Threats, harassment, intimidation and surveillance against Ms. Honey May Suazo

New information

PHL 001 / 0515 / OBS 039.1

Surveillance /

Threats / Judicialharassment

Philippines

August5, 2015

TheObservatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme ofthe World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federationfor Human Rights (FIDH) requests your urgentintervention in the following situation in The Philippines.

New information:

TheObservatory hasbeen informed by reliable sources about ongoing threats, harassment,intimidation and surveillance suffered by Ms. Honey May Suazo, Secretary General of the Southern MindanaoRegional Chapter of the Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights(Karapatan). Ms. Suazo has undertaken several fact-finding missions mostly inhighly militarised communities and on several occasions has openly denouncedthe human rights violations committed by military troops in the SouthernMindanao Region.

Accordingto the information received, on July11, 2015, Ms. Suazo learnt that the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group(CIDG) had filed a trumped up criminal case before the City Prosecutor’s Officeon May 12, 2015, against her and 15 other leaders of civil societyorganisations supporting individuals forced to flee their homes due to militarypresence in the region of Talaingod, Davao del Norte Province.

Ms.Suazo has been subjected in the past to harassment, threats and surveillancedue to her activities as a human right defender.

On June 19, 2015, another Karapatan staff member, Ms. Leonora Ricafort, had called Ms. Suazoto warn her not to go to the office due to the presence of three men monitoringthe premises.

Since then, Ms. Suazo has not returned to theKarapatan office, nor to her home.

Earlier this year, on February 7, Ms. Suazo and four other human rightsdefenders were coming back from a meeting about human rights violationsperpetrated against evacuees from Talaingod, when they realised that a man wasfollowing them on a motorcycle. The five human rights defenders immediatelytried to call a taxi, while the man kept standing on his motorcycle just onemeter away from them, staring at Ms. Suazo and apparently holding something inthe pocket of his jacket.

The Observatory expresses itsdeepest concern over the ongoing acts of harassment and surveillance faced bymembers of the Karapatan office in Southern Mindanao Region from the military.The latter have even been labelled by the military as “enemies of the state”and “front organisations of the communists”, in a context of intensification ofmilitary operations, especially in Mindanao, where 60% of troops from the ArmedForces of the Philippines are deployed under the counter-insurgency programmeOplan Bayanihan.

The Observatory calls upon thePhilippine authorities to to immediately put an end to any form of harassmentagainst the members of Karapatan, to guarantee in all circumstances theirphysical and psychological integrity and to conduct a swift, thorough andimpartial investigation on the above-mentioned acts.

Background information:

Overthe past months, several human rights workers of the Southern Mindanao RegionalChapter of Karapatan, as well as several peasant leaders and their families in Paquibato District, Davao City, and BukidnonProvince, Mindanao, who had sought shelter in the Karapatan office, havesuffered surveillance, threats and harassment.

Thehuman rights defenders targeted include: Karapatan staff members Ms. Edessa Sandra Campos and Ms. LeonoraRicafort; Ms. Ricafort’s son; peasant leaders,Ms. AidaSanduman-Seisa, Secretary General of Paquibato District Peasants Alliance(PADIPA), Mr. Eduardo Regidor,acting Chairperson of PADIPA, and his three sons; and Mr. Primjun Oblianda-Cabatuan and Ms. Roselyn Tausa, both members of PADIPA.

On April 26, 2015, at 10 a.m., several men wearing light fatigue shirtand shorts, and who appeared to be soldiers, showed up in the neighbourhood ofthe Karapatan office in Davao City. The men walked back and forth on the road and stood in front of thebuilding trying to look through the gate at the people inside. One of them was heard relaying over the phone to an unknown interlocutor theexact location of the NGO’s office and of the peasant leaders who had soughtrefuge there.

Moreover, when Mr. Eduardo Regidor left the office with his three sons,three men armed with 45 calibre pistols followed them. One of the men, the sameone that made the phone call, told him “Aha,dito lang pala kayo nagtatago (So, you are hiding here)”. Alarmed by theman’s statement, Mr. Eduardo and his sons quickly got into a taxi, andinstructed the driver to speed up. The three armed men then tailed the taxi ontheir motorcycles, but eventually lost track of it.

On April 27, sometime after 7 p.m., Mr. Eduardo Regidor arrived at theKarapatan office. A few minutes later, three men went to the office’s gate andattempted to get inside. One of the men carried with him something wrapped witha towel, possibly a gun. When asked, they refused to identify themselves. Whenthose inside the Karapatan office did not open the gate, one of the men pushedthe gate and the two other men attempted to climb the concrete wall to getinside the compound. One of the men was the same person who had been conductingsurveillance outside the Karapatan office the day before.

