Danilo Reyes, deputy director of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) in Hong Kong, was invited by the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines (CHR) to attend the National Consultation Workshop and Writeshop for the National Preventive Mechanism for two days beginning on April 29, 2014, in Quezon City, Philippines. While attending this program in Metro Manila, he discovered that he was being followed by two men in civilian clothes, one of whom was overtly carrying a gun and riding a motorcycle.
Since the escalation of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines in 2004, it has been a common practice for human rights defenders to be followed prior to attempts being made on their lives. Moreover, these extrajudicial killings have repeatedly been conducted by armed men on motorcycles. Thus, the concern of Reyes for his safety was not unfounded, and he, indeed, filed a complaint with Cubao Police Station 7 and informed the CHR that had hosted his visit to the country.
The Hong Kong Campaign for the Advancement of Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines (HKCAHRPP) is not only concerned by this threatening incident experienced by a human rights defender from Hong Kong, even while he was attending a human rights conference, but also by the present lack of action by the police and the CHR in spite of the incident occurring more than a month ago.
“We have been concerned for years about the continual extrajudicial killing, disappearance, arbitrary detention and torture of human rights activists in the Philippines,” says Bruce Van Voorhis, HKCAHRPP co-convener, “and we continue to harbor these concerns as people who challenge the policies of the government in the Philippines are constantly at risk of being killed or of facing other horrendous human rights violations.”
“Now,” he adds, “it appears that human rights defenders from outside of the country are at risk as well.”
To stop these threats and attacks on human rights defenders, HKCAHRPP calls on the police, the CHR and other law enforcement institutions of the Philippine government to end the culture of impunity that permits these incidents to persistently reoccur by arresting and convicting these perpetrators of human rights violations. Otherwise, the government becomes an accomplice to the human rights abuses in the country through its inaction.
Reference
Bruce Van Voorhis
(+ 852) 9492-3064
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[Note: this letter below was sent to Ms. Loretta Ann P. Rosales, chair of the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines (CHRP)]
June 10, 2014
Honorable Loretta Ann P. Rosales
Chairperson
Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines
SAAC Building
Commonwealth Avenue
University of the Philippines Complex, Diliman
Quezon City
Philippines
Dear Ms. Rosales:
We are a coalition of individuals and organizations in Hong Kong who have been working for the promotion and protection of human rights and the pursuit of peace in the Philippines since 2005 as a response largely to the killing of peasants and farm workers on the picket line of Hacienda Luisita in November of the preceding year. As you are well aware, the killing of people in the Philippines and the denial of their human rights did not stop with this incident but have continued over the ensuing years as an ongoing saga of extrajudicial killings, disappearances, arbitrary detentions, torture and other serious human rights violations during the terms of both the Arroyo and Aquino presidencies.
In addition to sharing our concerns about the overall human rights situation in the Philippines, I am also writing to express the alarm of our coalition about the experience of a human rights defender in Hong Kong during a two-day conference that CHR hosted in Quezon City beginning on April 29, 2014. Danilo Reyes, the deputy director of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), was invited by you to attend this meeting presumably because he has been a tireless worker for the rights of the Filipino people for many years.
While in Metro Manila to attend the National Consultation Workshop and Writeshop for the National Preventive Mechanism, however, he discovered that he was being followed by two men in civilian clothes, one of whom was overtly carrying a gun and riding a motorcycle. As you know, it has been a common practice in the Philippines for many years for human rights defenders to be followed prior to attempts being made on their lives. Moreover, these extrajudicial killings or attempted extrajudicial killings have repeatedly been conducted by armed men on motorcycles. Thus, the concern of Mr. Reyes for his safety was not unfounded, and he, indeed, filed a complaint with Cubao Police Station 7 and informed your office.
As already noted above, I am writing on behalf of our coalition in Hong Kong to express our concerns about Mr. Reyes’s recent experience in the Philippines and to ask what action the CHR has undertaken in response to this incident. I look forward to receiving your reply.
Sincerely,
Bruce Van Voorhis
Co-Convener
