The Burmese military regime may have killed, maimed, or impoverished the bodies of the peoples of Burma—but the spirit of the Saffron Revolution and the peoples’ aspiration for genuine democracy are very much alive.

With the crackdown of the thousands of people who participated in the historic Saffron Revolution a year ago, the notoriety of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) was further revealed. The junta’s casual disregard to human rights has reached a level where all international laws were ignored in the name of power. And all in the mighty name of power, a monk must be killed, a media man’s life must be sacrificed and hundreds must be detained.

It was a massacre committed in broad day light. That was the day of infamy—the day when the military regime slapped the world on its face by telling us that tyranny is a good substitute to democracy.

The Saffron Revolution, which was led by peace-loving Buddhist monks is a manifestation of the instinctual disgust of the peoples of Burma to the ill-governance, mismanagement, and oppression of the Burmese military regime. It was the culmination of the huge snowball of resistance inside and outside Burma aimed at reforming the military regime’s repressive style of governance.

However, instead of sitting down in a dialogue to ventilate the demands of the people that include economic issues brought about by the sudden increase of fuel prices, the call for the release of all political prisoners and the demand for national reconciliation starting with genuine dialogue, the junta chose to flex its military might and with brute force, hit even the highest moral authority of the land—the Buddhist Monks. Nameless civilians were not spared and massive arrest of protesters, raiding of monasteries and curfew immediately followed.

A year has passed but there was no sign that the military regime learned its lesson. It has remained intransigent to the clamor to bring back democracy and justice in Burma. Political persecution is everywhere until today and poverty and hunger are still rampant while hundreds of people are intimidated, jailed, and killed for exercising political rights. Arrests and intimidation of political leaders and raiding of monasteries are still happening. We demand an end to this crackdown and we challenge the regime to sit down on a dialogue and institute genuine political reforms.

Today, the Free Burma Coalition-Philippines extends its heartfelt solidarity to the peoples of Burma and to all the heroes and martyrs of the Saffron Revolution. We are joining thousands of voices inside and outside Burma in a united call for the immediate restoration of democracy and social justice in that land.

We call on the United Nations (UN) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and all its member states, to continue applying pressure to the military regime and exhaust all possible means to hold the junta accountable to the crimes it has committed and will continuously commit against its own citizens.
The Saffron Revolution is not just a day to remember but a struggle that must be pursued until its victorious end. Today, we would like our brothers and sisters in Burma to know that we will continuously join them in their quest for genuine democracy, justice and peace in Burma.

ON WITH THE SAFFRON REVOLUTION!
WE WILL FIGHT! WE WILL WIN!

-FREE BURMA COALITION-PHILIPPINES
Amnesty International (AI), Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), Partido ng Manggagawa (PM), Coalition Against Trafficking in Women-Asia Pacific (CATW-AP), Bagong Kamalayan, Samahang Demokratiko ng Kabataan (SDK), Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP)

The Welga ng Kababaihan, which includes the Freedom from Debt Coalition Women’s Committee, stressed that it is a woman’s right to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to her sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence.

In a statement of support to House Bill 5043 or An Act Providing for a National Policy on Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood and Population Development, the group said the RH Bill embodies many aspects of the principle of reproductive health as a woman’s right.

Central to overall health

“The RH Bill promotes sexual and reproductive ethics that are based on justice, reflects a commitment to women’s social and economic well-being, and affirms the moral capacity of women and men to make sound decisions about their lives,” the group said.

It added that because reproductive health is central to overall health, fundamental aspects of women’s well-being are compromised when reproductive health is ignored.

“Women are placed in bondage to reproduction and biology if only ‘natural family planning’ is tolerated,” the group stressed.

Right to Choose

“The RH Bill makes it the responsibility of the state to protect the right to choose, not to make decisions for individuals. Women’s right to choose is a basic part of exercising control over their lives. The Bill provides for women to be informed and to services that will ensure women’s ability to exercise their sexual and reproductive rights,” the women’s group said.

However, reproductive rights are only likely to be exercised effectively and responsibly by women when certain other economic and social rights and entitlements have been realized, it said.

“The conditions under which choices are made are as important as the actual content of women’s choices: the right to choose is a meaningless abstraction if women are powerless to choose,” the group explained.

