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Honorable Ambassador:
We Villa Maria residents are, for example, very distressed to learn of the
imposition and utilization of the “Oplan Bantay Laya,” a governmental counter-
insurgency program. This program reminds us too much to the pain caused in
our country in the 1970’s and 1980’s when the state government engaged in
terrorist tactics against its own citizens. According to the information we’ve
received about Oplan Bantay Laya, since 2001 in the Philippines, 205 people
have “disappeared,” 1,191 people have been extra-judicially executed, and 1,949
civilians have been arrested and tortured.
Among examples of the latter is the case of the “The Moron 43,” a group of
health and social workers who have been arrested and accused of being part of
a political organization in which they did not participate.
In addition we learned of the very recent case of Samson Mike Rivera, a human
rights activist and pastor who was murdered right in front of his church on May
17, 2010 just before assisting his congregation. Pastor Rivera was shot twice by
two men in a motorcycle. He had publicly denounced the disappearances and
murders of civilians in the Philippines, and he had been working with PIOM 2010
(the People’s International Observers Mission, in the 2010 Philippine elections).
Despite mainstream Philippine media claims to the contrary, the recent elections
were neither “peaceful” nor “clean”: a total of 31 people were killed in election-
related violence.
Sincerely,
Firman: