Rafael Markus Bangit, an Indigenous peoples leader and Bayan Muna provincial coordinator, was shot dead in Isabela province (northern Luzon) by two masked gunmen. He was about to re-board a bus, while traveling with his son. He had earlier told colleagues that he believed he was under surveillance. Amid reports of ineffective investigations, and with witnesses and relatives of the victims too frightened to co-operate with the police, perpetrators were rarely brought to justice. In May, the authorities set up a special police investigative task force. However, only a limited number of people were arrested and few cases were filed in court by the end of the year, and no one was held accountable for cases stretching back to 2001. President Arroyo in August established a Commission of Inquiry, headed by former Supreme Court Justice Jos Melo, to investigate the killings and make recommendations for remedial action, including appropriate prosecutions and legislative proposals.
As military operations intensified, there were reports nationwide of arbitrary detentions, extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, torture and harassment of civilians suspected of being CPP-NPA supporters.
In February, Audie Lucero, a 19-year-old youth activist with the leftist Kilusan para sa Pambansang Demokrasya (Movement for National Democracy), disappeared after being questioned by soldiers and police at a hospital in Balanga City (Bataan, Luzon) about a wounded friend he had helped bring for medical attention. His body was found in a field the next day. The military reported that the wounded man was a rebel.
Also in February police arrested 10 youths aged between 19 and 24 and a 15-year-old girl, who had been hitchhiking in Benguet Province on their way to a music festival at the resort of Sagada. Most reported being beaten, suffocated with plastic bags and drenched with gasoline to force them to admit involvement in an NPA attack on a military detachment. The 11 were charged with robbery and homicide, and remained in detention until December.
Abolition of the death penalty
In April, President Arroyo announced the commutation of all death sentences. At least 1,230 prisoners had been sentenced to death since 1994. Death sentences were replaced with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Congress voted in favor of a Bill to repeal the death penalty law, and the President signed it in June. In 1987 the Philippines had become the first Asian country to abolish the death penalty for all crimes. However capital punishment was reintroduced in 1994, and seven prisoners were subsequently executed by lethal injection.
Mindanao peace process
Peace negotiations between the government and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) continued to make progress, albeit slowly. Disagreements continued over ancestral domain land claims and the amount of territory to be included in an expanded Muslim autonomous region as part of a peace settlement.
A ceasefire agreement was periodically broken by clashes between MILF and government forces. Sporadic bomb attacks on civilian targets were allegedly perpetrated by Islamists, some reportedly linked to the MILF. MILF leaders denied links with Jemaah Islamiyah, a regional network accused of involvement in violent or terrorist activity, or with Abu Sayaff, a Philippine Muslim separatist group responsible for kidnappings and killings of civilians.
In October the Senate amended an Anti-Terrorism Bill, including by reducing the time suspects could be detained without judicial authority, and by withdrawing clauses extending law enforcement powers to the military.
AI country reports/visits
Reports
Philippines: Political killings, human rights and the peace process (AI Index: ASA 35/006/2006)
Philippines: Towards ensuring justice and ending political killings (AI Index: ASA 35/010/2006)
Visits
AI delegates visited the Philippines in February during the State of Emergency and in December.
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