Recognizing health complications

The group supports the RH Bill because it “recognizes the catastrophic health consequences of complications related to pregnancy and childbirth.”

“Poverty is not only implicated in these deaths, it is also often its direct cause. The RH Bill acknowledges the reproductive health needs of vulnerable young and poor women and the removal of legal as well as attitudinal punitive measures against those who have undergone poorly managed abortions,” it said.

Integral to social and economic health

The RH Bill acknowledges that reproductive and sexual health is integral to social and economic health, the group said.

“Fertility control must be part of a broader program which seeks to: improve women’s health and education; provide women with productive work; promote gender equity, especially by placing equal responsibility for reproduction and child-rearing on men; and, reorient structural social, economic and development processes towards an equitable distribution of the nation’s, and the world’s, productive assets,” it said.

Exercising reproductive options

The group believes that the RH Bill affirms that human sexuality and gender relations are closely interrelated and together affect the ability of men and women to achieve and maintain sexual health and manage their reproductive lives.

“The differential power between men and women in general, and husbands and wives in particular, is a major factor in women’s ability to exercise reproductive options. Those who have most at stake in every pregnancy should be allowed a decisive voice and choice on their own behalf,” it said.

Welga ng Kababaihan

Aside from FDC Women’s Committee, members of the Welga ng Kababaihan include: AKBAYAN, Alab Katipunan, Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), ANAWIM, Bagong Kamalayan, BUDYONG – PLKP, BUKLOD, Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) – Kababaihan, Center for Empowerment and Resource Development (CERD), Center for Migrants Advocacy (CMA), Centro Saka Inc. (CSI), Coalition Against Trafficking in Women Asia Pacific (CATW-AP), Confederation of Independent Unions (CIU), Damayan ng mga Pilipinong Api (DAMPA), Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP), Institute for Popular Democracy (IPD), Integrated Rural Development Foundation (IRDF), International Gender and Trade Network- Asia (IGTN).

Jubilee South, Kaalagad, KABAPA, KAKAMMPI, Kalayaan – Housing, Kalayaan – Madza, KASAMA-PILIPINAS, Katipunan para sa Pagpapalaya ng Sambayanan (KALAYAAN!) – Women, Kilusang Kababaihang Mangingisda, KPML, Labor Education Research Institute (LEARN), LAKAMBINI – PAKISAMA. MAKALAYA, NGOs for Fisheries Reform (NFR), PADAYON, PAKISAMA, Pambansang Kongreso ng Kababaihan sa Kanayunan(PKKK), Pambansang Tagapag-ugnay ng mga Manggagawa sa Bahay (PATAMABA) PANGISDA-KKM.

Partido ng Manggagawa (PM), Philippine Ecumenical Action for Community Empowerment (PEACE), Foundation, Inc., Philippine Network of Rural Development Initiatives (Philnet-RDI), Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM) – Gender Desk, PIGLAS Kababaihan, PKKK-K!, Public Services Labor Independent Confederation (PSLINK), SANLAKAS Women, SARILAYA, SDK, Social Watch, Ugnayan ng Kababaihan sa Pulitika (UKP), WomanHealth Philippines, Inc., Women’s Crisis Center (WCC), Women’s Education Development Productivity and Research Organization (WEDPRO), Womenspace, and Zone One Tondo Organization (ZOTO).

Holding pictures of Tibetan victims of the killings, the groups denounced the restriction against international media coverage by China, preventing the world to see the real victims and perpetrators in the violence that followed the groundswell of protests last March. China has blamed the Tibetans for the violence, which pushed the Dalai Lama to threaten resignation. According to Tibetan groups, China precisely wanted that to happen towards removing moral authority from the Tibetan struggle and declaring them as terrorists.

“Numerous evidences have come out proving that Chinese police have dressed themselves up as monks and as ordinary Tibetans, held knives, robbed and set shops in Lhasa into fire,” according to the statement of the groups. Already, at least 140 Tibetans were killed and 1000 imprisoned, most of them monks and nuns.

