GABRIELA Network

CAMPAIGNS

GABRIELA’s Initial Findings ON Its Documentation on Human Rights Violations Involving Women Under the Arroyo Regime

GABRIELA DOCUMENTATION ON CASES OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION FROM JANUARY 21, 2001 TO MARCH 31, 2005
- There are 1,331 cases of human rights violations (HRVs) involving women. This means 115 cases in every 100 days. Victimized are 31,994 women: 804 women-individuals and 31,190 women from the same number of families. Not included in this count are the tens of thousands of women who came from 128 communities (barangays and sitios) affected by these violations. There are also an undetermined number of women from the 10,479 non-sex-disaggregated victims cited.
- The biggest number of cases of HRVs are connected with: a) harassment, threat and intimidation (269); b) forced evacuation and displacement (137 cases); and c) destruction of properties and divestment of properties, with 116 and 113 cases respectively.
- But it is forced evacuation and displacement that has the highest number of victims: 47 individual women, 27,267 women from the same number of families, and an unknown number of women from 22 communities. This is followed by destruction of property, which affected 60 individual women, 3,105 women from the same number of families and unidentified number of women from 9 barangays. The use of schools, medical, religious and other public places for military purposes as headquarters or camps endangered 451 women from the same number of families and thousands more from 58 barangays.
- Forty-five (44) women were victims of political killings: 15 of massacres; 24 of summary executions, assassinations and killings; and five (5) of deaths due to strafing, indiscriminate firing and bombing, shelling and aerial bombardment.
- Another 20 women were almost killed due to the same reasons (frustrated killings).
- There were also 91 cases of strafing, indiscriminate firing, and aerial bombardment that victimized 72 women-individuals, 747 women from the same number of families, indefinite number of women from 25 communities and unidentified number of women from more than 500 non-sex-disaggregated individuals.
- Meanwhile, 150 women became victims of unlawful, arbitrary and unjustified arrest and detention. Most were let out but not after intensive interrogation and sometimes torture and sexual abuses.
- In addition, 18 women were victims of enforced disappearance/abduction. Some of the victims were found by family and friends after days of search, which often took them from one military camp to another. Others remain missing to this day.
- Eight (8) women have undergone torture in the hands of their captors. This has taken the form of both physical and psychological torture.
- Women and children as indirect victims: GABRIELA is still working on identifying the exact number of wives and mothers of victims of political killings and enforced disappearances (due to lack on information on the men-victims such as marital status).
- Gender specific violations were noted:
  1. There were two cases of rape. This includes the rape of a married woman who was gang-raped while under temporary detention by the military.
  2. Twenty-four (24) other women were subjected to sexual abuse and harassment by either the military or the police. GABRIELA is still working on identifying the SA/SH incidents that happened while women under detention.
  3. One case of forced delivery due to forced evacuation and three miscarriages due to forced evacuation, military bombing and demolition were likewise recorded.
  4. At least 10 of the victims were known to be pregnant at the time of the HRV incident.
- On regional spread: Women of Southern Tagalog region suffered the most HRVs with 439 cases, followed by ARMM and Central Luzon with 137 and 112 cases respectively.

On a Yearly Basis: Though it was 2001 and 2002 that had the most number of cases of HRVs involving women, the number of women who became victims increased dramatically in four years because of the widening scale of HRVs involving women due to militarization of the countryside.

II. UPDATES (as of May 2006)

As of May 16, there were already 601 political killings since the Arroyo administration took over in 2001. Of these, 221 were confirmed to be members of people’s organizations. From January to May 2006 alone, there are 22 victims of political killings in Central Luzon, 10 in Southern Tagalog and seven each in Bicol and Southern Mindanao. Of the 601, 68 were women, 35 of which were members and leaders of GABRIELA and its network organizations. The remaining 33 women were not affiliated with GABRIELA but were suspected by the military to be sympathizers, supporters, friends or relatives of Communist of Muslim rebels.

