Post by 1949 on Nov 21, 2004 21:17:59 GMT -5
"De facto martial law in the Philippines"[/SIZE][/b]
Interview with human rights activist Marie Hilao-Enriquez
In October Marie Hilao-Enriquez, a human rights activist from the Philippines was on a speaking tour of New Zealand, organised by the Philippines Solidarity Network. Marie is the general secretary of KARAPATAN, an alliance of human rights organisations. During the years of the Marcos dictatorship in the 1970s and 80s Marie along with other family members was imprisoned. Her sister was the first woman political prisoner killed during martial law. Marie, arrested along with her husband, gave birth to her first child while in prison. She and another prisoner, also a nursing mother, were freed after all the political prisoners in the camp where she was detained staged a hunger strike for their release. She has continued to work tirelessly for the liberation of the Filipino people. The Spark talked to Marie while she was here.
Can you tell us about your organisation?
KARAPATAN means human rights, the members are organisations and individuals who have been doing human rights work during the time of the Marcos dictatorship. It was a time when most of us learned first hand what human rights meant to us. We have a Bill of Rights in the Philippines, but when martial law was declared, we knew what it meant to have our rights stripped away.
My home was raided by the Philippine military, habeas corpus was suspended, the Philippine’s Senate and Congress was closed, there was no media – radio, TV or print – and the schools were closed for a month. Many people were hauled off to prison. One of my sisters was arrested and detained, she was tortured and murdered. I was imprisoned too and had a child in prison. So, my involvement in human rights work is political and personal because we went through the horrors of the dictatorship.
Has much changed since the time of Marcos?
I am very disappointed and alarmed that the same horrors we experienced during martial law are happening again. There was this huge movement in the Philippines, which we call the legal democratic movement, where we staged many protest actions and mobilisations. As well there was an armed movement going on in our country. After 14 years we were able to kick out Marcos. But then the presidents who have been installed after Marcos used the same policies as Marcos. Cory Aquino, the president who followed Marcos, never charged him with human rights violations. It was the victims who mounted their own court case. As Marcos was spirited out of the country to Hawaii we mounted a court case in the US.
What has happened to those who committed the violations?
No violator of that regime has ever been punished. The impunity continues. One of Marcos’ generals became the president of the Philippines – Fidel Ramos.
Marcos at least tried to wangle concessions from America. Gloria Arroyo with this war on terror of the Americans – she offered Philippine support without being asked by George Bush. To us this is a great affront to our sovereignty. In 1991 we were able to kick out the American bases, but in 2001 what Arroyo did was to practically invite the Americans back to our country. I think for America the Philippines is very important because our country is very close to China, Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia. During the war in Afghanistan the Philippine military bases were again used by the Americans and this is a complete violation of our constitution. Our constitution disallows foreign military troops and nuclear ships in our country.
The Arroyo government’s policies are the policies of globalisation, relying on foreign investments, the liberalisation of our markets, opening the country to foreign products. Privatisation of government countries. This is what makes us so poor.
The return of US bases is clearly a terrible blow for the people of the Philippines. What does Arroyo get out of it?
Arroyo would like the American support so that, like Marcos, she can have military and economic aid. The Philippines is now considered a major non-Nato ally of the US and has become one of the biggest recipients of American aid in Asia. This to us exacerbates the worsening human rights situation in our country.
Arroyo stifled dissent and suppressed all protests against her policies. She was the second woman president installed by a people’s power uprising. When she was still the president-in-waiting as were kicking out Estrada we gave her a people’s agenda that contained human rights issues. One was to stop the bombing in Mindanao, (the second largest island) where there is an active Muslim secessionist movement. Estrada had tried to stop it with a military solution. We also asked Arroyo to stop the counter-insurgency operations against the communist guerrilla movement. Since 2001 we have already had many persons "disappeared" – victims of forced disappearance.
Most of the disappeared were leaders of legal progressive groups who are critical of Arroyo’s policies of globalisation. Members of activist groups who participated in the elections in 2001 and 2004 were also targeted; 50 of their members have been killed by the military. My organisation, KARAPATAN, has also been targeted by the military and 14 of my colleagues have been murdered since Arroyo came to power.
I think the support of the American and this "war on terror" has really emboldened her and the military to commit such violations.
We have counted 326 individuals killed since 2001 when Arroyo was installed as president. We call this atmosphere now a de facto martial law.
What would you say to those people who think the Philippines is a democracy?
