Remembering the Disappeared: Survivor of Torture and Abduction in the Philippines Appeals to UN Special Rapporteur on Torture for Justice

MEDIA ADVISORY
August 22, 2011

Contact: Kuusela Hilo
Email: info@justiceformelissa.org

Remembering the Disappeared: Survivor of Torture and Abduction in the Philippines Appeals to UN Special Rapporteur on Torture for Justice

What: Justice for Melissa Press Conference; Appeal to UN Special Rapporteur on Torture.

Where: Immanuel Presbyterian Church
3300 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90010

When: Thursday, August 25, 2011, 6 PM – 7 PM

*** PHOTO OPPORTUNITY ***

Los Angeles, CA. In commemoration of the International Day of the Disappeared, Melissa Roxas, a torture survivor who was disappeared for six days at the hands of the Philippine military, will file an official appeal to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Professor Juan Mendez to help remove roadblocks to her pursuit of justice. Working with a team of world-renowned international human rights lawyers who have joined the Justice for Melissa Roxas campaign, Roxas will ask the Rapporteur to call on the Philippine government to fully disclose all information regarding Roxas’ case, cooperate with investigations, pursue charges against those responsible for her abduction and torture, and extend an invitation to the Rapporteur to conduct a visit to the Philippines to investigate the human rights situation.

On Thursday evening, human rights defenders and survivors of human rights violations from different countries will join Roxas for a special press conference to shed light on the continuing impunity in the Philippines and hope for justice for all victims of torture and disappearance worldwide. Victoria Don, Esq., Schonbrun DeSimone Seplow Harris Hoffman & Harrison, LLP; Julie Gutman, Executive Director of Program for Torture Victims; Marvyn Perez, survivor of torture from Guatemala; and Rev. David Farley, United Methodist Church, with the Justice for Melissa campaign, will be featured speakers for this press conference.

In May 2009, while doing community health work in the Philippines, Roxas became the first American citizen under the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo administration to be abducted and tortured by members of the Philippine military. When she surfaced six days later, Roxas became one of only a handful of survivors who lived to recount her ordeal.

BAYAN USA, GABRIELA USA, Program for Torture Victims (PTV), Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International (TASSC), Habi Arts, Sisters of Gabriela Awaken, Filipino Migrant Center, San Francisco Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, Babae San Francisco, Anakbayan San Diego, Anakbayan Los Angeles and other organizations are co-sponsoring this Justice for Melissa Press Conference.

“Amigo” Film Screening and Discussion

Sunday, August 21, 2011, 1:00 PM (with discussion at nearby restaurant after film screening)
Laemmle’s Monica 4-Plex
1332 2nd Street
Santa Monica, CA 90401

Film screening organized by Breakthrough! For questions or to reserve your $6 discounted tickets, email cfljustice@gmail.com or info@habi-arts.org.

After the screening, Breakthrough! and Habi Arts will sponsor a discussion about the film at a nearby restaurant. Stay tuned or attend the film screening for details.

Synopsis

AMIGO, the 17th feature film from Academy Award-nominated writer-director John Sayles, stars legendary Filipino actor Joel Torre as Rafael, a village mayor caught in the murderous crossfire of the Philippine-American War.

When U.S. troops occupy his village, Rafael comes under pressure from a tough-as-nails officer (Chris Cooper) to help the Americans in their hunt for Filipino guerilla fighters. But Rafael’s brother (Ronnie Lazaro) is the head of the local guerillas, and considers anyone who cooperates with the Americans to be a traitor. Rafael quickly finds himself forced to make the impossible, potentially deadly decisions faced by ordinary civilians in an occupied country.

A powerful drama of friendship, betrayal, romance and heartbreaking violence, AMIGO is a page torn from the untold history of the Philippines, and a mirror of today’s unresolvable conflicts.

More Information

Visit http://amigomovie.com

Commemorating the Two-Year Anniversary of Melissa’s Survival

PRESS STATEMENT
May 19, 2011

Reference: Bernadette Ellorin
Chairperson, BAYAN USA
Email: chair@bayanusa.org

Filipino-Americans, Supporters Across US Stand With Melissa Roxas: BAYAN-USA Statement on the 2nd Year Anniversary of the Abduction and Torture of Founding Member

On the second year anniversary of the abduction and torture of Filipina-American human rights advocate Melissa Roxas by elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Filipino-Americans under the banner of BAYAN USA and supporters across the United States reaffirm our support for Melissa and commitment to the pursuit of justice by way of demanding for an ongoing investigation and prosecution of the perpetrators.

