From the Mindanao Examiner (Jul 21): Police agents shadow human rights confab in Philippines
International peace activists and human rights defenders attending the
International Conference for Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines condemned
the deployment of military and police surveillance agents in their
activities.
Human rights group called Karapatan said security personnel
of the conference apprehended a police officer and suspected military informant
in two separate incidents.
Caught taking photos of delegates and
conference vehicle plate numbers was a certain Kenneth Mendez, who claimed to be
a reporter but could not mention what media outfit he was working for.
Also apprehended was PO2 Emilio Fetalvo Jr. who admitted being ordered
by his senior officer who was only identified as Superintendent Pelibilio to
conduct surveillance of the conference.
Fetalvo was previously seen
shadowing staff members of the Karapatan national office.
“I am indignant
at the covert surveillance of conference participants . But we will not be
intimidated from joining the Filipino people in the vigorous protests tomorrow,”
Paul Murphy, an Australian labor rights activist, said in a statement sent by
Karapatan to the Mindanao Examiner.
Delegate Ron Gochez, an American
teacher who joined a team that visited Davao City’s militarized Paquibato
district recently, described his group’s encounter with soldiers in the area:
“We were there for less than five minutes and this is what we saw - the
military, and military intelligence operatives taking pictures when we arrived,
taking pictures of the people and trying to intimidate the people.”
“The
people do not want any more militarization. They want schools, they want health
care, they want roads,” Gochez said in the same statement.
Ironically,
the issue of “national security” and the consequent violation of the people’s
socio-economic and civil and political rights was the focus of discussions in
the past two days of the ICHRPP.
Such concern was summed up by
international lawyer Anna Morris from the U.K., who said the concept of national
security “should center on securing the economic and political rights of the
people. It is those rights that the President should put in the heart of his
State of the Nation Address on Monday.”
Morris said: “This is my third
visit here in the Philippines and on each occasion, the level of repression
increases, not decreases, against those who are legitimately engaged in the
protection and representation of the vulnerable, the dispossessed and the poor.
In a modern society, it should be that impunity decreases and accountability
increases, but sadly that is not the case in the current government.”
http://mindanaoexaminer.blogspot.com/2013/07/police-agents-shadow-human-rights.html
The group may or may be shadowed by local police units. The two so-called police officers cited in the article may or may not exist or even if they exist they may or may not be police officers. It really doesn't matter. KARAPTAN is a CPP front, and it routinely claims it is being targeted by "state security forces." Of course it is always nice to time these kinds of allegations just before the President gives his State of the Nation Address (SONA) and when foreign fellow travelers are in-country.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, the entire timing and propaganda tack of the KARAPATAN and "International Solidarity Mission" has been orchestrated to counter the positive Philippine human rights record that President Aquino will probably emphasize in his SONA.