Speaking Truth to Power

Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (FIND)

In February of 1997 FIND's Search Team was working quickly in the early morning tropical sun to recover bodies from a clandestine cemetery. On a patch of ground now overgrown with banana trees they unearth the remains of bodies whose hands are bound behind their backs from a pit near a former encampment of the 44th Brigade on Mindanao Island in the Philippines. Empty whisky and Coke bottles were thrown in with the remains. They work carefully but quickly, concerned that some of the perpetrators living nearby may try to prevent them from recovering the remains. Although they already have obtained the only permit required from the local health officer, FIND is hesitant to ask or inform other authorities of their intentions. Their distrust of the authorities was reinforced a year before, when they informed the National Bureau of Investigation of FIND's intention to excavate a mass grave in Central Luzon Island. As they began full excavations they discovered that all the remains from it had been freshly removed to another unknown location. The Search Teams seek to discover the whereabouts of involuntarily disappeared persons for FIND, a grassroots organisation seeking the reappearance of family members and relatives for it's members. FIND began it's work under the Marcos regime and martial law in 1985. At first, their activities were restricted to the environs of the national capital, Manila, where the families whose members had been disappeared in the provinces had fled for safety. In 1986 the People Power Revolution managed to oust Marcos from power but the power structure remained. Under the subsequent Aquino government the counterinsurgency campaign known as Total War was launched to wipe out armed opposition groups, and the numbers of Filipino citizens who became involuntarily disappeared increased.

Initially only a campaign for the reappearance of family members, FIND has grown into a movement for justice and an action organisation during the past ten years. It has taken on many activities which should be the work of concerned governments: economic relief and psychological and emotional support for victimised families and children; investigation of cases of involuntary disappearance; exhumation of remains at suspected or known places of internment; identification of remains and determination of cause of death; and beginning this year filing of charges against perpetrators of the crimes of involuntary disappearance. The perpetrators of involuntary disappearance in the Philippines were: the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP); the Philippine National Police (PNP); and the paramilitary groups formed under military campaigns as civilian auxiliaries to the Army, sometimes known by the acronym of CAFGUs. Many of the units which perpetrated the violations during the counter insurgency campaign are still active. Some of the personnel known to have been involved in particular cases of disappearance are still in positions of authority. In the case of the exhumation mentioned at the beginning of this article, one known perpetrator is now the local inspector for the police. Official involvement explains the lack of follow-up by the authorities in these cases of disappearance. Since the State is the criminal, non-State entities such as FIND must take increasing responsibility in the search for the disappeared and for justice.

Resistance to FIND's activities reaches the highest levels of government in the Philippines. Involuntary Disappearance began as counterinsurgency activity during the Marcos regime by the Philippine National Constabulary (now merged into the PNP). The current president Fidel Ramos, was head of the PNC under Marcos and commander of the Armed Forces during the Total War campaign of the Aquino government. The military holds more political power now than at any other time in the past twenty years. Although the new constitution prohibits military officers on active duty from holding office, more than fifty high civilian offices in government are held by recently retired military men including the presidency. The military class which was formerly the agent of repression now controls most positions of formal power. Ironically, since Ramos has come to power, involuntary disappearance and other human rights abuses have dropped off radically. In part this is due to the diminished threat of armed opposition and a corresponding drop in counter insurgency activity by the military. Under Ramos, the government has shifted from a focus on Total War to one of Total Development. Under this new policy, many Filipino Human Rights activists feel that the government has maintained a war against the poor by sanctioning continued violations of rights, but now by non-State agents. (see Development Aggression)

Although human rights violations as a by-product of Total War no longer appear to be sanctioned by the State, no activity has taken place to bring the violators of past abuses to accountability. Such behaviour gives de facto impunity to prosecution for human rights violations and fosters an environment in which personnel involved in security agencies believe they are immune from prosecution for such crimes. This has led to a number of recent high profile crimes for profit by sections of the police in the Philippines.

FIND accepts that victims of involuntary disappearance by development aggression are human rights victims, regardless of the agency involved in perpetrating the crime. FIND is in the vanguard of organisations identifying and confronting the government of the Philippines for these privatised human rights violations. FIND is calling for the formal closure of a Task Force on Involuntary Disappearance authorised by Ramos by presidential decree. It feels the Task Force is an insincere initiative which has done nothing but provide a thin veneer of government concern without addressing the real issue.

In order to confront the lack of justice available within the Philippines, and highlight government resistance to meaningfully address the issue of involuntary disappearance, FIND has taken it's concerns into the international arena. FIND makes direct reports to the United Nations Human Rights Commission's Working Group on Involuntary Disappearances, and was instrumental in urging the Working Group to visit the Philippines. FIND maintains close links with International non-governmental agencies concerned with human rights, such as Amnesty International. FIND is also forging links with families of the disappeared groups in other nations, in particular Argentina, Bosnia and Mozambique in order to foster international understanding of the plight of families of victims of involuntary disappearance. Through it's international work, FIND hopes to forge a political environment in which nations will be forced to end the crime of disappearance.

It's been a long, long time we've been waiting. Not a single one of you have been found. We know that you did not get lost. For you were always on the correct and faithful path. Where are you our dear loved ones. We long to see even just your shadows. If you are being held can't they just let us see you? If you've been killed can't they just give us your body? We shall seek justice and victory shall surely bring to light." - from the FIND song Where Are You?

Development Aggression

Development Aggression is characterised by economic policies and projects whose costs are born primarily by rural and urban poor and whose benefits accrue to a small wealthy elite. Massive privatisation of public services and sale of national resources at subsidised or unreasonably cheap prices are typical actions of development aggression. A growing pattern of arbitrary detentions, disappearances and deaths of grassroots activists opposing such development' by agents for security services of private corporations is also emerging. Since the agents of abuse are non-State, technically this is crime, not human rights abuse. However, since the activities opposed are a result of state policy, human rights activists in the Philippines contend that victims of development aggression are human rights cases. Additionally the line between corporate security agencies and police is often blurred. Some work for the corporations as a second job. Others received their training and work experience with military or police forces before going private, but may retain active networks with officers still in public service. This situation is frequently facilitated by laws which favour the powerful at the expense of marginalised people, for example an indigenous tribe may have rights to use the surface of the earth, but the minerals beneath the surface belong to the State. Development Aggression violates in spirit and in action the basic tenants of the UN Declaration on the Right to Development. The Declaration considers development "comprehensive economic, social, cultural and political process which aims at the constant improvement of the well-being of the entire population and of all individuals on the basis of their active, free and meaningful participation in development and in the fair distribution of benefits resulting therefrom."

Involuntary Disappearance is described by Amnesty International as one of the most serious violations of human rights as it violates almost all basic rights. The families of the victims are also tortured by anxiety concerning the whereabouts and well-being of their loved ones. This torture lasts until the disappeared are found, alive or dead. For many, if not most, of the families of the victims, this means years or decades of uncertainty. From the United Nations Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance: "enforced or involuntary disappearance inflicts severe suffering on the persons subjected thereto, as well as on their families, and places them outside the protection of the law. It violates the rules of international law guaranteeing, the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law, the right to liberty and security of person, the right not to be subjected to torture. It violates or constitutes a grave threat to the right to life. The systematised practice of such enforced or involuntary disappearance is a crime against humanity."

Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan

Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan was a member of the Exploratory Team of Peace Brigades International to the Philippines in February of 1997 which was responding to a request by the FIND organisation.