Speakers underscored the strategic interest of China in Tibet, which has deepened in the recent years. “As China built roads, railways, bridges in and through Tibet, the exploitation of their resources by Canadian, Australian and Chinese corporations left the Tibetan population as among the poorest in the world. Too, China’s primary weapon research and design facility is located in the northeastern Tibetan province of Amdo,” said Jing Geaga, Coordinator of the World March of Women in the Philippines.

Marlene Sindayen of the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL) criticized the discrimination against Tibetan workers by the Chinese employers. “Many Tibetans cannot find employment unless they speak Chinese,” according to Sindayen. Moreover, “virginity testing” is one of the most disturbing discriminatory practices against Tibetan women looking for employment. The purpose of the virginity test is to determine a job applicant’s “fitness” for employment. This is done by putting a hand inside a woman to check her virginity.

Cases of violence against Tibetan women, especially torture and prostitution in the hands of Chinese authorities, were denounced. According to Jean Enriquez, Executive Director of CATW-AP,

“Sexual torture, is applied to women political prisoners, including the nuns. These include use of dogs, use of lighted cigarettes, stripping prisoners naked, and penetration of the women’s orifices with electrical batons.”

“Prostitution has staggeringly increased in the face of economic hardship and discrimination against Tibetan women. But the most important factor is probably the influx of Chinese soldiers,” added Enriquez.

The Tibetan government in exile says there are 300,000 Chinese soldiers stationed in the autonomous region alone Tibetan victims of prostitution are as young as 13 or 14.

The groups made parallels between China’s complicity in the recent killings and imprisonment of numerous monks, nuns, women, students and workers by the Military Junta in Burma, and China’s complicity in the same acts in Tibet. Jun Bans of the Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID) called on the world to look intently into the incidents in Lhasa, and beyond that, understand the roots of the Tibetan people’s struggle. “Stop the violence against the Tibetans! Let the Olympic torch light the way toward restoring freedoms to the Tibetans,” Bans concluded.

A torch, parodying the Olympic symbol, is carried by the group. It was labeled “torch of freedom for the Tibetans.”

Numerous evidences have come out proving that Chinese police have dressed themselves up as monks and as ordinary Tibetans, held knives, robbed and set shops in Lhasa into fire. But before such evidences came out, the Chinese authorities blamed the Tibetans for the death of five young women (which includes a Tibetan) in a clothing shop. Staging of riots as coming from dissenters has been done by Chinese authorities in the past – in March 1989, a group of young men in their twenties acted in a similarly organized way. They first shouted slogans, burnt some vehicles near the Ramoche Monastery, then broke into nearby stores, robbed them, and finally burnt scores of the stores. Chief Commander of Armed Police, Mr. Li Lianxiu has been reported by the media to have ordered earlier thus, “the Special Squad should immediately assign 300 members to be disguised as ordinary citizens and Tibetan monks, entering the Eight-Corner Street and other riot spots in Lhasa, to support plain-clothes police to complete the task. Burn the Scripture Pagoda at the northeast of Dazhao Temple. Smash the rice store in the business district, incite citizens to rob rice and food, attack the Tibet-Gansu Trading Company.”

After the Tiananmen Square massacre of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of students in June 1989, the Chinese government similarly turned the Chinese public’s sentiments against the students. It did so by showing staged immolation by Falun Gong practitioners in Tiananmen and by claiming that the students attacked the soldiers.

We call on the world to look intently into the incidents in Lhasa, and beyond that, understand the roots of the Tibetan people’s struggle. The upcoming Beijing Olympics is a rare opportunity that they are taking to call attention to their 50-decade struggle against an illegal occupation. This occupation has led to the brutal oppression of Tibetans, the destruction of their culture and the draining of their environmental resources — especially of its forests, minerals, grasslands. As China built roads, railways, bridges in and through Tibet, the exploitation of their resources by Canadian, Australian and Chinese corporations left the Tibetan population as among the poorest in the world.

Tibet’s strategic importance to China is further illustrated by the presence of China’s primary weapon research and design facility, known as the “Ninth Academy”, in the northeastern Tibetan province of Amdo. The facility is the most secret organization in China’s entire nuclear program and remains today an important and high security military weapons plant.

