PHILIPPINES: Another killing of a human rights defender in Oroquieta City 

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Rev. Jemias Tinambacan was shot dead and his wife Rev. Marilou Tinambacan was wounded by four gunmen along the national highway in Brgy. Mobod, Oroquieta City, Philippines on 9 May 2006. One of the perpetrators was identified by Rev. Marilou Tinambacan as Mr. Mamay Guimalan, who is military intelligence personnel. The couple had been actively involved in human rights work in the region. In particular, Rev. Jemias Tinambacan was the active member of Gloria Step Down Movement-Misamis Occidental and the provincial chairman of a progressive party-list group named Bayan Muna-Misamis. Rev. Jemias Tinambacan is the 15th church worker killed during Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s regime. Despite the repeated killings of political and human rights activists, the Philippine government has not been able to obtain justice to the families of the victims.

At around 5:30pm on 9 May 2006, Rev. Jemias Tinambacan and his wife Rev. Marilou Tianambacan were driving along in their KIA Besta van and on their way to Oroquieta City from Lopez Jaena, Misamis Occidental, when four gunmen riding two DT Yamaha-type motorcycles approached their vehicle and began to shoot at them. Rev. Jemias Tiambacan suffered an injury to his head causing his van to crash into a Gemelina tree. The perpetrators then proceeded towards the vehicle saying, “UHI PA ANG BAYE (the woman is still alive).” They then fired three shots towards Rev. Marilou Tinambacan but failed to kill her. At that time, she was able to identify one of the four gunmen as Mamay Guimalan when he came close to the van’s door. The gunmen then ran away immediately.

Rev. Jemias Tinambacan and Rev. Marilou Tinambacan were rushed to Misamis Occidental Provincial Hospital in Oroquieta City, where Rev. Jemias Tinambacan died soon after. His body was then transported to Gamalinda Funeral Homes, while his wife received treatment at the hospital. The perpetrators are still at large.

Rev. Jemias Tinambacan is the 15th church worker killed during Gloria Arroyo’s regime. Along with those killed, Rev. Edison Lapuz was shot dead in Visayas on 12 May 2005 but the case has yet to be resolved (see further: UP-59-2005). In another incident, Jose Pepe Manegdeg, a human rights activist and worker of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP) in Northern Luzon was shot dead on 28 November 2005 (see further: UA-158-2005).

ADDITIONAL COMMENT:

The killings of political and human rights activists have reached an alarming rate in the Philippines in the past two years. The AHRC has reported many of those killings and requested the urgent intervention of the Government of the Philippines but little has happened. During the past four months alone the AHRC has reported more than a dozen cases of such killings; they include the killings of political activist Elena and her husband Ricardo Balauag (UP-106-2006), activists Marilou Sanchez and his brother Virgilio Rubio (UA-151-2006), activist Enrico Cabanit (UA-140-2006), environmental activist Elpidio de la Victoria (UA-131-2006), activist Liezelda Estorba-Cuñado (UA-118-2006), peasant leader Amante Abelon’s wife Agnes and his 5-year-old son Amante Jr. (UA-107-2006), two activists Nestor Arinque of Bohol and Tirso Cruz of Tarlac (UA-101-2006), political activist Arturo Caloza (UA-099-2006), activist Crisanto Teodoro (UA-096-2006), activist Audie Lucero (UA-078-2006), peasant leader Melanio Evangelista (UA-072-2006), activist Mateo Morales (UA-057-2006) and peasant leader Ofelia Rodriguez (UA-031-2006). The human rights organisation KARAPATAN also documented 179 political killings in 2005 (to see the list of leaders killed please see: FA-007-2006).

Even though the Government of the Philippines has launched investigations into those incidents, little progress has been made and most of the alleged perpetrators of those killings are at large. Two main reasons for this failure are the irregularities and inaction of police investigations and lack of witness protection. For example, in several cases, key witnesses did not appear in the courts due to fear for their lives. However, instead of approving effective protection to witnesses and families of the victims according to the Witness Protection, Security and Benefit Act (RA 6981), the local authorities are simply using ‘the lack of witnesses’ as a prime excuse for their inaction. The AHRC has previously raised concerns regarding this and has called on the government to remedy the situation (please see our previous statements: AHRC-OL-002-2006; AS-74-2005).

On May 10, the Philippine government was elected as one of the members to the UN Human Rights Council. To fulfill its qualification as a member of the UN Human Rights Council, the Government of the Philippines must take genuine action to fight against those killings of political and human rights activists. Ratification of the Optional Protocol of International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and effective implementation of the witness protection programme will be one of these actions. If it should fail to do this, it will be a farce for the international community to see the Philippines, a great human rights violator of its own people, examine human rights violations in other countries.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write letters to the concerned government authorities listed below and express your deep concern about this serious case. Please urge them to conduct an immediate and effective investigation into the incident and arrest all perpetrators including the alleged military intelligence personnel. Please also urge them to provide effective witness protection to Rev. Marilou Tianambacan, as well as the key eyewitness of the incident under the Witness Protection, Security and Benefit Programme (RA 6981) of the Department of Justice (DoJ) immediately. Finally, please ask them to take genuine action to stop the repeated killings of political and human rights activists in the country.

 

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