US on Human Rights in Philippines: Unsolved Cases, Unpunished Perpetrators

On April 18, unidentified assailants killed Carmelo Palacios, a police reporter for a government-run radio station, in Santa Rosa, Nueva Ecija. Palacios reported on the alleged misuse of a congressman’s pork barrel funds and also helped solve several local crimes by providing leads to the police. At year’s end the case remained under investigation.

On December 24, unidentified assailants killed Fernando Lintuan, a radio broadcaster who was a vocal critic of local government corruption, in Davao City, Mindanao. The case remained under investigation at year’s end.

The trials in the May 2006 killing of Fernando Batul, a radio commentator in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan, and in the 2005 killing of Philip Agustin, a newspaper editor in Aurora Province, were ongoing at year’s end.

In July 2006 suspects in the 2004 killing of Ilocos Norte radio commentator Roger Mariano were arraigned, and a trial was underway in a Manila trial court. The two suspects, including a police officer, were detained in the Manila City Jail.

Human rights NGOs frequently criticized the government for failing to protect journalists. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines accused the police and the government of failing adequately to investigate these killings and of subjecting journalists to harassment and surveillance. In some situations, it was difficult to discern if violence against journalists was carried out in retribution for their profession or if these journalists were the victims of random crime. According to a CMFR study released in 2005, most slain journalists were not professionally trained as journalists or formally accredited to any national media organization.

On February 14, the DOJ charged the publisher and two columnists of the Daily Tribune with incitement to sedition based on articles the newspaper had published in 2005 and January 2006. The police occupied the premises of the Daily Tribune in February 2006 during the brief state of national emergency and confiscated copies of the mock-up copy of the newspaper’s next issue and photographs. The newspaper’s publisher and two columnists were subsequently charged with incitement to sedition. In May 2006 the Supreme Court upheld the validity of the imposition of a state of national emergency, but ruled the raid on the newspaper an attack on press freedoms and hence illegal.

On August 13, a court dismissed the libel cases against the publisher, eight editors, and a columnist of a major newspaper, which were filed by the president’s husband Jose Miguel Arroyo, after Arroyo withdrew the charges. In December 2006 36 media members and three media organizations filed a class suit against Mr. Arroyo in retaliation for the libel cases filed against them. On September 24, the Court of Appeals granted Mr. Arroyo’s petition for a temporary suspension of the hearings. The trial remained suspended at year’s end.

Internet Freedom

There were no government restrictions on access to the Internet or reports that the government monitored e-mail or Internet chatrooms. Individuals and groups could engage in peaceful expressions of views via the Internet, including by e-mail. Internet access was widely available.

Academic Freedom and Cultural Events

In 2005 the intelligence service of the AFP released a presentation, “Know Your Enemy,” listing some press unions and student organizations as “enemies of the state” or communist fronts. There were no reports that the military used the presentation during the year. The government did not otherwise interfere with academic freedom. There were no government restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.

b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association

Freedom of Assembly

The law provides for freedom of assembly, and the government generally respected this right in practice. Although the law requires that groups request a permit to hold a rally, the government at times followed an unwritten policy of allowing rallies to occur without the filing of a request.

During the year the TFDP recorded four instances of violent dispersal of rallies by police, in which 21 protesters were allegedly injured. On January 12, approximately 500 members of civil society groups staged a rally during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Cebu. Police blocked protesters from going near the venue of the summit. The protesters alleged that the police caused many injuries as they dispersed the crowds. Some protesters were arrested and charged with illegal assembly and public disturbance.

Freedom of Association

The law provides for freedom of association, and the government generally respected this right in practice.

c. Freedom of Religion

The law provides for freedom of religion, and the government generally respected this right in practice.

The government’s campaign against the terrorist groups ASG and the Rajah Solaiman Movement led some human rights NGOs to accuse the police and military of unfairly targeting Muslims for arrest and detention. However, most observers believed that discrimination against Muslims was grounded in cultural differences, not religious beliefs or practices.

Intermittent government efforts to integrate Muslims into political and economic society achieved only limited success. Many Muslims claimed that they continued to be underrepresented in senior civilian and military positions and cited the lack of proportional Muslim representation in national government institutions. Predominantly Muslim provinces in Mindanao lagged far behind the rest of the country in most aspects of socioeconomic development. The percentage of the population under the poverty level in the ARMM was almost twice as high as the national average, with per capita income of $340 (15,760 pesos) per year.