MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / July 26, 2013) – Foreign delegates who attended the recently concluded International Conference on Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines have urged the European Union to stop aid to the Aquino government and specifically withdraw a 10 million euro grant for the country’s Justice Support Program, organizers said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.
In a strongly worded resolution unanimously approved at the conclusion of the conference, the more than 250 international delegates said the Aquino government unjustly enjoyed aid from the European Union despite failing to stop extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and impunity.
“Impunity in the violations of human rights in the Philippines continues amidst the unjust and selfish interests of European big businesses and their equally greedy and corrupt Filipino collaborators in business and politics, that have resulted in unfair competition, corruption, environmental destruction, displacement of communities, maldevelopment, people’s resistance and state repression, are placed above the aspirations of the Filipino people for genuine democracy, social justice, development and peace,” the resolution said.
It also cited the unresolved killings of Dutch missionary Willem Geertman of the Netherlands, who was killed in Pampanga province, and Italian Catholic priest Fr. Fausto Tentorio, of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, in Mindanao.
The military is suspected behind their killings, human rights activists said.
Earlier, the family of Geertman took strong exception to the statements of EU ambassador Guy Ledoux lauding the Aquino government for its supposed improved human rights record and extending another 10 million euro aid in support of the European Union-Philippine Justice Support Program, supposedly to stop political killings.
20