JAMES BALAO URGENT ALERT

FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE CORDILLERA PEOPLE'S ALLIANCE MISSING SINCE SEPTEMBER 17, 2008

UA CASE TYPE: Enforced Disappearance

VICTIM: James Moy Balao

- 47 years old, single, male
- Founding member, researcher, trainor and educator of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA)
- President of the Oclupan Clan Association
- An indigenous person belonging to the Kankanaey and Ibaloi tribes people of Benguet. He is also of Japanese and Chinese descent.

PLACE OF THE INCIDENT: Lower Tomay, La Trinidad, Benguet

DATE OF THE INCIDENT: 17 September 2008, between 8AM to 9 AM

ALLEGED PERPETRATORS: unidentified elements of the Intelligence Security Unit (ISU) and Military Intelligence Group (Region I) of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in collaboration with local Philippine National Police (PNP) units.

ACCOUNT OF THE INCIDENT:

On the morning of September 17, 2008 at 7 AM James Balao left his residence in Fairview, Baguio City, intending to go to his family residence in La Trinidad, Benguet. He informed his family that he was going home that day through a text message at about 6:45 am. He was not able to reach home and has not been in contact with his family or friends since, nor have they been able to contact him.

On October 3, friends and concerned individuals who responded to the information dissemination campaign reported that five armed men took James at gunpoint in front of the St. Therese Church at Lower Tomay, which is a few meters away from the gate of the Philippine National Police Regional Office-Cordillera Administrative Region (PRO-CAR), Camp Dangwa.

According to accounts and reports, on the morning of 17 September, at around 8:00 in Lower Tomay, La Trinidad, five (5) unidentified elements of the military/police who were in civilian clothes, alighted from a white vehicle that looked like a Mitsubishi Adventure or Revo. Two of them immediately thrust their hand pistols at the side of James. One immediately cuffed his hands as he cried, "Saludsuden yo man dagitoy nu ania ti basol ko? (Please ask them what I have done wrong?) Another, to prevent him from speaking more, covered the mouth of James and violently twisted his head to the side. The remaining one pointed his armalite at the shocked onlookers as he warned them not to interfere. He shouted "Pulis kami! Huwag kayong maki-alam! Drug pusher ito!" (We are the police! Do not interfere! He is a drug pusher!) Then he rode the vehicle and within hearing stated: "Diretso sa Camp Dangwa" (Proceed to Camp Dangwa.)

Aside from these five men, at least three (3) served as lookouts.

The accounts of many witnesses and sources have also validated our record that James has indeed been under surveillance.

As of this writing, we continue to search for the exact location of James. We continue to demand for his unconditional surfacing.

In the first week of April 2008 Balao began reporting regular surveillance to CPA and his family, which increasingly heightened until his disappearance last week. He had often observed white and blue vans tailing him from his residence on his daily chores.

According to a reliable source, Balao is even listed in the AFP dossier as the head of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Education Bureau in the Ilocos and Cordillera regions.

Balao is of medium build, approximately 5'7-5'9, and was last seen wearing a black jacket, brown pants, a visor, black hiking boats and eyeglasses. He was carrying a yellow and blue backpack and a red travelling bag.

The Cordillera Human Rights Alliance and CPA believes that state security forces as a part of their operations under Oplan Bantay Laya perpetrated the surveillance and enforced disappearance of Balao. This is a policy of unjustly categorizing people's organizations and their staff and volunteers as "front organizations" and "supporters" of the CPP-NPA, and to silence all those who are critics of the Arroyo government's anti-people policies. This policy has led to the surveillance, harassment and intimidation, abduction and killing of members and leaders of progressive people's organizations all over the country.

JAMES BALAO PROFILE:

James Moy Balao is a founding member of the Cordillera Peoples' Alliance (CPA). He was among the members of the Cordillera Consultative Committee who facilitated the establishment of the CPA in June 1984, and serviced the Alliance's needs in research and documentation, education and information dissemination, organizing and support-building during its formative years. He made invaluable contributions to elucidating the problem of national oppression, and the rights of indigenous peoples to ancestral land and to self-determination.

James holds a Bachelor's degree from the University of the Philippines, Baguio, where he double-majored in Psychology and Economics, and served as editor-in chief of the campus paper, Outcrop. Even before graduating in 1983, he had already started working full-time in research and education on Cordillera issues, as part of the implementing staff of the Cordillera Schools Group's Cordillera Studies Program. In 1986, he served on the staff of anthropologist Ponciano Bennagen, a member of the Constitutional Commission, assisting in the work of securing provisions for the rights of indigenous peoples in the 1987 Constitution. James is a member of the Episcopal Church of the Philippines (Anglican) and finished his elementary studies at Easter School in Baguio City, now Easter Colleges Inc.

