SOLON REACTS ON MS. PIA WURTZBACH’S VICTORY AND HER POSITION ON US MILITARY INTERVENTION

Gabriela Women’s Party joins the Filipino nation in celebrating Ms. Pia Wurtzbach’s victory for winning the Miss Universe crown. We commend her for raising the issue of HIV-AIDS as one problem that needs to be addressed globally.

However, we view that her position in favor of US military presence in the country contradicts her concern for humanity. We hope she will have a change of mind and heart on this issue by learning the history of our nation under US colonial rule.

Gabriela Women’s Party encourages to look into the case of the brutal killing of Jennifer Laude and other criminal abuses of US military in the Philippines and other countries and be a powerful voice to seek justice for the victims.

Detained NDFP peace consultant hospitalized, seeks release on humanitarian ground

Political detainee Eduardo Serrano, 62, was rushed to the Taguig General Hospital yesterday morning, December 16, after he experienced chest pains. It turned out Serrano had a myocardial infarction (heart attack). Private physicians of Serrano from the Health Alliance for Human Rights (HAHR) sought his transfer to the Heart Center of the Philippines where he is now confined at the Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit. He is set to undergo angioplasty.

Serrano, a peace consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) has been detained for more than 11 years now based on multiple criminal charges meant for a certain Rogelio Villanueva. He is among the 561 political detainees under the Aquino regime; and 19 NDFP consultants currently detained despite the immunity provided for by the GPH-NDFP Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG).

On November 26, the Quezon City Regional Trial Court-Branch 100 acquitted Serrano of the charges of multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder, crimes attributed to “Rogelio Villanueva”. Judge Editha G. Mina-Aguda said the prosecution failed to prove Serrano’s guilt “beyond “People to prove the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt.” The court viewed the witnesses’ testimonies as “either imagined or trumped-up.”

In October, the QC RTC Branch 98 Judge Marilou Runes-Tamang ruled that accused Rogelio Villanueva is not the same person as Eduardo Serrano; and Serrano should therefore be immediately released. The Branch 98’s October resolution said Serrano’s arrest and detention for 11 years is an “outright mockery of the basic human rights on due process of law which is enshrined in our Constitution.”

Serrano faces two more similar trumped-up criminal charges of multiple frustrated murder at the QC RTC Branch 215 and kidnapping at Branch 97 which are up for resolution early next year. The cases lodged against Serrano are baseless as proven by the Court’s decisions on the two other criminal charges.

Serrano should be immediately released because the cases against him, aside from being fabricated and baseless, violate the JASIG. He is also among the elderly and ailing political prisoners whose release on humanitarian grounds is demanded.

WHO IS EDUARDO SERRANO?

Eduardo Serrano has been a long standing NDFP peace  consultant  representing the Southern Tagalog region. He was arrested on May 2, 2004, a few days after he had just come from a three-week  long consultation(from April 11 to May 2, 2004) with NDFP negotiating panel members Fidel Agcaoili and Connie Ledesma regarding the formation of the  of the joint Secretariat of the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) and several other agenda and developments in the peace process. As NDFP peace consultant, Serrano is supposedly protected by the standing NDFP-GPH  JASIG and “should have been guaranteed  safety from arrest in going to, attending, and leaving the consultations to return to his  area of work,” according to the NDFP Panel.

Serrano finished his college course in agriculture at the UP Los Banos in Oct. l976, worked as a research assistant at the Dairy Training and Research Institute(DTRI) in 1977  and was sent to Copenhagen, Denmark for a post graduate course in animal science in 1978-1979. In 1980, at the height of struggle against the fascist Marcos dictatorship, he decided to work as fulltime among the peasants in Bicol and Mindoro.

During his three years of detention (May 2, 2004 to Aug. 12, 2007) at the Oriental Mindoro Provincial Jail in Calapan City, he continued to do political work among ordinary detainees whom he also helped in curing their ailments with the use of acupuncture, in providing paralegal advices on their cases in court and in helping improve even by a little the economic conditions in prison through the establishment of a cooperative store of the inmates and guards.

