Activist Group Warns of Another People Power Revolution

Special Features (as of 7:19 PM)

(UPDATE) Activist group warns of another People Power revolution

By LOUI GALICIA
ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau

Activist group leader Dr. Carol Araullo warned Wednesday that the Arroyo administration could face a People Power revolution if massive cheating occurs in the May 14, 2007 elections.

“Yes, maybe in the elections…that the administration candidates we believe will lose. So long as there is no massive cheating thereafter, we believe that people will see through what this government is doing and take the necessary action,” she told Balitang Europe.

The chairwoman of the Bagong Alyansa Makabayan issued the statement at a joint press conference with human rights organization Karapatan on the first day of the Arroyo government trial at the Permanent People’s Tribunal (PPT) in The Netherlands.

President Arroyo, together with US President George W. Bush, has been charged with crimes ranging from systematic violations of civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights to violations of national self-determination and liberation committed against the Filipino people.

Araullo said the Arroyo administration could face massive street protests after failing to act on extrajudicial killings and human rights violations linked to members of the military by the Melo Commission and Philip Alston, the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings.

“We continue to remain optimistic that our people will make its verdict on this government,” she added. Witnesses on the cases of extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances and torture were presented to the tribunal.

The five-day session is being held at the Christus Triumfatorkerk and will later be moved to Pax Christikerk in The Hague.

Human rights lawyer Romeo Capulong; Marie Hilao-Enriquez, secretary-general of Karapatan; and Bishop Elmer Bolocon of the United Church of Christ of the Philippines (UCCP) participated in the first hearing.

Karapatan has claimed that the total number of victims of extrajudicial killings in the country has reached 840 since Mrs. Arroyo took power in 2001.

Sen. Maria Ana Consuelo “Jamby” Madrigal is set to testify on the second day of the hearing in connection with charges of violations of economic, social and cultural rights.

Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo was supposed to testify but he was arrested in connection with the murder charges filed against him.

Hilao-Enriquez said she attended the tribunal to air her group's grievances against the Arroyo administration.

She said the PPT, being a people’s opinion court, offers an opportunity for human rights victims to be heard after the government and the military remained blind and deaf to their pleas.

Hilao-Enriquez said human rights victims in the Philippines refused to cooperate with two government investigations on extrajudicial killings after doubting the administration’s sincerity in solving the murders.

The PPT, an international opinion tribunal, hears complaints on violations of human rights filed by the victims themselves or groups representing them.

In 1980, the tribunal heard a case filed by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and the Moro National Liberation Front against former president Ferdinand Marcos.

PPT was the first international juridical body to condemn the Marcos dictatorship. PPT's second session on the Philippines came on the heels of a strong admonition issued by members of the US Senate’s Committee on Foreign Relations to Mrs. Arroyo to stop the extrajudicial killings in the Philippines.

The US Senate committee was convened last week to listen to testimonies of a church- and human rights-led delegation from the Philippines.

Before this, Alston confirmed reports of the Philippine military's alleged culpability for the crimes.

SOURCE: WWW.ABS-CBNNEWS.COM
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/topofthehour.aspx?StoryId=70958