From January to May 2006 alone, eight (8) women have become victims of political killings. In 2001, 12 women were killed, 10 in 2002, 14 in 2003, 11 in 2004, and 13 in 2005.
Killings in 2005 include two unborn babies who lost the chance to life when their mothers were killed.

From January 2001 to May 17 this year, 151 victims of enforced disappearances, ____ are women.

On the perpetrators: In almost all cases of political assassinations and extrajudicial killings, military elements and/or paramilitary death squads and vigilante groups were the primary suspects. The same goes with enforced disappearances.

On AFP’s Jovito Palparan’s reign of terror:

In Mindoro, Southern Tagalog, through 204^th Infantry Brigade from 2001-2004: 326 HRVs including about 80 political killings, five (5) of which were GABRIELA leaders .
In Eastern Visayas through 8^th Infantry Division from February to August 2005: more than 600 HRVs including 36 political killings.
In Central Luzon through 7th Infantry Division from September 1 to December 8 2005 only: 19 killings (six were abducted and forcible disappeared prior to their execution)

Noted also in the years 2005 and 2006 is the increased number of cases of frustrated killings of women who survived but suffered serious physical injuries and/or emotional and psychological trauma. Most of them were with other victims killed during the incidences.

There are 13 women still detained in the various centers of the AFP or PNP. The longest women political detainee being held is Ressel Quinimon, 18 years old from Tangub City. Angelina Ipong, a 60-year old peace advocate, was arrested ironically on March 8, 2005, International Women’s Day, and suffered sexual abuses and tortures from her military abductors. She was held incommunicado for 11 days before being presented to the media. Like Ressel, Angie is being held for rebellion.

Forty-three (43) children died at the hands of military death squads under the Arroyo regime. The Children’s Rehabilitation Center recorded that from January to March 2005 alone, 30 children has witnessed the political killings of their parent/s.
More and more women and children and their families are becoming victims of forcible evacuations, bombings, military zonings and military operations in rural areas. Large part of the victims are women and children from Muslim communities in the ARRMM as well as other provinces and regions where intensified military operations are ongoing.

OTHER IMPORTANT NOTES

When question of legitimacy of the Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo erupted in June 2005 and of course in addition are the imposition of higher taxes, anti-people policies and massive corruption that has intensified the poverty, Arroyo has become the most unpopular leader in the country’s history, incessantly hounded by threats to her rule and popular demands for her to step down. As protests snowballed, Arroyo’s implementation of Draconian measures followed: the Calibrated Pre-emptive Response resulting to violent dispersals of protests; the Executive Order 464, which disallowed members of the Executive from attending inquiries initiated by both Houses of Congress; and the Proclamation 1017, which placed the entire country under a state of national emergency on February this year. Immediately, a crackdown on civil liberties ensued, leading to the Batasan 6 case and charges of rebellion against leaders of progressive organizations, and in furtherance of human rights violations of women.
Even after the Supreme Court has just declared Executive Order 464, calibrated preemptive response (CPR) and provisions of the Proclamation 1017 as illegal, repressive measures and policies such as the Batas Pambansa 880, which justifies police’s violent dispersals of peaceful assemblies and rallies, continue to be employed, suppressing protests against the Arroyo regime.

Even killings of media people continue. The National Union of Journalists in the Philippines reports 42 journalists were killed under the Arroyo regime, among them are women.
Meanwhile, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo remains silent and complacent over the continued killings of defenseless political dissenters. Apparently, the killings are part of a conscious policy of the regime to target key leaders of legal sectoral and people’s organizations. Meanwhile, the AFP’s Oplan Bantay Laya clearly lays down a policy of intensified military operations in the countryside as well as neutralizing leaders of suspected “front” organizations with no clear basis or legal justification as well. At the same time, Mrs. Arroyo woos Senate and Congress to pass the anti-terrorism bill, which will only be used as an excuse to justify suppression and repression perpetrated by her regime. ###

CAMPAIGNS

hands off liza maza | defend immigrant women's rights

the purple rose campaign | stop the u.s.-led war of terror