American activist blacklisted, barred from entering the Philippines

By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – A US-based activist was barred from entering the Philippines to attend the national congress of human rights group Karapatan.

Copeland Downs, chairperson of the Portland Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (PCHRP), arrived in Manila on Oct. 6 to observe Karapatan’s 6th national congress. But he was barred from entering the Philippines and was held by the Bureau of Immigration (BI) for hours at the Manila International Airport. His luggage was searched and his passport was held.

According to the International Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines-US (ICHRP-US), Downs was told that he cannot enter the Philippines because he is on a blacklist for “attending a rally in 2022” in the Philippines. He was sent back on a flight to the US without further explanation.

The ICHRP-US condemned what they call as unjust denial and blacklisting of Downs. They said the blacklisting of Downs is a clear retaliation for “exposing the truth about the illegitimate Marcos Jr regime.”

The group said that Downs did not participate in a protest in the country. He was in the Philippines during the 2022 national elections as part of the International Observers Mission (IOM) organized by ICHRP Global. In this mission, the IOM documented widespread vote-buying and failures in the electronic vote counting machines, harassment and intimidation, political arrests and detention, and numerous incidents of deadly violence.

Read: ‘Elections in PH not free and fair’ – int’l observers mission

“Despite the government’s claims, Copeland did not participate in any protests during the IOM,” the ICHRP-US said in a statement.

“We must question why the Philippine Government does not want international human rights advocates entering the country, especially in light of the upcoming Midterm Elections in the Philippines as we can expect them to be marred by similar incidents of fraud and violence as the Marcos and Duterte cliques are vying to maintain their wealth and power over the country,” the group said.

Karapatan also denounced the denial of Downs entry to the Philippines.

Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said that “like the previous regimes, the Marcos Jr. administration resorts to violations of the people’s right to international solidarity, to freedom of movement, and of other civil liberties to whitewash and hide the human rights and international humanitarian law violations that it commits against the Filipino people.”

Downs was invited to attend Karapatan’s national congress as an observer in the sessions.

“International solidarity groups and allies, as well as observers, who keenly monitor the human rights situation in the Philippines are put and kept on an insidious and arbitrary immigration blacklist. They are painted as criminals and terrorists in a desperate attempt to stop or derail them from speaking out in their countries on the extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, arbitrary arrests and detention, and bombings and forcible evacuation in communities, among others, that are occurring in the Philippines,” Palabay added.

This incident was one of the many cases where solidarity activists were denied entry to the Philippines.

In 2018, Australian law professor and a long-time human rights advocate in the Philippines, Gil Boehringer, was barred from entering the Philippines as his name was included in the blacklist on allegations that he attended a protest in the Philippines. Even Filipino activists who were based abroad and came to visit their families in the country are also being blacklisted and denied entry.

Read: Australian human rights defender blacklisted, held at Manila airport

Read: Int’l rights groups condemn detention, deportation of Dutch-Filipino activist

Read: Right groups condemn deportation, blacklisting of Filipino-Swiss youth leader

Meanwhile, missionaries who are based in the Philippines were also deported by the State such as the case of Australian nun Patricia Fox and Dutch lay missionary Otto de Vries.

ICHRP Global has documented 17 incidents of attacks against solidarity activists and members of ICHRP since 2018. These attacks include surveillance of solidarity activists while visiting the Philippines, harassment via placing tarpaulins up in the Philippines calling activists supporters of terrorist groups, red tagging ICHRP members on social media, and tagging state forces in Canada about ICHRP events.

“Meanwhile, Marcos Jr. lays out the red carpet for foreign troops of the US, Canada, Australia, Japan and others in joint military exercises that foment war in the Asia Pacific region and endanger the lives of Filipinos,” Palabay pointed out.

Karapatan called for the junking of the policy banning international solidarity activists through immigration blacklists. They emphasized their call to the international community to strengthen its monitoring role and solidarity efforts on the human rights situation in the Philippines. (RTS)