JOINT STATEMENT OF THE INDEPENDENT OBSERVERS
IN THE PEACE NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN THE GRP AND THE NDF-P
 
 
We, the independent observers of the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) that monitors the compliance of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDF-P) with the Comprehensive Agreement for the Respect of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) came together for a meeting held on June 29, 2007 in Los Baños, Laguna. We shared our respective readings of the national situation after the release of the Alston and the Melo Commission reports and in the context of the announced implementation on July 15, 2007 of the Human Security Act of 2007 (HSA 2007) or the anti-terror law.
 
We have noted that the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, Mr. Philip Alston, who was invited by the GRP to visit the Philippines, investigated the cases of extrajudicial executions and issued a preliminary report to the effect that “many of the cases of summary executions are largely attributed to state security forces.” We have likewise noted that the Melo Commission came out with a report indicating that “there is circumstantial evidence to support the proposition that some elements within or connected to the military are responsible for the killings.” Both reports note that the majority of the victims are associated with the so-called left-wing organizations.

 Despite the findings of the Alston and Melo Reports that have been echoed by numerous other international investigative missions that came to the country - the killings and enforced disappearances of persons associated with the Left and those labeled as members of “front organizations,” continue to this day. 

While welcoming the recent initiative of Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno to call for a National Consultative Summit on Extra-Judicial Killings and Enforced Disappearances, we view with grave concern the impending implementation of the HSA of 2007. 

We agree with the position of Mr. Martin Scheinin, UN Special Rapporteur on the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms While Countering Terrorism, who urged the government to have a “further debate which may result in the introduction of specific amendments or repeal of the entire Act by the new Congress… since implementation of this law could have a negative impact on human rights in the country and undermine the rule of law.” We agree with the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) who urged the government to review it. The law’s inconsistency with the Bill of Rights stipulated in the 1987 Philippine Constitution and to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is worth-reflecting on. 

  We express our profound concern for the safety of the personnel of the Secretariat of the Joint Monitoring Committee of the NDF-P, as well as the other consultants and resource persons nominated by the NDF-P in the peace negotiations, once the HSA of 2007 takes effect, as they are very vulnerable to being labeled as communists and subjected to attacks as has happened to several victims of extrajudicial executions. 

As observers in the peace process, we believe that the HSA of 2007 will further prejudice the peace negotiations or completely end the entire peace process between the GRP and the NDF-P. When this happens, the internal conflict can only become more critical and can result to even more human rights violations and more victims. 

We, therefore, urge the Government to indefinitely postpone the implementation of the HSA until it can be thoroughly reviewed and possibly, amended or repealed by Congress.

Finally, we once again appeal to the GRP and NDF-P to go back to the negotiating table. The HSA of 2007 will not offer solutions to the country’s homegrown insurgencies that have deep socio-economic and political roots in the lives of the people.


SGD. BISHOP TOMAS MLLAMENA SGD.      MS. MERCEDES C. DANENBERG

SGD. MS. MARIE H. ENRIQUEZ SGD.            MS. MARY AILEEN D. BACALSO