KA SATUR’s ARRIVAL – April 10
It was past midnight or more accurately very early Friday morning, April 11 when Ka Satur finally came down from the airplane. The rest of the passengers on the plane had all come down and were already picking up their luggage when finally Ka Satur came out the door. He met some Filipino families waiting for their relatives.
RADIO CKJS INTERVIEW – April 11 Ka Satur woke up early for the live interview at the radio program “Good Morning Philippines” at CKJS 810 AM. Lito Taruc, news director of the radio
program warmly welcomed Ka Satur and Orli to the studio booth.
Lito had ready questions for Ka Satur ranging from the purpose of the solons’ Canadian tour to the rice crisis in the Philippines. At exactly 8:00 am the live interview at the radio station started. Lito Taruc asked several questions such as the purpose of his trip to Canada. Taruc also asked how many journalists have been killed, the latest news on the disappearance of Jonas Burgos and the looming rice crisis in the Philippines.
Ka Satur gave a detailed account of evidences gathered, linking the military to the abduction of Jonas Burgos and the military’s continued denial of its participation in the abduction. Ka Satur narrated how the Supreme Court initiated actions such as the writ of amparo and writ of
habeas data have been availed by victims’ families.
Other topics discussed briefly in the interview were:
- Pesos 125 daily minimum wage
- overseas Filipino workers
- Spratlys Island
- Senate Blue Ribbon committee
- The need for reconsideration of the Supreme Court decision upholding the Secrecy or privileged status of communication by the Executive branch
- Human rights group in Japan decried the extrajudicial killings in the Philippines
Likewise, he discussed the continuing political repression and the continuing climate of impunity pervading in the country as the perpetrators of the killings and abductions remain scot-free.
The victims and their families continue to cry out for justice.
At around 9:30 am, Ka Satur went to the Manitoba Legislature, which had morning session on Friday. Ka Satur, Orli, an official tour guide and driver and Mayon Marcelino, cinematographer were seated in the Speaker’s gallery as guests of House Speaker George Hickes. Before the Question Period started Speaker Hickes introduced Ka Satur to the House.
MEDIA INTERVIEW
At 10:15 am, Ka Satur was interviewed by Winnipeg Free Press correspondent Allie Walld at Broadway Disciples Church. The article written by Allie Walld was published the following day, April 12. Before the interview, Ka Satur received a text message from Geneva saying that Canada, together with 18 other countries raised their strong concerns of the continued political repression in the Philippines and the lack of concrete steps in implementing Philip Ashton’s recommendation to solve the extra judicial killings.
LUNCH WITH THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE
At noon was a private lunch at the Legislative Bldg. dining room hosted by House Speaker George Hickes. There were only seven people in the room so the exchange of pleasantries and stories were candid and animated-- with the Speaker sharing some very interesting stories in the course of fulfilling his duties.
MEETING THE PREMIER OF MANITOBA
At 2pm, Ka Satur with representatives from Youth, Daisydee Bautista of University of Winnipeg-Filipino Students Association, Susan Rodriguez from Grassroots women, Les Crisostomo, a filipino elder, and Orli Marcelino of Damayan, met with the Premier of Manitoba, Gary Doer and MLA Flor Marcelino.
Ka Satur thanked the premier for Canada’s strong stand against continued political repression in the first-ever Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on the Philippines’ human rights record at the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC).
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EXCERPT OF CONVERSATION between Congressman Satur Ocampo and Premier Gary Doer of Manitoba at Manitoba Legislature
Doer: Welcome to Manitoba. I know Flor has been with you and have met Les Crisostomo. We welcome you to Manitoba and we had a wonderful visit to the Philippines. We are very proud of the activities
Satur: I am pleased and very honoured to be able to visit Manitoba Legislative Assembly. I am an opposition, deputy minority leader, two other colleagues only one able to come to Winnipeg we are basically following through with an international campaign to put pressure on our government to stop the political killings that has been building up since 2001 to 2007 a perceptible abatement in the rate of killings but nonetheless 60 cases already at the beginning of this year. We intended to present the case to the subcommittee on human rights to Parliament I was elated to get a report this morning that the delegation of the Canadian government at the United Nations Human Rights Council had made a very strong statement that killings and the failure of the government to hasten the prosecution of the perpetrators. This is the issue of impunity that is more important to us because if none of the perpetrators of these killings are
brought to justice there is no guarantee that it could be stopped. Apparently there has been a coming around on the part of the Canadian government.
