Date of publication: December 8, 2006
Source: Inquirer (Philippines)
Attached Files
CEBU CITY -- An American human rights lawyer has been banned from the Philippines ahead of next week’s summit of Southeast
Asian leaders in Cebu province, officials said.
Brian Campbell of the Washington-based International Labor Rights Fund was detained at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport(NAIA) in Manila late Wednesday after flying in from the United States via Hong Kong.
Campbell, who wanted to attend a “jobs and justice” conference organized by activists on the sidelines of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit here, was put back on the next flight back to Hong Kong, immigration officials said Thursday.
“I can confirm a Brian Campbell was detained,” the head of immigration at the airport, Ferdinand Sampol, told Agence France Presse.
“He was put on the next flight back to Hong Kong,” he added without elaborating.
Campbell’s hosts denounced his deportation.
‘Caring and sharing?’
“We are deeply disappointed that the Philippine government, while supposedly promoting the vision of a caring and sharing community in the ASEAN, would deny a foreign delegate entry to our country just because he is deemed to have views that are different to the agenda in the ASEAN summit,” said Theresa Lauron, secretary general of the Asia Pacific Research Network (APRN), which invited Campbell.
In a press conference, Lauron said Campbell was a respected labor lawyer in Washington and they were puzzled why the government had barred him from entering the country.
“This is very disturbing, this is a perfectly legitimate conference that we would like to raise concern and yet this is what happened to
our participant who would want to show his solidarity not only with the Filipinos but with the whole of the working class,” she said.
She said this action was contrary to “the true spirit of community and democracy.”
Campbell, a labor rights lawyer, has since told his hosts he saw a government blacklist of “other names of human rights attorneys
who have also been barred entry,” the group’s statement said.
They included Rachel Lederman and Tina Monshipur Foster, who both took part in a recent fact-finding mission in Manila.
Protest plans
The Inquirer yesterday reported that Philippine authorities have a blacklist of some 150 foreign activists who will be banned from
entering the country while the ASEAN summit and associated meetings are in progress.
Hundreds of Filipino and foreign activists are descending on Cebu for planned protests around the summit.
Despite the earlier pronouncement of the police to implement a “no-permit, no-rally” policy and a warning of possible arrests of any
foreign activist taking part in rallies, militant groups said they would push through with their protests on Dec. 10-14.
Groups affiliated with the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), together with their foreign partners, yesterday opened the APRN “jobs and justice” conference at the auditorium of the Saint Theresa’s College on D. Jakosalem Street.
The conference was held simultaneously with the Dec. 7-10 ASEAN Business Forum which opened yesterday at the Cebu Waterfront Hotel, 2 kilometers away from the school.
Around 70 foreign partners have arrived and organizers are expecting at least 150 participants from the United States, Belgium, Germany, and France, according to APRN secretary general Lauron.
Another forum, dubbed the “International Conference on the US Militarism and War on Terror in Asia Pacific” will be held at the STC
auditorium on Dec. 9-10.
Lauron revealed that some of the foreigners will also participate in different activities initiated by local groups, such as Bayan and its
affiliates.
“We cannot stop out foreign allies who want to be in solidarity with Filipinos. A lot of protest activities have been scheduled and I
think it is well within their rights to show their solidarity with the Filipino people,” she said.
Not disruptive
Lauron said their activities were not meant to disrupt the summit but to also call attention to the need to address the interest of the
working class and not just of the rich and the investors.
“We are here to challenge our ASEAN leaders to remain true to the founding principle of the ASEAN which is national liberation,
anti-colonization and others. We are just trying to show to them what it really meant to develop genuine people’s cooperation and
solidarity,” she said.
She said she was thankful that the other foreign participants were able to arrive in Cebu on time. Some have passed through the
NAIA and others arrived on direct flights to Cebu from Hong Kong yesterday, she said.
Lauron said they were not perturbed by reports that APRN delegates have been placed under the police watch list because their
participants are not terrorists.
“There are no evil plans being hatched; these are not terrorists. These are respected people from the academe, professionals, who
are well known in their respective countries,” she said.
Chief Superintendent Silverio Alarcio Jr., police regional director and head of the summit’s security task force in Cebu, denied that
they would be placing the APRN’s foreign participants under surveillance.
‘Behave and follow law’
He, however, urged the foreign and local activists to “behave and follow” the law.
Alarcio said the Bureau of Immigration had already stated that foreign nationals could not participate in rallies.
He said the police and the BI have been coordinating closely on how to take custody of foreigners found taking part in protest rallies.
He said the police could not just arrest them because they had not been deputized by the bureau.
Other progressive groups, such as Akbayan, Freedom from Debt Coalition, Partido ng Manggagawa and Laban ng Masa had organized the ASEAN People’s Camp and Week of Action from Dec. 9-13.
Lito Vasquez of the FDC said the People’s Camp would be held on Dec. 12-13 on the University of the Philippines Cebu grounds. Tents will serve as venues for exhibits and forums.
Arman Perez, Bayan Muna secretary general for Central Visayas, said the groups planned to hold a protest march on Dec. 11 from
Fuente Osmeña park to the Cebu International Convention Center, a fluvial protest on Dec. 12, sectoral rallies on Dec. 13, and a
peace concert on Fuente Osmeña on Dec. 14.
Around 100 fishing boats will join the fluvial protest from Talisay to the first Mactan-Mandaue bridge.
They also plan to burn flags of the United States and Japan, which they blamed for the trade liberalization. Reports from Jhunnex
Napallacan, Inquirer Visayas, and Agence France-Presse