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Peoples court declares PH govt guilty of rights abuses

WASHINGTON, D.C. For six days, more than 200 human rights advocates, student activists, church leaders and
community supporters from the U.S. and the Philippines gathered here in the nations capital, hoping their voices
would be heard by the White House, Congress and other agencies responsible for shaping and implementing public
policy towards the Philippines.
Their activities included briefings of congressional staff and State Department senior officials, marches and rallies in
front of the White House and the Philippine Embassy and an International Peoples Tribunal (IPT), a court of public
opinion convened from July 16-18.
The IPT heard from human rights lawyers, survivors and families of victims who provided personal accounts of
harassment, torture and abuse by Philippine government authorities.
Peoples courts, which are independent from any State authority, date back to 1967 when an international group of
lawyers, writers and intellectuals convened the International War Crimes Tribunal to expose atrocities committed
against the Vietnamese people.
In the 1980s, two sessions were held condemning the martial law regime of Ferdinand Marcos. In 2007, a peoples
tribunal meeting in The Hague, Netherlands found the administrations of George W. Bush and Gloria Macapagal
Arroyo guilty of crimes against humanity. This years hearing was held at the Catholic University of America.
In claiming that the U.S. and Philippine
More than 200 observers fill up a Catholic University auditorium during three days of hearings
governments are complicit partners
conducted by a Peoples Court.
forged by mutual security agreements, the
more than one dozen witnesses accused
President Benigno Aquino and President Barack Obama, as their countries representatives, guilty of violations of
civil-political rights, socio-economic rights, and right to self-determination.
These included allegations of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, violent dispersals, violations of
International Humanitarian Law, demolition of urban poor communities, land grabbing, large-scale mining, unionbusting, human trafficking and the criminal negligence on typhoon survivors.
Legally non-binding
After three days of testimonies and deliberations, the courts seven jurors affirmed the witnesses accounts as very
credible and declared the Philippine and U.S. governments guilty of gross and systematic violations of human rights
in the Philippines. The verdict was delivered to the White House and the Philippine Embassy during a march and
rally on July 20.
Although the findings of the panel of human rights lawyers and scholars are considered legally non-binding and
unenforceable by administrative means, the IPT convenors argued that they were nevertheless symbolic and
significant especially in the court of public opinion.
Reverend Canon Barry Naylor, chairperson of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines and one
of the IPTs convenors, said in a statement that Peoples tribunals have had success in directing international
attention to grave abuses of human rights in various countries including the Philippines during the Marcos and Arroyo
regimes. The IPT draws inspiration and builds on the momentum of previous peoples tribunals to advance human
rights and hold governments to account.