I think representations from some constituencies here of Filipinos and Canadians and also representations of human rights organizations. It is very important that this is followed through with the Philippine government. I am also interested in learning about the conditions of Filipinos
here. I’m glad to find out that only in Manitoba is the government making an inquiry into the cases of caregivers – the live-in caregiver program which is a subject of our questions in the House of Representatives of our inquiry on how we maybe work together to improve the conditions of our overseas workers that are coming in here as live-in caregivers. I read the
literature that it is your government in Manitoba that is addressing these issues already. I am glad to hear and know about that.
Doer: Thank you very much. Certainly we welcome you here and we support all efforts to ensure that people can participate and disagree in a democracy but that is not, they do not have to put their life at risk as part of a democratic process. So I know that the people living in Manitoba from the Philippines with strong roots and family in the Philippines have different political views here. There are different political views here (and) sometimes when the government changes there is different views in the community. But there is no disagreement on the democratic right to participate and debate and to be free of fear and favor from the government of the day. So I am pleased that Canada generally has supported human rights in all democracies or alleged democracies in the world, including in the Philippines. I know the human rights group of the United Nations is reviewing some of the specific cases. We certainly obviously as one government do not interfere in the affairs of democracy in the Philippines but we do value human rights. In fact we are very proud that the Canadian Human Rights Museum will be locating with help from the Philippine community here, in Winnipeg and for the whole country.
We also supported the idea of improving the immigration protection for Philippine people particularly in the area of immigration recruiters ensuring there is the standards of rights for people that are recruited in terms of what they can expect into Manitoba and as you said included in that is the rights of people when they are here as care givers to make sure there
is no abuse or any using of visa as lever to have people living in horrible working condition or deficient human rights as people working here so we really do appreciate your advice in this regard. We are careful not to interfere with the internal politics of any government but we do stand for human rights as well as a Canadian people.
Satur: I think we share the same view with regards to human rights it’s an international universal interest. It is not necessarily intervention and when a government calls attention on another when human rights violations are being committed it is a two way traffic and we are looking towards building a stronger relationship with your government and our people with the increasing number of people coming to Canada in the foreseeable future.
Doer: Do you have the time when the human rights reports to come up of the United Nations. I heard it is expected shortly on some of the issues that have been raised by people from the Philippines on treatment of political opponents and the extreme treatment of individuals killed for political dissent.
Satur: our focus here is to convince the president to implement the recommendations of the Alston report. Mr. Alston was able to establish quite clearly what he called two initiatives of the president can explain the increasing incidences of human rights violations particularly the extra
judicial killings. One was the infusion of extra judicial killings as an element in the counter insurgency operation and the anti terrorism operation. And secondly some innovations in the prosecutorial system in the preparation of cases for the national security in which the prosecutor is made to work hand in glove with the military for the security forces. It is not the justice dept but the national intelligence security board that is guiding the preparation of cases. And incidentally we are targets, victims of those cases one of which significantly was reviewed by the Supreme Court and ordered dismissed with the sanction of the dept of justice that it should
not allow its prosecutors to be influenced by political considerations in the preparation of cases. So Mr. Alston saw through that and says the best thing to do is to abolish that agency instead of running after the perpetrators or the killers it is targetting the victims. So this is a very important point.