Tibetan women have historically been subjected to a wide range of violence including torture, rape and reproductive rights’ violations. Sexual torture is applied to women political prisoners. These include use of dogs, use of lighted cigarettes, stripping prisoners naked, and penetration of the women’s orifices with electrical batons. The torture perpetrated against nuns carries another destructive layer: they are forced to suffer the abuse of their religious vows. Most recently, the monks and nuns were forced to sign papers denouncing the Dalai Lama. The raping of nuns is common. Forcing nuns and monks to have sex with each other has also been reported.

Methods of enforcement of Chinese family planning policies in Tibet have been coercive. For those who do not comply with official policies, there are penalties in the form of fines, loss of jobs or reduction of pay, and loss of housing. Women are given the “option” of paying a fine or terminating a pregnancy. The fines imposed are often the equivalent of more than a month’s wages.

Many Tibetans cannot find employment unless they speak Chinese. Tibetan women (and men) have lost jobs because they, or their relatives, have been associated with political activities that the Chinese authorities call “separatist activities”.

“Virginity testing” is a most disturbing discriminatory practice against Tibetan women looking for employment. The purpose of the virginity test is to determine a job applicant’s “fitness” for employment. Women who pass the virginity test have to sign a contract promising that they will not get married or engage in sexual activity for three years.

Prostitution has staggeringly increased in the face of economic hardship, discrimination and lack of opportunities for Tibetan women. Tibetan victims of prostitution are as young as 13 or 14. The London-based Free Tibet Campaign estimates 1,000 brothels in Lhasa. But the single most important factor is probably the large inflow of Chinese soldiers. Lots of brothels are near military areas and camps, as everywhere in the world. The Tibetan government in exile says there are 300,000 Chinese soldiers stationed in the autonomous region alone.

The entire picture of the Tibetan women’s and people’s sufferings cannot be captured in this statement. But their reports to United Nations bodies bear hard statistics on their sufferings. Our sisters among the Tibetan nuns, our brothers among the exiles, our friends among the activists are calling for international action, until China heeds their call.

Stop the violence against the Tibetans! Restore their freedoms as a people! Free Tibet now!

Coalition Against Trafficking in Women – Asia Pacific (CATW-AP)
Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL)
World March of Women – Pilipinas
Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID)

Responding to the release of new negotiating texts at the WTO, civil society groups from all over the world sent letters to their Trade Ministers, calling on them to acknowledge the failure of the Doha Round.

“We believe that the time has come to officially declare the Doha Round of the WTO negotiations dead and to provide the necessary space to re-think the kind of multilateral trade rules that are needed to create employment and achieve sustainable development,” the letter states. It was signed by over 90 civil society organizations from more than 35 countries, both developed and developing.

Ever since the launch of the Round in 2001, people all over the world, including farmers, fisherfolk, workers and trade unionists, environmentalists, faith-based groups and other civil society organizations, have been denouncing the Doha talks as paying little attention to peoples’ rights and needs. “Doha was supposed to be the ‘development’ round. But what has transpired over the intervening six years has been quite the opposite”, the letter states.

The civil society groups say that it is becoming clear that the current model of trade cannot deliver on the alleged goal of the Doha Round – to promote development and lift millions of people out of poverty – and that WTO Members will never be able to agree on a deal within the current parameters. The groups ask Trade Ministers to:

• Acknowledge the failure of the Doha Round

• Institute a two year moratorium to provide the time and space necessary to re-think the model and process of global trade negotiations.

• Stimulate public discussion and debate with governments and civil society about creating alternative trade regimes

A number of groups from the Philippines signed the letter: the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), Coalition Against Trafficking in Women – Asia Pacific (CATW-AP), Focus on the Global South, Global Network Asia, IBON Foundation, Inc., Labor Education and Research Network (LEARN), PAKISAMA, Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM) and Tebtebba.

Cc: Pascal Lamy, WTO Director-General
Ambassador Falconer, Chair, Committee of Agriculture, Special Session;
Ambassador Stephenson, Chair, Negotiating group on Market Access

18 July 2007

Subject: Doha is dead, time to rethink the multilateral trading system

Dear Sec. Favila,

As civil society organizations and social movements committed to building a multilateral trade system that is just, sustainable and democratic, we believe that the time has come to officially declare the Doha Round of the WTO negotiations dead and to provide the necessary space to re-think the kind of multilateral trade rules that are needed to create employment and achieve sustainable development.

