THE PHILIPPINES: HUMAN RIGHTS AFTER MARTIAL LAW

1 THE PHILIPPINES: HUMAN RIGHTS . AFTER MARTIAL LAW. Report of a Mission by Professor Virginia Leary, United States Mr Ellis, QC, New Zealand Dr Kurt Madlener, F d ral Republic of Germany THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION OF JURISTS. Geneva, Switzerland MEMBERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION OF JURISTS. KEBA MBAYE Judge of In t'l Court of Justice; former Pr s. Supreme (Pr sident) Court, S n gal, and UN Commission on HUMAN RIGHTS ROBERTO CONCEPCION Former Chief Justice, Philippines (Vice-President). HELENO CLAUDIO FRAGOSO Advocate; Professor of P nal Law, Rio de Janeiro (Vice-President). JOHN P. HUMPHREY Prof, of Law, Montr al; former Director, UN HUMAN (Vice-President) RIGHTS Division ANDRES AGUILAR MAWDSLEY Prof, of Law, Venezuela; former Pr s. Inter-American Commission BADRIA AL-AWADHI Dean, Faculty of Law and Sharia, Univ. of Kuwait ALPHONSE BONI Pr sident of Supreme Court of Ivory Coast WILLIAM J.

2 BUTLER Attorney at law, New York RAUL F. CARDENAS Advocate; Prof, of Criminal Law, Mexico HAIM H. COHN Former Supreme Court Judge, Isra l AUGUSTO CONTE-MACDONELL Advocate; member of Parliament, Argentina TASLIM OLAWALE ELIAS Pr s., Int'l Court of Justice; former Chief Justice of Nigeria ALFREDO ETCHEBERRY Advocate; Professor of Law, University of Chile GUILLERMO FIGALLO Former Member of Supreme Court of Peru LORD GARDINER Former Lord Chancellor of England P. TELFORD GEORGES Chief Justice, Supreme Court, The Bahamas LOUIS JOXE Ambassador of France; former Minister of State KAPTEYN Councillor of State, Netherlands; former Prof, of Int'l Law MICHAEL D. KIRBY Judge, F d ral Court of Australia KINUKO KUBOTA Former Prof, of Constitutional Law, Japan RAJSOOMER LALLAH Judge of the Supreme Court, Mauritius TAI-YOUNG LEE Director, Korean L gal Aid Centre for Family Relations SEAN MACBRIDE Former Irish Minister of External Affairs RUDOLF MACHACEK Member of Constitutional Court, Austria MAWALLA Advocate of the High Court, Tanzania FRANCOIS-XAVIER MBOUYOM Director of L gislation, Ministry of Justice, Cameroon F ALI S.

3 NARIMAN Advocate, former Solicitor-General of India NGO BA THANH Member of National Assembly, Vietnam TORKEL OPSAHL Prof, of Law, Oslo; Member of European Commission GUSTAF PETREN Judge and Deputy Ombudsman of Sweden SIR GUY POWLES Former Ombudsman, New Zealand SHRIDATH S. RAMPHAL Commonwealth ; former , Guyana DON JOAQUIN RUIZ-GIMENEZ Prof, of Law, Madrid; Defender of the People (Ombuds . man) of Spain TUN MOHAMED SUFFIAN Lord Pr sident, F d ral Court of Malaysia SIR MOTI TIKARAM Ombudsman, Fiji CHITTI TINGSABADH Advocate; Prof, of Law; former Supreme Court Judge, Thailand CHRISTIAN TOMUSCHAT Professor of Int'l Law, University of Bonn MICHAEL A. TRIANTAFYLLIDES Pr s. Supreme Court, Cyprus; Member of European Com . mission AMOS WAKO Advocate, Kenya; , Inter African Union of Lawyers J . THIAM HIEN YAP Attorney at Law, Indonesia HONORARY MEMBERS. Sir ADETOKUNBO A.

4 ADEMOLA, Nigeria HANS HEINRICH JESCHECK, F d ral ARTURO A. ALAFRIZ, Philippines Republic of Germany DUDLEY B. BONSAL, United States JEAN FLAVIEN LALIVE, Switzerland ELI WHITNEY DEBEVOISE, NORMAN S. MARSH, United Kingdom United States JOSE T. NABUCO, Brazil PER FEDERSPIEL, Denmark LUIS NEGRON FERNANDEZ, Puerto Rico FERNANDO, Sri Lanka Lord SHAWCROSS, United Kingdom GANSHOF VAN DER MEERSCH, Belgium EDWARD ST. JOHN, Australia SECRETARY-GENERAL. NIALL MACDERMOT. THE PHILIPPINES: HUMAN RIGHTS . AFTER MARTIAL LAW. Report of a Mission by Professor Virginia Leary, United States Mr Ellis, QC, New Zealand Dr Kurt Madlener, F d ral Republic of Germany on behalf of THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION OF JURISTS. Geneva, Switzerland Copyright , International Commission of Jurists, 1984. ISBN 92 9037 023 8. Contents Abbreviations and 5. 6. Pr fac by Niall MacDermot, Secretary-General of the International Commission of 7.