The men’s attempts to barge into the Karapatan office stopped only whena Karapatan staff member called the police for assistance and members of themedia. After interviews with both the media and the police, the police broughtthe Karapatan staff members to the San Pedro Police Station to file a report ofthe incident.

Action requested:

Please write to the authorities in the Philippines, urging them to:

i. Guarantee in all circumstances thephysical and psychological integrity of Ms. Honey May Suazo and all members ofKarapatan, as well as of all human rights defenders in the Philippines;

ii. Order an immediate, thorough, transparent,effective and impartial investigation into the above-mentioned facts in orderto identify all those responsible;

iii. Put an end to any kind of harassmentagainst members of Karapatan and all human rights defenders in the Philippines,and in general against all defenders who work for the protection of land rightsand human rights in Philippines;

iv. Comply with all the provisions of theUnited Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the GeneralAssembly of the United Nations on December 9, 1998, especially regarding thefollowing Articles:

- Article 1: everyone has the right,individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for theprotection and realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms at thenational and international levels;

- Article 12.2: the State shall take allnecessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities ofeveryone, individually and in association with others, against any violence,threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure orany other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exerciseof his or her rights [...];

v. Ensure in all circumstances the respectfor human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with internationalhuman rights standards and international instruments ratified by thePhilippines.

Addresses:

· H.E. Benigno S. Aquino III, President ofthe Republic of the Philippines, New Executive Building, Malacañang Palace, JP Laurel St., San Miguel,Manila 1005, Philippines. Fax: +63 2736 1010, Tel: +63 2 735 6201 / 564 1451 to 80; Email: corres@op.gov.ph / opnet@ops.gov.ph;

· Secretary Ramon J.P. Paje, Department ofEnvironment and Natural Resources (DENR), Visayas Avenue, Diliman, 1100 Quezon City, Philippines, Fax: +63 2 920 4301, Tel: +63 2 920 4352; +63 2 926 2688; +632926 2535; +63 2 925 8275, Email:osec@denr.gov.ph

· Hon. Loretta Ann P. Rosales, Chairperson,Commission on Human Rights, SAAC Bldg., UP Complex, Commonwealth Avenue,Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines. Fax: +632 929 0102. Email: chair.rosales.chr@gmail.com/ mtm_rodulfo@yahoo.com;

· Hon. Vicente Tito CasteloSotto III, Senate President, Office of the Senate, Office of the Senate Secretary, Hon.Emma L. Reyes, 6th flr. Senate of thePhilippines, Roxas Blvd., Pasay City, Tel: +63 2 552-6601 loc. 6129/23 & 24/ +63 2 552-6676, Email: osec@senate.gov.ph;

· Hon. Leila de Lima, Secretary, Departmentof Justice (DOJ), DOJ Bldg., Padre Faura, Ermita, Manila 1000, Fax: +632 5239548, Email: lmdelima@doj.gov.ph / lmdelima.doj@gmail.com

· Hon. Jose Midas Marquez, CourtAdministrator, Supreme Court of the Philippines, 3rd flr., New Supreme Court Bldg., Annex, PadreFaura St., Ermita 1000, Manila, Tel: +63 2 522 590 to 94, Fax: +63 2 526 8129,Email: pio@supremecourt.gov.ph / sc.judiciary@gov.ph;

· Police Director General Alan LA MadridPurisima, Chief, Philippine NationalPolice, Camp General Rafael Crame, Quezon City, Philippines, Fax: +63 2 7248763/ +63 2 723 0401, Tel: + 63 2 726 4361/4366/8763, Email: feedback@pnp.gov.ph;

· Hon. Emilio Gonzalez, Deputy Ombusdman,Office of the Deputy Ombudsman for the Military And other Law EnforcementOffices, 3rd flr., Ombudsman Bldg.,Agham Road, Diliman, 1004 Quezon City, Fax: +63 2 926 8747, Tel: +63 2 9269032;

· H.E. Mr.Evan P. Garcia, Ambassador, PermanentMission of the Philippines to the United Nations in Geneva, 47 Avenue Blanc,1202 Geneva, Switzerland, Fax: +41 22 716 19 32, Email: geneva.pm@dfa.gov.ph;

· Embassy of the Philippines in Brussels,297 Avenue Moliere, 1050 Brussels, Belgium, Tel: +32 2 340 33 77 / 2 340 33 78,Fax: +32 2 345 64 25.

Please also write to the diplomatic mission or embassy of the Philippines inyour respective country.​