After his transfer to the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame, on August 13, 2007, he devoted party of his time in taking a long-distance diploma course on Environment and Natural Resources Management at the Open University of UP and finished the said course in May 2009. Much of the time, he is also engaged in political work among fellow detainees, especially in the promotion and defense of the human rights of political prisoners and other prisoners.

Lumad students, teachers fled over military presence in school

After a month-long stay of 700 Mindanao lumad in Metro Manila to voice out the militarized situation in their communities, another alleged case of human rights violations was reported by education advocate Save Our Schools Network- Southern Mindanao Region (SMR).

According to Rius Valle, SOS Network – SMR soldiers belonging to 66th Infantry Battalion encamped in Purok 4B, Barangay Mangayon, Compostela Valley.

‘They [soldiers] stationed in front of the school and among houses,  ignoring the appeal of the residents and disregarding the law which prohibits military encampment among public places,’ he said.

 According to Rius Valle, the said military elements violated Republic Act 7610 or Special Protection for Children Act. In Article 10, section 22, the law states that “public infrastructure such as schools, hospitals and rural health units shall not be utilized for military purposes such as command posts, barracks, detachments and supply depots”.

Rius added that the soldiers refused to leave the community and insisted that it was an order from their superior in order to facilitate services coming from the office of the municipal mayor.

“We told them that the people welcomes help from the LGU, but there are specific government agencies who should do that task, not the military, especially when they are staying in the community for a period of time” said Valle.

Compostela Farmer’s Association (CFA) Secretary General, Jimmy Saypan also condemned the actions of the military saying these actions was a sort of “bribery” among the people, part of their attempt to pave the way for the entry of Agusan Petroleum Mineral Resources, otherwise called “AgPet”.

“We fear that the lumads will be presented as ‘rebel surrenderees’ since after giving relief goods, each one of them was forced to sign a blank paper while soldiers took mugshots of them” said Saypan.

He added that since the soldier was staying right in front of the school, children passing by are enticed by soldiers to play a gambling game. They further alleged that the children were told not to go inside the school.

“Since the soldiers’ arrival, classes have been disrupted, even more so now that they have evacuated” said Valle.

Since November 28, about two hundred lumads have fled their homes and have now sought sanctuary in a gymnasium in Compostela.

Classes of all 147 students of Salugpongan School in the community have been suspended.

The 200 lumad evacuees are the most recent victims of military attacks on Lumad communities, adding to the 842 evacuees in Southern Mindanao region.

The group, together with child focused group SALINLAHI, recently filed a complaint against Department of Education Secretary Armin Luistro over the claims of his failure to address the issue of military encampment and attacks on schools.

GABRIELA statement On Pemberton’s Guilty Verdict and the US’ refusal to surrender him to PH authorities

The Olongapo RTC’s homicide conviction of US Marine Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton is a limited victory for the family of Jennifer Laude and the Filipino people who cry justice for the killing of Jennifer. It is a legal victory in so far as it decides, beyond reasonable doubt, that Pemberton indeed killed Jennifer, despite the court failing to decide on a higher and a more just murder verdict for Pemberton.

We underscore the political weight of Olongapo Judge Roline Ginez-Jabalde’s decision to commit Pemberton to a Philippine penitentiary in the New Bilibid Prison because it challenges the Visiting Forces Agreement and the treacherous agreement between the US Embassy and the Department of Foreign Affairs to confine Pemberton to the AFP Custodial Center in Camp Aguinaldo.

Notwithstanding the victory in Pemberton’s conviction thus far, the political battle for justice is far from over. It is now up to the Aquino government to stand its ground against US pressure to take custody of Pemberton.

We forewarn the family that the struggle for justice for Jennifer Laude is by no means over. As was in the case of the Subic rape case a decade ago, the US will employ every possible tactic to gain custody, or worse to ultimately secure freedom for Pemberton, and protect its interest including covert offers to the family. We urge the people to remain vigilant in this small victory and continue to oppose the VFA and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) that will serve to make Filipino people, especially women and children, more vulnerable to abuse and violence by US soldiers. ###