It is now almost six years since the Doha Agenda was launched in November 2001. What has followed since then is a litany of setbacks and/or failures — from the collapse of the Cancun Ministerial in 2003, followed by the July framework cobbled together in 2004, then the desperate moves of the 2005 Hong Kong Ministerial to breathe new life into the Doha agenda, which led to the suspension of the WTO negotiations in 2006 and now the recent breakdown of the G-4 talks in Potsdam.

Doha was supposed to be the ?development? round. But what has transpired over the intervening six years has been quite the opposite. Instead of coming up with a set of multilateral trade rules designed to increase the capacities of developing countries to create new jobs, eliminate poverty and build sustainable economies, the Doha Agenda has been manipulated to primarily serve the interests of the northern industrialized powers to expand market access for their transnational corporations.

All the studies that have come out since 2005 —from the World Bank, UNCTAD, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Tuft University and the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) — demonstrate that the current proposals for the Doha Agenda make developing countries, and particularly the poorest countries, the biggest losers.

Millions of people all over the world, including farmers, fisherfolk, workers and trade unionists, environmentalists, faith-based groups and other civil society organizations, have been denouncing the Doha talks as promoting a “corporate-driven” model of trade that pays little attention to peoples’ rights and needs. Now, more than ever, world leaders must face up to the fact that the global trade regime has marginalized a vast array of communities and interests who have finally united to stop any further expansion of the system.

The Doha Agenda and Model have failed to increase the trust of WTO?s membership, let alone the public it is supposed to serve. Around the world, people have informed themselves and popular opinion has changed to the point where the WTO is suffocating from a crisis of legitimacy. And, no effort by free trade champions to ?better educate? the public or adopt ?quick fixes? can reverse this reality. Declaring the death of Doha does not mean the end of world trading system. Another multilateralism is possible, but not one that prioritizes the rights of corporations over the rights of people and the planet while reducing the power to self-govern.

We urge you to acknowledge the failure of the Doha Round now and call on you to institute a two year moratorium to provide the time and space necessary to re-think the model and process of global trade negotiations. It’s time to go back home, and start a process of reflection and consultation with your peoples that can pave the way for a new and different model of multilateral trade. The only credible option now is to stimulate public discussion and debate with governments and civil society and social movements about creating alternative trade regimes that are people, development, and environment centered.

Signed by:

ActionAid International
International
Advocacy and Monitoring Network on Sustainable Development (AM-Net)
Japan

AITEC
France
Alianza Social Continental
Regional
Alliance for Democracy
United States
Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL)
Philippines
Andhra pradesh vyavasay vruthidarula union
India
ASC – Caplo Peruano
Peru
Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM)
Hong Kong, SAR
AsiaDHRRA
Asia
Asian Farmers ‘ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA)
Asia
Asian Indigenous Women’s Network
Asia
ATTAC
Argentina
Attac Austria
Austria
ATTAC HUNGARY
Hungary
ATTAC Japan
Japan
ATTAC Norway
Norway
ATTAC Sweden
Sweden
Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network (AFTINET)
Australia
Blue Planet Project
International
California Fair Trade Coalition
United States
Campagna riforma Banca Mondiale Italy
Italy
Campaign for the Welfare State
Norway
Campaign GENOA 2001
Greece
Canadian Council for International Co-operation
Canada
Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives
Canada
Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network
Canada
Caribbean Policy Development Center (CPDC)
Caribbean
Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
Austria
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women ? Asia Pacific (CATW-AP)
Asia
Consumers Association of Penang
Malaysia
Convergencia de Movimientos de Pueblos de las Am?cas – COMPA
Regional
Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)
The Netherlands
Council of Canadians
Canada
Development Fund
Norway
Ecologistas en Acci

Dear Secretary Favila,

We are alarmed over reports of a possible compromise deal on Non-agricultural Market Access (NAMA) negotiations. The latest proposal from developing countries led by Chile for a “middle ground” solution represents a serious break from the position of NAMA 11 of which the Philippines is an active member.