I know that many people outside the country think that after Marcos we are in a democracy, but we call it an elite democracy because there is no change of the system. The landlords own all the land. When you mention a province the people will say "oh, that’s the control of this or that family". There was some research done entitled The Ties that Bind and it showed 139 families control the political landscape of the Philippines. One family owns 18 per cent of the GDP of the Philippines. This has never changed since Marcos was kicked out.
link
Interview with human rights activist Marie Hilao-Enriquez
In October Marie Hilao-Enriquez, a human rights activist from the Philippines was on a speaking tour of New Zealand, organised by the Philippines Solidarity Network. Marie is the general secretary of KARAPATAN, an alliance of human rights organisations. During the years of the Marcos dictatorship in the 1970s and 80s Marie along with other family members was imprisoned. Her sister was the first woman political prisoner killed during martial law. Marie, arrested along with her husband, gave birth to her first child while in prison. She and another prisoner, also a nursing mother, were freed after all the political prisoners in the camp where she was detained staged a hunger strike for their release. She has continued to work tirelessly for the liberation of the Filipino people. The Spark talked to Marie while she was here.
Can you tell us about your organisation?
KARAPATAN means human rights, the members are organisations and individuals who have been doing human rights work during the time of the Marcos dictatorship. It was a time when most of us learned first hand what human rights meant to us. We have a Bill of Rights in the Philippines, but when martial law was declared, we knew what it meant to have our rights stripped away.
My home was raided by the Philippine military, habeas corpus was suspended, the Philippine’s Senate and Congress was closed, there was no media – radio, TV or print – and the schools were closed for a month. Many people were hauled off to prison. One of my sisters was arrested and detained, she was tortured and murdered. I was imprisoned too and had a child in prison. So, my involvement in human rights work is political and personal because we went through the horrors of the dictatorship.
Has much changed since the time of Marcos?
I am very disappointed and alarmed that the same horrors we experienced during martial law are happening again. There was this huge movement in the Philippines, which we call the legal democratic movement, where we staged many protest actions and mobilisations. As well there was an armed movement going on in our country. After 14 years we were able to kick out Marcos. But then the presidents who have been installed after Marcos used the same policies as Marcos. Cory Aquino, the president who followed Marcos, never charged him with human rights violations. It was the victims who mounted their own court case. As Marcos was spirited out of the country to Hawaii we mounted a court case in the US.
What has happened to those who committed the violations?
No violator of that regime has ever been punished. The impunity continues. One of Marcos’ generals became the president of the Philippines – Fidel Ramos.
Marcos at least tried to wangle concessions from America. Gloria Arroyo with this war on terror of the Americans – she offered Philippine support without being asked by George Bush. To us this is a great affront to our sovereignty. In 1991 we were able to kick out the American bases, but in 2001 what Arroyo did was to practically invite the Americans back to our country. I think for America the Philippines is very important because our country is very close to China, Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia. During the war in Afghanistan the Philippine military bases were again used by the Americans and this is a complete violation of our constitution. Our constitution disallows foreign military troops and nuclear ships in our country.
The Arroyo government’s policies are the policies of globalisation, relying on foreign investments, the liberalisation of our markets, opening the country to foreign products. Privatisation of government countries. This is what makes us so poor.
The return of US bases is clearly a terrible blow for the people of the Philippines. What does Arroyo get out of it?
Arroyo would like the American support so that, like Marcos, she can have military and economic aid. The Philippines is now considered a major non-Nato ally of the US and has become one of the biggest recipients of American aid in Asia. This to us exacerbates the worsening human rights situation in our country.
Arroyo stifled dissent and suppressed all protests against her policies. She was the second woman president installed by a people’s power uprising. When she was still the president-in-waiting as were kicking out Estrada we gave her a people’s agenda that contained human rights issues. One was to stop the bombing in Mindanao, (the second largest island) where there is an active Muslim secessionist movement. Estrada had tried to stop it with a military solution. We also asked Arroyo to stop the counter-insurgency operations against the communist guerrilla movement. Since 2001 we have already had many persons "disappeared" – victims of forced disappearance.
Most of the disappeared were leaders of legal progressive groups who are critical of Arroyo’s policies of globalisation. Members of activist groups who participated in the elections in 2001 and 2004 were also targeted; 50 of their members have been killed by the military. My organisation, KARAPATAN, has also been targeted by the military and 14 of my colleagues have been murdered since Arroyo came to power.
I think the support of the American and this "war on terror" has really emboldened her and the military to commit such violations.
We have counted 326 individuals killed since 2001 when Arroyo was installed as president. We call this atmosphere now a de facto martial law.
What would you say to those people who think the Philippines is a democracy?
I know that many people outside the country think that after Marcos we are in a democracy, but we call it an elite democracy because there is no change of the system. The landlords own all the land. When you mention a province the people will say "oh, that’s the control of this or that family". There was some research done entitled The Ties that Bind and it showed 139 families control the political landscape of the Philippines. One family owns 18 per cent of the GDP of the Philippines. This has never changed since Marcos was kicked out.
link