This is a Report submitted to the Philippine UPR Watch.

On March 12, 2008 at 11:30 am, the Philippine NGO Delegation to the 7th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, composed of Karapatan Secretary General Marie Hilao-Enriquez, Karapatan Legal Counsel Atty. Edre U. Olalia, UCCP Pastor Juliet Solis-Aguilar, May Wan Posa Dominado of Desaparecidos, and Karapatan Volunteer in Switzerland Trisha Garvida, attended a meeting with the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) in the headquarters of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights at Palais Wilson, Geneva. Also present at the meeting were WGEID Chairperson Mr. Santiago Corcuera (Mexico); members Mr. Joel Adebayo Adekanye (Nigeria), Mr. Saied Rajaie Khorasani (Islamic Republic of Iran) and Mr. Darko Göttlicher (Croatia) and Associate Human Rights Officer Claudia de la Fuente.

May Wan discussed the abduction of her mother, Maria Luisa Posa Dominado, on April 12, 2007 in Oton, Iloilo. Luisa, a member of the SELDA and a campaigner for the Bayan Muna Partylist, was abducted together with Nilo Arado, the 6^th nominee of Anakpawis partylist in the May 2007 midterm election, chairperson of the BAYAN-Panay, national council member of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and chairperson of the farmers organization Paghugpong sang Mangunguma sa Panay kag Guimaras (PAMANGGAS).

The person who was driving the vehicle of the victims, Karapatan-Panay vice chairperson Jose Ely Garachico, was shot on the neck and left for dead but survived due to the help of witnesses. Luisa and Nilo are still missing and their cases have been filed with the WGEID on May 16, 2007 as Cases No. 10000599 and 10000600, respectively. The Philippine Government’s Reply to these cases accuses Luisa of being a member of the New Peoples Army (NPA). May Wan countered the charge and explained that Luisa even went to the police station prior to the abduction to report an incident when a Molotov was thrown at the printing house of the Bayan Muna located in their family’s property. May Wan likewise updated the working group that their petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus has been dismissed for lack of evidence as to the identity of the abductors and due to the fact that the respondents denied having Luisa and Nilo in their custody. The Writ of Amparo granted to them has been fruitless thus far. However, the Chief of the 32^nd Civil Relations Unit, Capt. Lowen Gil Marquez, admitted in his return to the writ that the intelligence report he related to the media of sightings of the victims with NPA was just his own personal opinion. The Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) have likewise failed to conclude their investigations after 11 months and have accused the families of the victims of being uncooperative.

The working group asked several questions about threats that the family have received and a call made by a woman which sounded like Luisa to SELDA member Fortunato Pelaez on August 28, 2007.

Marie Hilao-Enriquez talked about the continuing occurrences of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in the Philippines, relating to the working group the recent abductions of Flaviano Arante and Reynold Yanoc in Negros Oriental and the murder of Gerardo Cristobal, a union leader who survived a previous attempt on his life.

Atty. Edre Olalia encouraged the working group to consider two points which might be helpful to them; first, that there are several cases of victims who were made to sign under duress a document stating that they voluntarily surrendered themselves to the custody of security forces and second, that the military is using the writ of amparo against the human rights and people’s organizations. In fact, petitions for a writ of amparo against Karapatan, Bayan Muna and Kabataan Partylist have already been filed against these organizations.

The members of the working group commented that the writ of amparo must be directed against state security forces only. But Marie and Edre explained that in the Philippine writ of amparo, private individuals can also be the respondents to the petition, aside from state security forces.

Mr. Corcuera advised the Delegation to report this filing of writs of amparo against organizations that expose human rights violations also to the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders so that she can also write the government and ask on this petition.

The working group encouraged Marie to file the urgent appeal of Karapatan on the recent abductions and promised to continue to include the cases of Luisa and Nilo in their communications with the Philippine government.