Germans to light candles vs extrajudicial killings in the Philippines

Written by Dateline Philippines

Wednesday, 20 May 2009 09:33

MANILA, Philippines – Members of Protestant churches in Germany will light more than 1000 candles in the city of Bremen on May 22 to call attention to the continued political killings in the Philippines. The activity, dubbed “Sumabay Tayo! Walking together – for justice!” is part of the “Kirchentag,” a biennial gathering of German Protestant churches that is based on a theme and draws thousands of people from all faiths, Hannah Wolf, spokeprson for the activity, said in an emailed statement. The candles will commemorate each of the more than 1,000 activists and political dissenters murdered since 2001, when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo came to power. Among the victims of extrajudicial killings are church people, lawyers, journalists, human rights defenders, farmers, workers, students and trade unionists. The protesters will also launch a signature campaign meant to pressure the Philippine government to “investigate the killings, compensate survivors and relatives of the victims, and to end not only the political killings, but all human rights violations in the Philippines.” Wolf, in the statement, said the activity’s organizers fear a deterioration of the “existing climate of impunity” with retired general Jovito Palparan’s assumption of a congressional seat representing the party-list Bantay. Palparan is accused by human rights groups of responsibility for hundreds of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in areas he was assigned to as a military commander. “Palparan is known beyond Philippine borders as a notorious human rights violator who, like others, must be prosecuted and brought to justice,” Wolf said. Philipp Bück, coordinator of the German-based Action Network Human Rights-Philippines, said in the same statement: “More cases need to be prosecuted and perpetrators punished, particularly with regards to command responsibility within the police and military.” In March, the network conducted a mission in the Philippines to look into the implementation of recommendations by various international human rights experts and groups on how to end the killings and disappearances. Recently, United Nations special rapporteur Philip Alston, in a follow-up report to his fact-finding mission in 2007, said the government has failed to implement any of his recommendations and, thus, failed to quell the impunity that encouraged the commission of extrajudicial killings and other human rights abuses. In his original findings, Alston blamed most of the murders on a government counterinsurgency strategy that deliberately targeted members and leaders of legal organizations that authorities openly tagged legal fronts of the communist rebel movement.