically-motivated killings, abductions, torture, and forced displacement.

Shortly after his celebrated inauguration last year, President Barack Obama publicly pledged continued support to the Arroyo government and its military, including financial support and the deployment of more US troops to train Philippine military in counter-insurgency operations.

This year’s Pagpupugay 2 will also be a benefit fundraiser for Karapatan. For more information or to RSVP to this event, email nychrp@gmail.com.