Jeannie Mirer, president of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL), a co-convener, added that
similar peoples tribunals had tremendous impact in shedding light to state abuses and other atrocities in specific
contexts, notably US atrocities during the Vietnam War.
Moral force
Edre Olalia, secretary general of the National Union of Peoples Lawyers and IPTs court clerk, pointed out that as a
tribunal of conscience, it carries more weight due to its political value and moral force, exposing the limitations of
traditional judicial venue to serve justice for victims of rights violations.
The convenors, composed mainly of non-government organizations, human rights groups and solidarity groups in the
Philippines and the United States, also include the National Lawyers Guild and IBON International.
Our message is for the victims and the Filipino people to pursue proper remedial measures to prevent the
commission or continuance of such illegal and criminal acts, said juror Azadeh Shahshahani, president of the
National Lawyers Guild.
Added juror Michael Yoshii, a leader in the United Methodist Church: Theres a vacuum of information, almost a
silence, about human rights abuses in the Philippines, which are just as bad or even worse than the atrocities
committed by Marcos. The American people need to be aware of our own governments complicity and urge our
legislators to change our policies.
In 2007, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) opened
hearings on the mounting death squad executions and
kidnappings in the Philippines. The following year, the US Senate imposed restriction on military aid to pressure the
Arroyo administration to address the involvement of state security forces in various human rights violations.
Generally, US foreign aid takes the form of economic, military and development assistance, aimed chiefly for US
security and democracy-building.
A just verdict
I am happy. Finally, through this peoples court, we really got a just verdict, said Melissa Roxas, one of the
witnesses. A U.S. citizen from Los Angeles, she testified about her own abduction and torture in what she believed to
be a military camp while participating in a medical mission to the Philippines in 2009.
I was handcuffed and blindfolded and for the six days that I was there, I was repeatedly beaten, suffocated and
underwent other forms of torture, she alleged. Anytime you work with the poor community, they automatically label
you as the NPA and they try to vilify your work and justify the abduction and torture.
Nelson Salvador, another witness whose wife, Fidela Salvador, was allegedly tortured and killed by the Armed Forces
of the Philippines, stated: When you seek justice and justice is so elusive, the verdict addressed a longing that we
feel. In a world of injustice, this verdict is so enriching and it fills the emptiness that Ive had for a long time. The
execution of the verdict was for the whole of all Filipinos and I hope it fuels more peoples fire for justice.
The victims and their relatives were represented at the IPT by the Ecumenical Voice for Human Rights and Peace in
the Philippines (EcuVoice), KARAPATAN (Alliance for the Advancement of the Peoples Rights), Hustisya! (Victims
United for Justice), DESAPARECIDOS (Families of the Disappeared for Justice), SELDA (Society of Ex-Detainees
Against Detention and Arrest), BAYAN (New Patriotic Alliance), Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Peasant
Movement of the Philippines) and Suara Bangsamoro (Voice of the Moro People).
Among the 300 observers who packed Catholic Universitys Gowan auditorium on the final day was Paula Abad, 25, a
political science graduate from the California State University in Long Beach. Its been emotionally overwhelming
listening to the witnesses, she said. But its also very empowering because I can connect their struggles to what Im

going through here in the U.S. Filipino American young people in this country, she pointed out, are faced with
problems like college debt, unemployment, low wages and discrimination in the workplace.
Im fired up to fight for justice, she added. After the verdict was announced, she joined in a chanting of Makibaka,
Huwag Matakot! Struggle onward, have no fear! Abad traveled to Washington, D.C. with 50 others from Los Angeles
to participate in the rallies and advocacy campaigns. She is a member of Anakbayan, a youth and student
organization working to achieve genuine freedom and democracy in the Philippines.
International support
Jurors who joined the Washington, D.C. tribunal were distinguished lawyers, church leaders and scholars who come
from different parts of the world: Shahshahani has worked for a number of years defending the human rights of
immigrants and Muslim, Middle Eastern, and South Asian communities; Camilo Prez-Bustillo of Colombia served as
Director of Immigrant and Refugee Rights at the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC); Reverend Molefe
Tsele is an ordained minister with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa; Reverend Malcolm Damon of
Zimbabwe is a founding member of the Economic Justice Network (EJN); Beijing-born Pao-yu Ching is a college
professor and published author on globalization; Japanese American Michael Yoshii has won awards for his racial
justice work; Mary Boyd, an Antigonish native, is recognized as one of Canadas outstanding social justice leaders.
Adding weight to the IPTs proceedings
Observers, witnesses, lawyers and jurors demonstrate their solidarity at the conclusion of the
was the recent action of an international
peoples court in Washington, D.C.
group of lawyers calling on the Department
of Justice (DOJ) in the Philippines to take
immediate steps to address cases of torture in the country, citing how it is still rife and appears to be routine during
interrogations by police officers.
In a statement sent through Amnesty International (AI), the bar associations of Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Norway,
France and the Philippines expressed alarm over persistent reports of torture attributed to law enforcers.
They called on DOJ to take concrete action to ensure those responsible are brought to justice through prompt,
impartial, independent and effective investigations into all reports of torture and other ill-treatment by law
enforcement officials leading to robust prosecutions in court.