[news] Leading Philippines human rights advocate to address national conference

[BCCHRP]

For immediate release
November 18, 2002

Leading Philippines human rights advocate to address national conference

(Vancouver, Canada) – Leading Philippines human rights advocate and former
political prisoner, Marie Hilao-Enriquez, is set to address a national
conference in Vancouver to mark International Human Rights Day.

Continuing our Journey in Solidarity: Towards Human Rights and a Just and
Lasting Peace in the Philippines will take place at Shaughnessy Heights
United Church, 1550 W. 33rd Avenue, Vancouver, from the evening of December
6, 2002 to December 7, 2002.  The B.C. Committee for Human Rights in the
Philippines (BCCHRP) is hosting the conference.  Other organizations,
including the BC Conference of the United Church (Global and Societal
Ministries), have also endorsed the conference.

Hilao-Enriquez heads the national alliance of human rights organizations in
the Philippines called KARAPATAN (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s
Rights).  Formed in 1995, Karapatan includes over forty member organizations
from around the Philippines.  The alliance has worked tirelessly to document
human rights violations, promote freedom for political prisoners, expose and
oppose militarization and fascism, and to demand justice for victims of
human rights violations.

Karapatan recently criticized the Philippine government of President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo for being responsible for the disappearances of 14
individuals, many of whom were political critics and militant community
leaders opposed to Arroyo's anti-people policies.

“We are the families and friends of the disappeared.  We are those whose
loved ones are believed to have been abducted, tortured, or even killed by
the military in previous and present governments,” said Hilao-Enriquez in a
press statement.  “The government has time and again shown a lack of moral
courage in excorcizing its past and present demons. The disappearances, all
acts of terrorism perpetrated by the government, must immediately be put to
a stop.”

Hilao-Enriquez, a political prisoner under the Marcos dictatorship, also
headed recent fact-finding missions to Mindanao, the heavily-militarized
area of the Southern Philippines.  Since January 2001, over 4,000 U.S.
troops have been deployed to the Philippines, opening up the second front in
the U.S.-led “war against terrorism.”  The fact-finding missions exposed the
impacts of militarization upon the civilian population in the area.

In addition, Hilao-Enriquez is a leading figure in the landmark class action
suit of human rights victims against the Marcos family.  She was also
nominated as an independent observer to the Joint Monitoring Committee that
was to be set up under recently-stalled peace negotiations between the
National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Government of
the Republic of the Philippines (GRP).

BCCHRP urges people to register for the conference to learn about the
current situation in the Philippines and join in solidarity with the
Filipino people in their ongoing struggle for human rights, sovereignty and
a just and lasting peace.

-30-

For further information or to set up interviews, please contact Ted
Alcuitas, BCCHRP Media Contact at 604.215.1905 or by E-mail at
bcchrp at telus.net <mailto:bcchrp at telus.net>



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