5 Chapter 1 An Overview of HUMAN R 11. Chapter 2 Abuses by the Armed Forces and 19. Militarisation' Continues AFTER MARTIAL 19. Mindanao: The Bleeding 22. Salvaging', Massacres, Disappearances'. a n d Burnings'.. 23. Arbitrary Arrests and 29. Hamletting' .. 35. Chapter 3 Criminal Law and Proc 40. Criminal Law AFTER MARTIAL 40. Rebellion, Insurrection and S 41. Ill gal Assemblies and 45. Anti-Subversion L 48.. 49. Other Presidential 50. Criminal Proc 53. A 53. 55. Habeas 56. The Preventive D tention A c tio n .. 57. Redress for Abuses by the Armed 60. 3. Chapter 4 Independence of the Judiciary and 64. The 64. The B 78. Chapter 5 Economie and Social R 82. Trade Union 83. Labour L gislation: Criticisms by the International Labour 84. Right to 84. Right to 88. 89. Arrest and Harassment o f Trade 90. Labour Conditions in the Bataan Export Processing 92.

6 Labour Conditions on Sugar Plantations (Neg ro s).. 96. Land 100. General Health Ministry o f 108. Brain Drain o f Health Arrest and Harassment o f M dical Tribal L 113. Conclusions and 116. HUMAN RIGHTS 116. The L gal System ..117. The Judiciary and 119. Economie and Social 120. 121. 4. Abbreviations and Terms Barangay Smallest political unit of the Philippines BEPZ Bataan Export Processing Zone CLT Certificate of Land Transfer EP Emancipation Patent (an agrarian reform land title). FAO Food and Agriculture Organisation o f the United Nations F AS Committee ILO Com m ittee on Freedom of Association Fiscal Public prosecutor FLAG Free L gal Assistance Group Haciendas Large land est tes IBP Integrated Bar of the Philippines ICHDF Integrated Civilian Home Defense F orce ICJ International Commission of Jurists ILO International Labour Organisation INP Integrated National Police KBL Kilusang Bagong Lipunan, the political party of Pr sident Marcos KMU Kilusang Mayo Uno (May ls t M ovement, a trade union organisa.)

7 Tion). MNLF Moro National Liberation Front MOLE Ministry of Labor and Em ployment NFSW National F d ration o f Sugar Workers NPA New Peoples Army NLRC National Labor Relations Commission PANAMIN Presidential Assistance on National Minorities (a government agency). PC Philippine Constabulary PCO Presidential Commitment Order PD Presidential Decree PDA Preventive D tention Action PMP Pagakakaisang Manggagawang Pilipino (Solidarity of Filipino Workers, a trade union organisation). Sitio A hamlet TFD Task Force Detainees UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNICEF United Nations Children's Fund WHO World Health Organisation (Note: Philippine spelling has been retained in the names of offices and organisations, and in quotations. Otherwise, in accordance with the practice of the International Commis . sion of Jurists, Eng sh spelling has been adopted throughout the report.

8 5. o . 6. Pr fac . This report, based on a mission sent to the Philippines in January 1984, is the second to be issued on the situation of HUMAN RIGHTS in the Philippines by the International Commission of Jurists. The first was published in 1977 following a mission undertaken by William J. Butler, Professor John P. Humphrey and Bisson. Their report documented serious violations of HUMAN RIGHTS occurring under the State of MARTIAL law proclaimed by Pr sident Marcos in 1972, which was still in force in 1977. The principal recommendation in the report was that MARTIAL law be lifted since the situation in the country did not justify its continued imposition. Pr sident Marcos formally lifted MARTIAL law in January 1981, but in doing so issued decrees which retained for himself and for the armed forces many of the powers associated with MARTIAL law.

9 The ICJ con . tinued to receive reports of gross violations of HUMAN RIGHTS including frequent extra-judicial killings by members of the armed forces. Accordingly, it was decided to send a new mission to the Philippines to assess the HUMAN RIGHTS situation since the lifting of MARTIAL law. The mission was asked to enquire, as far as possible in the time available, into economic and social RIGHTS as well as civil and political RIGHTS . While the mission was in pr paration there occurred the assassination in August 1983 of the opposition leader, Benigno S. Aquino, Jr: as he set foot in the Philippines and while under military escort. It was decided that the ICJ mission should not seek to enquire into or report upon the circumstances of his death. The members of the mission were Professor Virginia A. Leary of the United States, Mr. Ellis QC of New Zealand, and Dr.

10 Kurt Madlener of the F d ral Republic of Germany. Virginia Leary, who led the mission, is professor of international law at the State University of 7. New York at Buffalo and has published widely in the field of HUMAN RIGHTS . She is the author of Ethnie Confiict and Violence in Sri Lanka, a report of a mission undertaken for the ICJ in 1981. Anthony Ellis is a Queen's Counsel in private practice in Wellington and a leading mem . ber of the New Zealand Bar. Dr. Madlener is a specialist in comparative criminal law and proc dure on the staff of the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law at Freiburg in Breisgau. He has undertaken previous HUMAN RIGHTS missions in Chile, Central America and Spain. The mission was in the Philippines from 31 December 1983 to 14. January 1984. The members were able to undertake their mission with- out interference and to travel freely throughout the country.