It is clear that the United States and the European Union want to squeeze as much as they can from developing countries on NAMA as pay back for what they claim to be their own concessions in agriculture, concessions that many analysts feel are not even enough to level the playing field in agriculture. It is clear that the US and EU want an ambitious NAMA formula in order to pry open the market for industrial and fisheries sector in developing countries.

The new NAMA proposal coming as it were in the aftermath of the collapse of the G4 meeting in Potsdam, and which is projected as an initiative from developing countries plays dangerously into the strategy of the US and EU. This is exactly the opening that the US and EU were hoping for in Potsdam. The proposal hands the compromise to them in a silver platter.

The call from the new proposal for more flexibility and compromise should be seriously challenged. In Hong Kong, developing countries have already made a huge compromise when they agreed to adopt the ambitious Swiss formula for tariff reductions. Under an ambitious formula, developing countries would absorb close to 70% cuts in their industrial and fishery tariffs as opposed to the measly 25 % cuts for developed countries. Simulations done by both the WTO and international trade unions have already provided us a picture of the possible consequences on jobs and revenues under an ambitious NAMA agreement.

A coefficient for developing countries in the high teens would be a murderous compromise on the part of the Philippines. Such an ambitious formula would result in a substantial reduction of our average bound rates for industrial and fishery products and would constitute a serious erosion of our policy space. Sectors that would be adversely affected include the automotive sector, apparel, plastics, leather products and footwear, and the furniture sector which would all absorb cuts not just in bound rates but in actual applied rates. Huge cuts on bound rates would be felt in rubber products, fabricated metals, wood and wood products, and paper and paper products.

A compromise deal on NAMA would compromise jobs. Job losses could be expected in the motor vehicles sector, which employs around 39,000, the apparel sector with an even bigger employment of 370,000, the leather and footwear sector with 69,000 workers, furniture sector with 143,000 workers and plastic products which provides jobs to 54,000 workers.

We do not need to remind you that central to the NAMA 11 position is the demand to put the development objective at the heart of the NAMA negotiations. The compromise deal on NAMA undermines this very objective.

We challenge you now in this most critical time in the negotiations to exhibit leadership in NAMA 11. We challenge you to be the leading developing country voice in NAMA 11 in calling for the rejection of the new NAMA proposal.

“No deal is still better than a bad deal” Mr. Secretary and in the interest of Filipino workers, we hope that this is still your guiding principle.

Stop the New Round! Coalition
Akbayan
Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL)
Alternate Forum for Research in Mindanao (AFRIM)
Association of Genuine Labor Organization (AGLO)
Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP)
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women – Asia Pacific (CATW-AP)
Confederation of Independent Unions in the Public Sector (CIU)
Convergence for Community Centered Area Development
Focus on the Global South – Philippines
Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC)
Global Network Asia
International Gender and Trade Network – Asia
Kilusang para sa Pambansang Demokraysa
Kongreso ng Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Pilipinas (KPMP)
Labor Education and Research Network (LEARN)
Liga Manggagawa
Makabayan – Pilipinas
Manggagawa para sa Kalayaan ng Bayan (MAKABAYAN)
Pambansang Katipunan ng Malayang Magbubukid – PKKM
Philippine Metalworkers’ Alliance (PMA)
Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM)
Resource Center for People’s Development (RCPD)
Women and Gender Institute (WAGI)

Invoking Article V paragraph 6 of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), the US government has refused to accede to the request of the Philippine government in a note verbale dated 16 Nov 2005 for the surrender of the marines. It maintained this position even after the service of the warrant of arrest issued by Judge Dilag of the Olongapo RTC hearing the case.

Article V paragraph 6 of the VFA provides –

“The custody of any United States personnel over whom the Philippines is to exercise jurisdiction shall immediately reside with United States military authorities, if they so request, from the commission of the offense until completion of all judicial proceedings. United States military authorities shall, upon formal notification by the Philippine authorities and without delay, make such personnel available to those authorities in time for any investigative or judicial proceedings relating to the offense with which the person has been charged. In extraordinary cases, the Philippine Government shall present its position to the United States Government regarding custody, which the United States Government shall take into full account. In the event Philippine judicial proceedings are not completed within one year, the United States shall be relieved of any obligations under this paragraph…”

It is to be noted that there has been no request from the US government to the Philippine government for the former to retain the custody of the US servicemen. The taking of custody over these servicemen and refusal to surrender them to Philippine authorities from day 1 cannot be the kind of request contemplated by the agreement, especially since such refusal to surrender is in derogation of the prerogatives of the Philippines as a sovereign state. The request contemplated is a formal and expressed one, in consideration of the respect and dignity which each state is duty-bound to accord another.