Doer: Yes we certainly again will watch this very carefully as a province which deals with the national government. I am pleased to hear that you feel Canada is on your side in terms of these issues. I don’t expect any weakening of that position by Canada because of our long tradition of
supporting democracy not only the party that wins but also the right of dissent and opposition in an adversarial system all of us who have been in government have been opposition leaders before. Or most of us have been in opposition before for too long. So it is very much a part of our
democracy. (a full transcript of the meeting will follow)
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PRESS CONFERENCE
At 3:00 pm, after the meeting with Premier Gary Doer and MLA Flor Marcelino, Ka Satur went straight to the press conference. There were 4 newspaper editors present. Unfortunately, Global TV and CBC TV got lost and did not show up. Later, we learned that CKND-TV had a story on Ka Satur’s meeting with the Premier Gary Doer which was shown on the evening news using the press release sent to them and the video footage of the meeting with Premier Gary Doer.
PRE-CBC RADIO INTERVIEW
Immediately after the press conference was a telephone pre-interview with Farah of CBC Radio for Anna Marie Tremonti of the Current, a popular nationally-aired radio program.
(CBC Radio interview with solons link (at the site please scroll to the bottom and press "Play Part Three"): http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2008/200804/20080415.html
QUICK REST
Ka Satur had a quick change of clothes and a 10-minute nap.
PULONG BAYAN - THE FORUM
The forum at Broadway Disciples United Church last night was well attended. We had an early count of 159 in attendance around the middle part of the forum. Some more people came later on. The forum started with the video showing – Philippines, Waging War on its People, a film by Malcom Guy and Marie Boti. The people were gripped by the powerful and emotional appeal of the life of Dr Chandu Claver and his family.
After the video presentation, Fagie Fainman of Grassroots Women introduced her “hero,” Ka Satur. She told the story how she met the man during her first visit to the Philippines in 2002 as part of Canadian factfinding delegation in Mindanao.
Ka Satur spoke passionately for three hours and people stayed until the very last hour. He spoke about the killings, when it started, his comparison of the present regime to the late dictator Marcos, the continuing hardships of the Filipino people. Ka Satur’s 40 years of struggle could not be told for one night only. The audience listened intently as Ka Satur narrated the persecution and the killings of Bayan Muna’s men and women, members of clergy, journalists, human rights lawyers, workers, activists, trade unionists.
It was getting late and there was no sense of the forum ending yet so Orli, the emcee announced that people could take their dinner and go back to the seats to listen to Ka Satur. Some people did not leave their seats when told to get their food so as not to miss out on what Ka Satur was saying. In a way last night’s dinner could serve as Ka Satur’s birthday celebration. We had pancit, fried chicken, pandesal and butter, french fries and a variety of fresh fruits.
Q & A
Before the Question and Answer portion, a young lady, Daren Nuevo sang “Buksan ang Iyong Puso.” The Q&A moderator was Alex Beltran, a former UST professor. There were lots of questions like Ka Satur’s past as a rebel, his advice for young people, how he could go on with the
struggle, the rice crises, the killings and the graft and corruption. Ka Satur received two standing ovations at the forum.
FORUM’S END
After the Q&A, he was mobbed by the crowd: students, middle-aged and like a celebrity, they sought to be photographed with him. One guy even asked for his autograph. After the forum, a lot of people congratulated us, Damayan.MB for bringing Ka Satur to Winnipeg, for a job well done!!! We had to tell them again like what we said in the beginning of the forum that this solons tour was a concerted effort of different organizations.
THE MORNING AFTER
Ka Satur left for Montreal at 8 am after a 10-minute breakfast. In three hours it would be Montreal community who will be blessed and inspired with his story of love for our country and our peoples’ struggles for justice and sovereignty. CLEARLY, this leg of this solons’ tour is part of bigger campaign –to stop the extra-judicial killings in the Philippines and it happened as a culmination of a very well organized plan of groups of dedicated individuals from the Philippines
to Canada, from Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.
DAMAYAN.MB thanks all who participated and contributed to the success of this great event!!! In Winnipeg, the Solons’ tour was co-sponsored by St. Stephens Broadway Foundation, Broadway Disciples United Church, CKJS, UW-FSA, UM-Sigaw and the Philippine Times.
