UPDATE (Phlippines): Soldiers threaten civilian lives by blocking food aid, burning houses in Maguindanao 

[RE: AHRC-HAG-003-2009: PHILIPPINES: Soldiers burn houses, blocks food supply for over 34,000 displaced families in Maguindanao]

Dear Friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to inform you that the Army’s Sixth Infantry Division has intercepted food aid for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Maguindanao province. The reason the army has given intercepting the food is their claim of a bomb attack on the bridge connected to Datu Piang town on May 28. In addition, the army has also burned houses which they claim are being used by the rebels.

UPDATED INFORMATION: (According to information received from Mindanao People’s Caucus (MPC))

[Photo: part of the 70  houses burned in Nunangen village, Talayan, province of Maguindanao on 7 May 2009]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has reported in a previous hunger alert that the army is controlling and in some instances even preventing the distribution of food and relief supplies by the aid agencies for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Datu Piang, Maguindanao. Without any explanation, the army, at the military checkpoints, prevented truckloads of rice and relief goods from the International Committee on the Red Cross (ICRC) from reaching the evacuees. Apart from being denied food, there were reports that the government army had burned the houses of some civilians in remote villages in the municipalities of Datu Piang in Maguindanao and in Midsayap, North Cotabato.

According to the updated information the AHRC received, the army explained that they did not burn houses of innocent civilians but rather the houses being used as shelter by the rebels. With regard to the blockade of the food supplies it has been confirmed that Colonel Jonathan Ponce, a spokesperson of the Army’s Sixth Infantry Division sent a text message to a priest trying to delivering one hundred bags of rice to the evacuees. His convoy was held up by the government soldiers on May 28. The text message read:

“For the moment, it is not advisable to deliver food rations for the IDPs because of what had happened yesterday [referring to a bomb that exploded in one of the bridges going to Datu Piang town on May 27]. This is also implemented to all other international donors.” 

The explanation for torching houses as well as food blockades given by the government army is nothing new. Since August 2008 when the latest outbreak of conflict between the government army and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) happened, the survivors faced similar threats to life by arbitrary food blockades.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

At present, the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) estimates that 48,000 families that include 240,000 persons are affected.

In October 2008, a group of journalists who conducted a fact-finding mission in five conflict affected areas in Mindanao reportedly discovered deaths at the IDP camps due to treatable diseases. Children have also died of diarrhea and malnutrition. In the present situation the number of deaths will be aggravated by the lack of food and hygienic water for drinking and washing and the food blockades.

In the Tripoli Agreement of 2001 (Agreement on peace between the government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front), paragraph 1 of section B on rehabilitation aspect states:

“The observance of international humanitarian law and respect for internationally recognized human rights instruments and the protection of evacuees and displaced persons in the conduct of their relations reinforce the Bangsamoro people’s fundamental right to determine their own future and political status.” 

The State’s respect and obligation to the international law and aids is also stated in the government’s guideline in the Coordination of the Delivery of Humanitarian Services to Disaster Victims and Internally Displaced Persons, NDCC circular No. 17, series of 2008. It says that,

“On one hand, the people of the Philippines, represented by its government, appreciate the generosity of local and international aid organization, corporate and individual donors that augment government resources in providing humanitarian assistance during major disasters. On the other hand, it is the responsibility of the State to ensure that the affected families and individuals have equal access to humanitarian assistance, basic goods, social services and relief intervention from all sources.”

It also says that,

“Issues, complaints, reports of injustice or wrongdoing, accusations, criticisms or gripes about the on-going humanitarian efforts shall be addressed efficiently and effectively. All grievances should be addressed to the concerned regional DCC Disaster Response Coordination Desk. Grievance shall be acted within three (3) days receipt of the complaint. In any event that redress is not delivered satisfactorily, the complaint may be elevated to the Chair of the Humanitarian Task Force for resolution. Grievances may be sent in writing or given orally, or by e-mail to dromic_co@yahoo.com or by text message to cell phone No. 09184219780.”

However, forced disappearances extrajudicial killings, allegedly by soldiers threaten the IDPs so that they dare not complain against the soldiers.

The action of the army is contrary to the article 6 of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) stating that every human being has the inherent right to life. The blockade of to the IDPs is a lethal tool violating their right to life. The right to food ensuring right to life under a conflict is also guaranteed by the provisions of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (UNGPID), to which the Philippine government is under obligation to implement and observe.

Principle 10 and 25 of the UNGPID clearly stipulates that “Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) shall be protected, in particular against starvation as a form of combat” and that the “authorities concerned shall grant and facilitate the free passage of humanitarian assistance and grant persons engaged in the provision of such assistance rapid and unimpeded access to the internally displaced” respectively.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write letters to the concerned authorities below requesting them to immediately conduct an inquiry into the actions of the Sixth Infantry Division’s in the blockade of food to IDPs and the burning of the houses suspected to have been used by rebels. Please take note that these supplies should be immediately delivered to IDPs to ensure their right to life.

The AHRC has also written letters to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, on adequate housing, the representative of the Secretary-General on the human rights of internally displaced persons, and the independent expert on minority issues for their appropriate intervention.

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