One morning earlier this year, Edelina “Eden” Jolloso-Jerus, working at her family store in San Juan-Roro, the Philippines, was shot five times by a helmeted man and killed before the eyes of her two children. Jolloso-Jerus was a human rights activist with Hustisya (Victims of Arroyo Regime United for Justice), a group of people who have lost relatives to “extrajudicial killings” and enforced “disappearances.” Two years before, her husband – also a human rights activist – was also murdered in front of their children.
There is an epidemic of killings, illegal arrests, torture, and abductions of government critics in the Philippines. For U.S.-based advocates for human rights in the Philippines, the Philippine government’s claim that they have taken steps to address the problem rings hollow – in fact, there seems to be a resurgence of politically motivated killings and other human rights abuses. Edelina’s death is just one of the 19 so-called “extrajudicial killings” reported this year alone by Filipino human rights group Karapatan.
For Karapatan, reports of recent killings have confirmed what they have continually asserted — that the killings are “a result of state policy.” Investigations by Karapatan, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch have shown that the Philippine military has systematically carried out politically motivated executions, abductions, and arrests of unarmed civilians as part of their “counter-insurgency” program, Oplan Bantay Laya.
The vast majority of the victims were community organizers, labor leaders, church workers, human rights attorneys, farmer advocates, journalists, and others who were helping and speaking up for the oppressed and impoverished majority.
At the beginning of this week, Carlos Conde, a Philippines-based journalist who has freelanced for The New York Times, revealed that his name is on the Philippine Military’s “order of battle” — a veritable hit list which lays out who the Philippine military perceives to be enemies of the state. At least one of the individuals in the document – Celso Pojas, a peasant leader in Davao City — was assassinated last year. Several others have either been attacked or subjected to harassment and intimidation by agents of the armed forces.
Two years ago, U.S. Congress fenced $2 million of U.S. military aid to the Philippines, ostensibly to help implement the reforms recommended by Philip Alston, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions, to address extrajudicial killings and other human rights abuses. Alston recently reported that the Philippine government has not done what it takes to ensure the killings stop.
Just this week, the U.N. Committee Against Torture criticized the Philippine government’s record on torture. The committee said a continuing “climate of impunity” among Philippine security forces and government officials contributed to a wide range of human rights abuses.
In response, U.S.-based organizations, institutions, networks, and individuals that have been advocating for the victims of human rights abuses in the Philippines will meet June 6 in Washington, D.C., at an Emergency Summit on Human Rights in the Philippines convened by the U.S. group Katarungan: Center for Peace, Justice, and Human Rights in the Philippines. (“Katarungan” means justice in Tagalog.) The summit seeks to identify effective ways to pressure the Arroyo administration to stop human rights abuses.
For Eden Jolloso-Jerus’ children, and for all those who have lost loved ones, we can do no less.
Katrina Abarcar coordinates the work of Katarungan, which seeks to promote peace, justice, and human rights in the Philippines through research, education, and grassroots advocacy.
(Photo Caption: U.S. protest of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo when she attended the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., in February.)