Even granting that an implied request may be made, this does not justify the continued refusal of the US government to surrender custody to Philippine authorities. A request, by definition, need to be granted for it to take effect. The Philippine government’s repeated demands for the surrender of the accused to its custody, through the DFA note verbale of November 16, 2005 and recently, through the service of the warrant of arrest issued by the court, is a denial of that implied request, which decision – the US government, being the visiting state – must respect.

The VFA provision cited by the US government cannot be interpreted to give the US government the blanket authority to decide on its own, whether or not to keep custody of their servicemen accused of crimes committed within Philippine jurisdiction. To adopt an interpretation that allows this, is to allow the violation not only of our rules and statutes but also of our Constitution.

DOJ Secretary Gonzales himself pointed out that the refusal of the US government to turn-over the custody of the servicemen to Philippine authorities, will have the effect of putting these servicemen under recognizance of some named prominent official in the US embassy, who will answer for their presence during the trial[1]. But therein, precisely, is where the problem lies – not because they are under recognizance of a non-Filipino, but that they are under recognizance in the first place. Recognizance, under our rules, is a form of bail.[2] But these servicemen are not entitled to bail, at least not at this point of the criminal proceedings. No less than our Constitution[3], which is reiterated by the rules on criminal procedure[4], provides that when a person is accused of a crime punishable by reclusion perpetua, he/she is not entitled to bail when evidence of guilt is strong. Whether or not “the evidence of guilt is strong” is determined at the hearing conducted for and only after an application for bail has been filed by the person in custody.[5] Thus, as it is, the US servicemen cannot be validly placed under recognizance; first, because the crimes they are accused of are non-bailable; and second, because they have not applied for bail; and they cannot apply for bail, unless and until, they are held under the custody of the Philippine authorities.

The US refusal to turn-over the custody of accused servicemen to Philippine authorities is in effect, unjustifiably granting them immunity from our laws – in blatant abuse of the international legal principle of diplomatic immunity, wherein only foreign ambassadors and ministers are immune from suit, and no one else.

The US government is obviously bent on insisting custody over the accused soldiers, in total disregard of the laws and processes of the Philippines, in the name of the VFA. But the VFA cannot be accorded a higher status than our own statutes. As in other statutes, the VFA should be construed to uphold the national policies of independence, national sovereignty and national interest. As in other statutes in derogation of sovereignty, the VFA should be strictly construed in favor of the Philippine state, so that our country’s sovereignty may be upheld and not narrowed or destroyed. The VFA should not be permitted to divest our state and government any of its prerogatives, rights, or remedies established by our rules, our laws, our jurisprudence and our Constitution.

To interpret the VFA otherwise is to allow, once again, the rape of our country. The US’ disrespect of our nationhood proves peoples’ movements right that this treaty will always be interpreted from the unequal – nay, colonialist – relations we actually have with the US.

We, women’s groups, express our utmost indignation over the US’ rejection of RP’s request for custody, even as we also decry the GMA government’s lukewarm attitude towards the issue. We vow to continue to support the victim and march in the streets until justice is served.

Coalition Against Trafficking in Women – Asia Pacific (CATW-AP)
Women’s Legal Education, Advocacy and Defense (WomenLEAD)
WomanHealth
Women’s Crisis Center (WCC)
Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL) – Women
Bagong Kamalayan (Survivors’ Collective)
BUKLOD Center – Olongapo

[1] US paper: Our Gis not above law, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Sunday 15 January 2006, pp. 1 & 15.
[2] Sec 1. Rule 114, Revised Rules of Criminal Procedure
[3] Article III, Sec. 18, 1987 Constitution
[4] Sec. 7, Rule 114, RRCP
[5] sec. 8, Rule 114, RRCP.