When James returned from Manila, he became the first Head of the CPA's Education Commission. Except for a brief period of political detention in Banaue, Ifugao in 1988, he has since been assisting the various rural formations of the CPA with their research and education needs. From 1994 to 1997, he worked with the Ifugao Research and Development Center, and focused his studies on the situation of the Ifugao peasantry. He helped establish the Ifugao Peasant Leaders' Forum.

A native of Benguet and an indigenous person belonging to the Kankanaey-Ibaloi tribes, James is currently the President of the Oclupan Clan Association. Among his numerous responsibilities is the documentation and registration of the clan's properties. James is the eldest son of Arthur and Jane Balao of Atok and La Trinidad, Benguet. He was born on April 19, 1961.

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

WE APPEAL FOR YOUR URGENT RESPONSE TO THIS ACTION ALERT; YOUR URGENT RESPONSE MAY SAVE THE LIFE OF JAMES BALAO.

Please send letters or email messages calling for:

1. The immediate surfacing and release of James Balao by his captors.
2. The authorities to aggressively assist the Balao family, CHRA and CPA in their search for James Balao and conduct serious investigation and prosecution of those responsible in the enforced disappearance of James Balao.
3. Stop the policy of enforced disappearance and political persecution of indigenous peoples rights and human rights advocates, legitimate organizations and critics of the anti-people policies and programs of the Arroyo government.
4. The immediate termination of Oplan Bantay Laya which has labeled progressive and militant organizations such as the Cordillera Peoples Alliance as "sectoral fronts" of the Communist Party of the Philippines, National Democratic Front of the Philippines and the New Peoples Army.
5. The Philippine Government to observe the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and other international human rights laws and declarations such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

You may send your communications to:

H.E. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
President of the Republic
Malacañang Palace,
JP Laurel St., San Miguel
Manila Philippines
E-mail: corres@op.gov.ph / erermita@pop.gov.ph

Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process
7th Floor Agustin Building I
Emerald Avenue
Pasig City 1605
Email: osec@opapp.gov.ph

Sec. Gilberto C. Teodoro Jr.
Department of National Defense
Room 301 DND Building, Camp Emilio Aguinaldo,
E. de los Santos Avenue
Quezon City
Email: cs@dnd.gov.ph

Sec. Raul M. Gonzalez
Department of Justice
Padre Faura St., Manila
Email: info@doj.gov.ph

Hon. Leila De Lima
Chairperson, Commission on Human Rights
SAAC Bldg., UP Complex
Commonwealth Avenue
Diliman, Quezon City
Philippines
Email: atty_delima@yahoo.com.ph

ATTY. RUSSELL MA-AO
Regional Director
Commission on Human Rights - Cordillera Administrative Region
SSS Bldg., Harrison Road, Baguio City
Email: chrp_car@yahoo.com

ATTY. AMADOR P. BATAY-AN
Regional Director
NCIP-Cordillera Administrative Region
2/F Hillside Square, Km. 4, La Trinidad, Benguet Province, 2601
Tel. Fax no.: (074)422-41-73

ATTY. EUGENIO A. INSIGNE
Chairman
National Commission on Indigenous Peoples
2nd Floor N. dela Merced Building,
Cor. West and Quezon Avenues,
Quezon City, Metro Manila
Telephone (63 2) 373-97-87
Telefax (63 2) 373-97-65

MAJOR LLEWELLYN R. BINASOY
Chief Research & Special Concerns Division
Assistant Chief, AFP Indigenous Peoples Affairs Desk
Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Civil Military Operations
Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City

ATTY. SEDFRY CANDELARIA
Chairperson, Government of the Republic of the Philippines Section
Joint Monitoring Committee - CARHRIHL
6/F Immaculate Conception MultiPurpose Center,
41 Lantana St., Cubao
Quezon City, Philippines

Kindly furnish us a copy of your letter to the said government offices through the following email addresses: cpa@cpaphils.org, chra@cpaphils.org, d1nteg@yahoo.com.ph

URGENT ACTION Prepared by:
Cordilera Human Rights Alliance
No. 10 Rimando Road, Baguio City, 2600
Tel/Fax: 445-2586 cel:09189199007
email: chra@cpaphils.org/ d1nteg@yahoo.com.ph

CORDILLERA PEOPLES ALLIANCE
No. 2 P. Guevarra Street
West Modern Site Aurora Hill
Baguio City 2601
Philippines
Tel No: (063) (74) 442-2115
Fax: (063) (74) 443-7159
Email: cpa@cpaphils.org, pic@cpaphils.org
www.cpaphils.org