URGENT ACTION REQUEST
CASE: PHILIPPINES: UNORKA LEADER ENRICO “ERIC’ CABANIT KILLING
April 27, 2006
Dear Friends,
Indeed, it is ‘a year of living dangerously’ in the Philippines, particularly for human rights defenders.
Assassins are on the loose and extra-judicial killings are on the rise. In a span of one month, for April alone, three (3) peasant human rights defenders were separately slain in Visayas and Mindanao islands. All of these cases were related to the struggle to own land, through the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) and the victims were agrarian reform beneficiaries.
Enrico Cabanit was the latest fatality of these senseless killings. Enrico together with daughter Daffodil was gunned down by two (2) unidentified motorcycle riding men in the public market of Panabo, Davao del Norte last 24 April 2006. The elder Cabanit sustained four (4) gunshot wounds in the head and died instantly while his daughter is in critical condition after a bullet pierced her lungs.
The spate of unsolved killings has alarmingly reached critical stage. Such arbitrary inhuman acts are a degeneration of the human rights gained more than five (5) decades past. There must be a way to end all these.
We call on all human rights defenders of the world to unite and help pressure the Philippine government to judiciously resolve the plight of the Philippine peasantry.
SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please fill up and sign in on the recommended petition below;
Dear ______________,
The gross pattern of civil and political human rights violations in your country has come to my knowledge and troubled me personally.
I am particularly referring to the spate of extra-judicial killings of peasants and farm workers in the countryside struggling to own a piece of land to secure their right to means of subsistence and their right to adequate food.
Just recently, what happened to farmer leader Enrico “Eric” Cabanit, secretary general of UNORKA (Pambansang Ugnayan ng mga Nagsasariling Lokal na Organisasyon sa Kanayunan), a national peasant federation of people’s organizations, and Board member of PARRDS (Partnership for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development Services), a coalition of agrarian reform and human rights NGOs, has appalled me. And to think that he just came from a peaceful dialogue with the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) officials headed by Undersecretary Narciso Nieto to settle the contentious agricultural estate of TADECO, a Floirendo owned corporation.
I believe that Enrico, as with the rest of agrarian reform petitioners and beneficiaries in your country, the cause they are passionately claiming for realization, deserve to be listened and addressed -not to be ‘silenced’ by a vicious bullet.
Your country is one of the leading adherents to the universal applicability of the tenets of human rights. Being signatory to almost all the international standards, particularly, the International Convention of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), proves my point.
Your subsequent state obligations to such documents, for humanity’s sake, I implore you ____________________, to please take necessary and appropriate actions to expedite the resolution to the murder case of Eric Cabanit and the rest of the human rights defenders summarily executed by ruthless individuals.
I would be very grateful if you and your good office could specifically facilitate and take immediate action on the following appeal:
For the GMA administration to immediately break impunity and put an end to all extra-judicial killings especially that of Enrico Cabanit;
To mobilize all government agencies and resources and immediately subject Floirendo lands and other plantations under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP);
For the Department of Justice to speed up the arrest of the killers of Enrico Cabanit, including the mastermind, and be brought before the court of justice; and
For the DAR to immediately reactivate the National Inter-agency Task Force composed of the following; Department of National Defense (DND), Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine National Police (PNP), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Commission on Human Rights (CHR), and the Department of Justice (DOJ), to ensure agrarian reform implementation in contentious landholdings, in areas such as Davao Norte, Bondoc Peninsula, Oriental Negros, Negros Occidental, Saranggani, Iloilo, Masbate and Tarlac Provinces.
Thank you for your attention. Your immediate action would surely reclaim the lost human rights of your deprived rural folks.
Sincerely,
Sign in your name or, the name of your organization
SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:
H.E. GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO
President
Republic of the Philippines
Malacanang Palace
JP Laurel Street, San Miguel, Manila
NCR 1005
HON. RONALDO V. PUNO
Secretary
Department of Interior and Local Government
A. Francisco Gold Condominium II
EDSA cor. Mapagmahal St., Diliman
Quezon City
Voice:+63 (2) 925-0330/31
Mobile:
Fax:+63 (2) 925-0332
rvpuno dilg.gov.ph
HON. AVELINO J, CRUZ, JR.
Secretary
Department of National Defense
Room 301 DND Building, Camp Emilio Aguinaldo,
E. de los Santos Avenue
Quezon City
Voice:+63(2) 911-9281 / 911-0488
Fax:+63(2) 911 6213
osnd philonline.com
sndcruz dnd.gov.ph
ajcruz dnd.gov.ph
HON. DATU NASSER C. PANGANDAMAN, AL HADJ
Secretary
Department of Agrarian Reform
Eliptical Road, Diliman
Quezon City 1104, Philippines
Fax +63 (2) 929-3088
HON. RAUL GONZALEZ
Secretary
Department of Justice
DOJ Building, Padre Faura
1004 Manila, Philippines
Fax: +63(2) 521-1614
Email: sechbp infocom.com.ph
P/DIR. GEN. ARTURO LUMIBAO
Chief, Philippine National Police
Camp General Rafael Crame
Quezon City, Philippines
Fax: +63 2724-8763
HON. PURIFICACION QUISUMBING
Commissioner
Philippine Commission on Human Rights
SAAC Bldg., Commonwealth Avenue
U.P. Complex, Diliman
Quezon City, Philippines
Fax: +63 (2) 929-0102
Email: drpvq chr.gov.ph
Thank you for your solidarity support.
Beyond pain, aguish and rage, justice for Ka Eric and the Filipino peasant martyrs!
(SIGNED)
Evangeline G. Mendoza
Former President and Current National Council Member
Pambansang Ugnayan ng mga Nagsasariling Lokal na Organisasyon sa Kanayunan (UNORKA)
Mark V. Amor
Executive Director
Mindanao Farmworkers Development Center (MFDC)
Diosdado B. Calmada
National Coordinator
Philippine Ecumenical Action for Community Empowerment (PEACE) Foundation, Inc.
Belinda L. Formanes
Executive Director
Partnership for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development Services (PARRDS), Inc.