Deported activists seek apology from Korean govt

Six of the eight Filipino activists who were supposed to attend the G20 Summit in South Korea but were instead deported have asked the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to seek an apology from the Korean government on their behalf. In their complaint letter addressed to DFA Secretary Alberto Romulo, the six members and leaders of various people’s organizations said the “irregular" deportation had humiliated them and was a violation of their rights. The signatories were cultural artist Jesus Manuel Santiago; Jo Enrica Enriquez, executive director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women-Asia Pacific; Joseph Purugganan, a coordinator from Focus on the Global South; Joshua Fred Mata, secretary-general of the Alliance of Progressive Labor; Ma. Lorena Macabuag, a project coordinator from Migrant Forum in Asia; and Joan Bernice Coronacion of the World March of Women. “The entire deportation caused us numerous violations of rights. We were prevented from participating and speaking in meetings, forcibly returned, unjustly charged financially with our repatriation. The repatriation order handed to us was written in a language not understandable to us. Our travel documents were withheld. Our integrity as persons was assaulted as we were deported uninformed of any reason, without committing any crime, and as we were escorted or forcibly dragged into the plane," the group said in the letter. “This is an insult to civil society, and a dangerous precedent for the social movements, in general. We consider our experience to be an affront by the Korean Government on the Filipino people and the Philippine Government," they added. The six were asking the DFA to file a protest against the Korean government and demand a public apology. They are also asking that their names be removed from Korea’s blacklist Apart from the six, two others were likewise deported by the Korean government. They were Roger Soluta, secretary-general of Kilusang Mayo Uno, and Paul Quintos, international policy officer of Ibon Foundation. Detained w/o explanation The deportation occurred over the weekend as the South Korean government tightened security measures for the semi-annual G-20 summit, a conference of government leaders from the world’s developed and emerging economies, happening in Seoul on Thursday and Friday. Quintos said he was detained at the Incheon International Airport as early as Friday, while Santiago, Soluta, Mata, Purugganan, Macabuag and Quintos arrived the next day. All six of them were forced to take the 9:30 p.m. flight back home the next day. On the other hand, Coronacion arrived in Seoul on Sunday and Enriquez, on Wednesday. Both were deported on the same day they arrived. Based on their statements, all eight were detained at the airport for hours without any explanation, escorted to and from the airport’s immigration office for questioning, and their passports were returned to them only after they boarded their flights back home. They were supposed to attend alternative fora and demonstrations organized by civil society groups in South Korea. “As I was being deported earlier, I felt the humiliation of farmers being banished from their lands, of Dalits being made to clean up public excrement, of indigenous peoples being thrown out of ancestral domains," said Enriquez, one of this year’s awardees for The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service. “The deportation only exposed further the illegitimacy of the G20 and the bankruptcy of its agenda to defend and preserve a failed development model," added Purugganan. DFA acting on incident In a separate interview, DFA spokesperson Eduardo Malaya said it has already acted on the incident. “The Philippine Embassy in Seoul has requested a clarification from the (Korean) immigration and other appropriate agencies, and the Embassy is awaiting their reply," Malaya said. Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile earlier warned against filing a diplomatic protest against South Korea, saying the deportation is a function of the government and filing a protest may strain the relations between the two nations. “We cannot question the prerogative of the sovereign state unless we have battle ships and squadron of planes to make good our assertions," he said. This came after Presidential Communications Operations Office head Herminio Coloma Jr. said Malacañang might file a diplomatic protest if they find a concrete basis to it. In Seoul, police have been placed on the highest alert level against possible violence and terror threats, while no rallies and demonstrations are allowed within the 2-km radius of the G-20 summit's venue. Global summits of world leaders, such as G-8 meetings and earlier G-20 conferences, have traditionally drawn thousands of protesters forwarding alternative agenda, while host countries responded by beefing up security forces and measures. - KBK, GMANews.TV