Extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances in the Philippines

Extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances in the Philippines are illegal executions—unlawful or felonious killings—and forced disappearances in the Philippines.radiopinoyusa.com, U.N. RAPPORTEUR: PHILIPPINE MILITARY IMPLICATED IN EXTRA-JUDICIAL MURDERS AND POLITICAL KILLINGS (archived from the original on November 11, 2007) These are forms of extrajudicial punishment and include extrajudicial executions, summary executions, arbitrary arrest and detentions, and failed prosecutions due to the political activities of leading political figures, trade union members, dissidents or social figures, left-wing political parties, non-governmental organizations, political journalists, outspoken clergy, anti-mining activists, agricultural reform activists, and members of organizations that are alleged to be allied with or legal fronts of the communist movement or claimed supporters of the NPA and its political wing, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). Other frequent targets are ancestral land rights defenders, Indigenous rights activists, environmentalists, and human rights activists.

Extrajudicial killings are most commonly referred to as salvaging in Philippine English. The word is believed to be a direct anglicization of Tagalog "salbahe" ("cruel" or "barbaric"), from Spanish "salvaje" ("wild" or "savage").

EJKs that occurred during the administration of Rodrigo Duterte, at the subnational level, are more likely to occur in provinces that have high population densities, stronger state capacities, and those that are more affluent in terms of economic development. It is also found that higher rates of EJKs are correlated with provinces that have severe drug addiction rates and those areas where Duterte's vote share in the 2016 elections is highest, indicating the presence of vertical accountability.

Nature Philippine extrajudicial killings are politically motivated murders committed by government officers not punished by local and international law or convention. They include assassinations, deaths due to strafing or indiscriminate firing, and massacres. Killings occurred in many regions or places throughout the Philippines at different time. One hundred and thirty-six killings in the Southern Tagalog region were recorded by human rights group Karapatan from 2001 to May 19, 2006.A Primer on Killings of Activists, bY BAYAN (archived from the original on October 29, 2006)

Desaparecidos

A forced disappearance (desaparecidos), on the other hand, as a form of extrajudicial punishment, is perpetrated by government officers when any of its public officers abduct an individual to vanish from public view, resulting in murder or plain sequestration. The victim is first kidnapped, then illegally detained in concentration camps, often tortured, and finally executed and the corpse hidden. International human rights groups have described the Philippines as a hotspot for enforced disappearances. According to Karapatan, there have been 1,900 cases of enforced disappearances in the Philippines since the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos.

In Spanish and Portuguese, "disappeared people" are called "desaparecidos", a term that specifically refers to the mostly South American victims of state terrorism during the 1970s and the 1980s, in particular concerning Operation Condor. In the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, "enforced disappearance" is defined in Article 2 of the United Nations Convention Against Torture as "the arrest, detention, abduction, or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law."

Even if Philippine Republic Act No. 7438 provides for the rights of persons arrested or detained, it does not punish acts of enforced disappearances. Thus, on August 27, Bayan Muna (People First), Gabriela Women's Party (GWP), and Anakpawis (Toiling Masses) filed House Bill 223, later promulgated as Republic Act No. 10353—"An act defining and penalizing the crime of enforced or involuntary disappearance." In June 2007, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada filed Senate Bill No. 2405—"An Act Penalizing the Commission of Acts of Torture and Involuntary Disappearance of Persons Arrested, Detained, or Under Custodial Investigation and Granting Jurisdiction to the Commission on Human Rights to Conduct Preliminary Investigation for Violation of the Custodial Rights of the Accused, Amending for this Purpose Sections 2, 3, and 4 of RA 7438, and for Other Purposes." Relatives of desaparecidos have called on the Philippine government to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons Against Enforced Disappearance.

Relatives and Philippine human rights groups commemorate the disappeared on International Day of the Disappeared on August 30 every year.

Background

Marcos regime

In 1995, 10,000 Filipinos won a U.S. class suit against the Ferdinand Marcos estate. The charges were filed by victims or their surviving relatives for torture, execution, and disappearances. Human rights groups placed the number of victims of extrajudicial killings under martial law at 1,500 and over 800 abductions. Karapatan, a local human rights group's records, show 759 involuntarily disappeared, their bodies never found. Military historian Alfred McCoy, in his book Closer than Brothers: Manhood at the Philippine Military Academy and in his speech "Dark Legacy," cites 3,257 extrajudicial killings, 35,000 torture victims, and 70,000 incarcerated during the Marcos years. In 2006, the newspaper Bulatlat placed the number of victims of arbitrary arrest and detention at 120,000.scotsman.com, No hero's resting place as Imelda Marcos finds site for husband's grave (archived from the original on January 5, 2008)