The recent Commission on Human Rights (CHR) resolution absolving the AFP on the abduction at gunpoint that took place on May 19, 2009, while Melissa and two of her companions were conducting a community survey in preparation of a rural medical mission in La Paz, Tarlac lines up with the current Aquino administration’s overall cover-up of the crimes and human rights atrocities committed by its predecessor– Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. On July 2009, Melissa returned to the Philippines to testify in front of the CHR the details of her ordeal, under the protection of former chairperson Leila de Lima, while the latter gathered corroborating evidence as the result of an ocular investigation of nearby Fort Magsaysay, headquarters of the 7th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army, pointing to the culpability of the Philippine military.

It must be noted that shortly after assuming the office of presidency, Aquino appointed rabid red-baiter Etta Rosales to replace de Lima as the chair of the CHR, casting a questionable light on the integrity of the office to be objective and credible in handling cases of regular abuses committed against legal activists and dissidents associated with the aboveground Philippine Left. As a former House Representative of the party-list Akbayan, Rosales participated in McCarthyist tactics along with fellow Akbayan Representative Walden Bello to blur the distinct lines between the unarmed, aboveground left and the armed underground left, resulting in the wholesale targeting of legal civilian activists in the bloody counter-insurgency campaign of the Arroyo government known as Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL). In line with this, even a US citizen such as Melissa, who was volunteering for a medical mission for a poor community, was not exempt from being subjected to 6 days of heavy torture by her captors who attempted to force her to admit that she was a member of the New Peoples Army (NPA), which she refused to do.

Despite campaign promises to investigate and prosecute the wrongdoings of the Arroyo administration, the Aquino government has coddled known human rights abusers in the Arroyo administration. Not one from the over 1,200 cases of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances under Arroyo’s counter-insurgency campaign OBL has seen an arrest nor a trial. Instead, the same pattern continues under Aquino’s version Oplan Bayanihan, which additionally purports so-called community development in the most marginalized areas of the Philippines as the unabated killings of unarmed civilian legal activists continue.

As an alliance of 14 Filipino organizations across the US, of which Melissa was a founding member back in 2005, BAYAN USA has lost confidence in the integrity of the justice system in the Philippines to resolve Melissa’s case. Sadly the Aquino administration, like the Arroyo administration, has amply proven its platform of lawlessness and non-interest in putting a leash on the mercenary-character of the Philippine military, one of the largest beneficiaries of US military aid in Asia.

As Melissa continues to tell her story to listeners across the United States, a real peoples movement is growing in support of Melissa. This includes seeking justice by way of international venues and particularly the court system in the United States, which set a precedent when it ruled in favor of the thousands of victims of human rights abuses under the dictatorship of the former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos.This also includes building the movement in the US to cut US tax dollar support to the Philippine military.

Now that she is no longer protected by sovereign immunity under the presidential office, the time is ripe to arrest and prosecute Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her ilk for similar crimes against humanity. BAYAN USA will stand with Melissa and all other victims of human rights abuses in the Philippines for however long it takes for justice to be served.

Justice for Melissa Roxas!
Prosecute Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo!
Justice for All Victims of Human Rights Violations in the Philippines!
Scrap Oplan Bayanihan!
Stop US Military Aid to Philippine Death Squads!

Open Letter to Demand Justice for Melissa Roxas

Please sign the open letter to demand justice for Melissa Roxas by clicking here.

Roxas’ Hometown Rallies to Demand Justice Now

MEDIA ADVISORY
Contact: Kuusela Hilo
Justice for Melissa Roxas Campaign
Email: info@justiceformelissa.org
Website: www.justiceformelissa.org

Los Angeles Community Stands with Melissa to Condemn Philippine Government’s On-Going Cover-up of Enforced Disappearances and Torture

What: Emergency Rally
Where: Philippine Consulate, 3600 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90010
When: Wednesday, April 27, 2011, 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM

*Photo Opportunity

Los Angeles, CA – On Wednesday, grassroots organizations and church leaders will rally in front of the Philippine Consulate with  Melissa Roxas, the first American to have survived abduction and torture in the Philippines during the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration. Supporters of the Justice for Melissa Roxas campaign are outraged at the Commission on Human Rights’ Resolution that protects the torturers and abandons the facts that Roxas courageously shared under oath with the CHR and the world in 2009 so that the perpetrators could be brought to justice.

Now almost two years since Roxas was abducted and tortured, there is still no justice for Roxas and all the other victims of human rights violations committed by Arroyo and her military.  BAYAN USA, National Alliance for Filipino Concerns, Rosewood United Methodist Church Advocacy Group, Rosewood United Methodist Women, Filipino Ministry of the Diocese of San Bernardino, AnakBayan LA, SiGAw!, Habi Arts, the Filipino Migrant Center and the Filipino American Health Workers Association will be joining the emergency rally.

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