The New People's Army (NPA) groups known as "Sparrow Units" were active in the mid-1980s, killing government officials, police personnel, military members, and anyone else they targeted for elimination. They were also part of an NPA operation called "Agaw Armas" (Filipino for "Seizing Weapons"), where they raided government armories as well as stealing weapons from slain military and police personnel. A low-level civil war with Muslims in the south, Al-Qaeda sympathizers, and communist insurgents has led to a general breakdown of law and order. The Philippine government has promised to curb the killings but is itself implicated in many of the killings.philippinerevolution.net, website, CCP (archived from the original on January 7, 2006)philippinerevolution.net, website NPA (archived from the original on January 5, 2007)

Since 1975, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) have been deeply involved in politics. Because of the armed conflict, the military continued its campaign versus the New People's Army of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). Since 1969, it aimed to establish a Marxist regime with armed rebellion against the government.

Arroyo administration According to University of the Philippines professor Roland Tolentino, under President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, left-wing nongovernmental organizations were critical of her administration. Members of these organizations who were red-tagged as members of the CPP and NPA were targeted in a series of political killings. In September 2007, Human Rights Watch investigated extrajudicial murders in the Philippines.www.pcij.org, Karapatan’s 2007 human rights report

Three major investigation groups were commissioned, and their final reports were submitted and published:

a) The Gloria Macapagal Arroyo government-appointed bodies: Task Force Usig created by Arroyo in August. As a special police body, it was assigned to solve 10 cases of killings. It claimed to have solved 21 cases by initiating court cases, but only 12 suspects were arrested. b) The Melo Commission, chaired by Supreme Court Associate Justice Jose Melo, with members National Bureau of Investigation Director Nestor Mantaring, Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño, Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos, and Nelia Torres Gonzales. Its final report states, "There is no official or sanctioned policy on the part of the military or its civilian superiors to resort to what other countries euphemistically call 'alternative procedures'—meaning illegal executions. However, there is certainly evidence pointing the finger of suspicion at some elements and personalities in the armed forces, in particular General Jovito Palparan, as responsible for an undetermined number of killings, by allowing, tolerating, and even encouraging the killings." (Melo Commission report, p. 53) c) Philip Alston, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions, February 12 to 21, 2007.

Remedies Malacañang's peace summit and Puno's killings summit

Because of the magnitude of Philippine killings and desaparecidos, 22nd Chief Justice Reynato Puno of the Supreme Court of the Philippines called a National Consultative Summit on extrajudicial killings on July 16 and 17, 2007, at the Manila Hotel. Participants included representatives from government (including the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the PNP, the Commission on Human Rights (Philippines), media, academia, civil society, and other stakeholders. On the other hand, the Malacañang-sponsored "Mindanao Peace and Security Summit," July 8–10, 2007, in Cagayan de Oro, concentrated on the anti-terror law, or the Human Security Act (HSA) of 2007, to make it more acceptable to the public.

At the July 16 summit, Reynato Puno stated that the Commission on Human Rights reported the number of victims at 403 from 2001 to May 31, 2007. Karapatan reported 863 deaths until 2007 and more than 900 as of May 2008, and most of them were members of left-wing groups. Karapatan gave a breakdown of its figures on human rights violations: 7,442 victims of forced evacuations or displacement, 5,459 victims of indiscriminate firing of weapons, and 3,042 victims of food and economic blockade. The rights group Desparecidos reported as of May 15, 2008, 194 victims of enforced disappearances under the Arroyo administration, with the latest abduction of National Democratic Front political consultant for Cagayan Valley activist Randy Felix Malayao, 39, a volunteer worker.

Counsels for the Defense of Liberties (CODAL), Philippines, a lawyers’ organization stated that since 2001, 26 lawyers and 10 judges were killed due to their professions. 755 civilians had been killed extrajudicially, while 359 survived attacks. 184 persons were still missing.manilatimes.net, SPECIAL REPORT Extrajudicial killings, Even lawyers, court officials weren’t spared (archived from the original on July 18, 2007)

Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez stated that on the CBCP/Catholic Church's count, the number of victims of extrajudicial killings is 778. Survivors of "political assassinations" reached 370. 203 victims were killed, 186 were missing or involuntarily disappeared, and 502 were tortured or illegally arrested. Iñiguez denounced the government's implementation of its Oplan Bantay Laya I and II.

Promulgation of Writs of Amparo and Habeas Data